Budgets and Fiscal Planning Committee

Voting members present: Tekla Bude, Frank Chaplen, Mak Khan, Jeff Luck, Filix Maisch, Shawn Tucker
Voting members absent: No members absent
Ex-Officio members present: Budget & Resource Planning Office – Sherm Bloomer

Report Back from University Budget Advisory Committee

• Beginning of April, finished its tuition work; revisions to the budget model and differential tuition
  • Simplifies the model but are budget neutral to the units
• Recommendation is to calibrate the budget model to something else and what is a fair division of the money between all the university institutions and units. Will be exploring different options and solutions during the summer.

Program Proposal

• Humanitarian Engineering Certificate, Key #781 – New Undergraduate Certificate
  • $30,000 for a program coordinator in the first three years
  • Where did they get their enrollment figures from?
    • If they’re going to cover costs with tuition, they need to justify where they are getting the enrollment figures from.
    • What happens if they do not hit enrollment targets? What happens to the program?
      • If the program does not do well, the college will have to decide whether or not they want to terminate the program.
  • Are the budget net revenues or absolute revenues?
  • How does it compare to similar programs at other institutions?

Action: Motion to send back and request justification of enrollment numbers; motion seconded and passed with 6 votes in favor, 0 votes in opposition and 0 votes in abstention.

Other Business

• Would it be beneficial to enact some kind of report or check-in at the five-year mark to determine if the program is successful? It could help with planning for the future and allow the committee to look at what has come through and been approved.
  • Most programs go through a review every 10 years, though they don’t go deep into specific metrics.