The Budget Committee is responsible for evaluating and recommending policies, procedures, and practices concerning the University budget with special emphasis on the Academic budget and shall meet regularly with the University Budget Officer.

The committee met monthly for the duration of the 2010 – 2011 academic year. The last meeting was held 5/18/11. The committee will resume in fall 2011 at which time it will elect a new chair.

The BAC completed a horizontal analysis in summer 2010.  There was one outstanding item, #712004 (Adjunct Faculty Overload).  Per review, #712001 (Adjunct Faculty) was $2.9M and #712004 (Adjunct Faculty overload) was $1.5M.  Administration indicated that the #712004 account actually contained overload payments for regular faculty and non-faculty supplemental pay (e.g., USPS).  To correct the commingled information, account #712004 was renamed “Faculty Overload,” and a new account #713003 “Non-Faculty Supplemental” was created.  These results were reported in the April 2011 FA (Faculty Association) Agenda as an information item.

The committee decided at the first meeting to provide a layperson summary of the budget process as an information item to the FA. This was an effort to promote transparency of the budget process. Committee members were responsible for component parts and the chair, Lynn Jones, collated these items for UNF finance and administration’s review. With the assistance of Shari Shuman, Vice President and Scott Bennett, Assistant Vice President of the Administration and Finance, the project was finalized and included as an information item in the April 2011 FA Agenda.

Janet Owen (VP Governmental Affairs) and Shari Shuman (VP Finance and Administration) were guests at the November 2010 meeting. They jointly presented “What’s in Store for FY 2011 – 2012.” Janet provided updates on budget discussions in Tallahassee including recent Revenue Estimating Conference updates. Shari presented the 2010 – 2011 Operating Budget. Highlights of their presentation were included as a FA Information Item in January 2011.

A committee member made an inquiry of Janet & Shari at the November meeting regarding whether Banner could work as a repository for faculty evaluative information.  The following was provided as a March 2011 FA information item:  Per multiple meetings with Rick Powell, Anne Hoover, and Joann Campbell, the Banner HR system has an existing “Employee Review” module currently utilized for USPS and A&P employees.  This module can be used to capture faculty evaluative information (i.e., department chairs’ annual faculty reviews) instead of the existing Excel® process.  Various queries/reports can be made from the data stored in Banner HR.  Academic Affairs indicates user access is limited for this module (i.e., there are adequate internal controls).  A screen shot of the module was provided with this information item.

Lastly, Ricky Arjune (UNF Chief Budget Officer) was the April 2011 guest.  He provided some insights on the budget and noted that the UNF budget (including budgets by department) is available on CD in the library and via the Faculty Association.  Moreover, his website (Administration & Finance/Budget Office) has several years of data available.  Per committee member inquiries:  Ricky indicated that none of the $8.2M reserves (in 2010 – 2011 budget) has been expended.  Approximately $4.2M will be used to replace the expiring $5.6M stimulus funds.  Approximately $4.1M in non-recurring funds will carryforward to the 2011 - 2012 budget year.  Tallahassee is expecting a $5M - $6M reduction for the 2011 - 2012 budget year.   Similarly, the Revenue Estimating Conference projects a 5% reduction for the next academic year.  For the past 3 – 4 years UNF has cut back spending while other universities have cut programs.

The committee agreed to continue with the in-process salary analysis. It will also invite Janet Owen, Shari Shuman, and Ricky Arjune to 2011 – 2012 meetings. (NOTE: Cheryl Frohlich is a Budget Advisory committee member for 2011 – 2012). The committee also agreed to pursue another horizontal analysis (budget-to-actual) as well as a student fee analysis (i.e., how allocated and used).

 

Respectfully submitted,

Lynn Comer Jones, PhD, CPA