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November 13, 2000

Work continues in shaping
FY 2000-01

By Jan Gleason

This year the University Ways and Means Committee is working with academic and administrative leaders to identify funds for strategic initiatives relating to Emory’s academic mission. The committee has asked deans and administrative heads to identify 3 percent of their current expense budgets that could be reallocated to support new ideas and initiatives.

Thus, according to the provost’s office, the aspirations of the faculty to develop new interdisciplinary programs, to cultivate a vigorous intellectual community and to continue the work to internationalize Emory may be funded, in part, by reallocating money from other activities. The administration alone will not decide how to reallocate the funds; each unit has the opportunity to suggest both where funds for reallocation should come from and how they should be reinvested. This process will not reduce the budget overall but will free some funds for investment in new areas.

Deans and administrative heads were advised last spring of this plan in a letter from Provost Rebecca Chopp. The letter recognized that deliberate and careful reallocation of our resources should allow Emory to sustain the strategic improvements it wishes to make in the schools and in the University as a whole.

“The institution has grown so rapidly in the past two decades,” said Charlotte Johnson, senior vice provost for administration, “that this planning strategy is about asking our deans, vice presidents and directors to pause, look at their current activities, and ask, ‘What could we give up that we are currently doing and move those resources to support higher institutional priorities?’”

In early October, budget packages and detailed instructions were sent out, and formal budget presentations began Nov. 9. Each dean and administrative head will present his or her plan to the appropriate executive vice president. Chopp will continue to meet with the President’s Cabinet, Faculty Council and the Council of Deans to seek input regarding budget priorities.

In late November, the three executive vice presidents—Chopp, Michael Johns, executive vice president for health affairs, and John Temple, executive vice president and chief operating officer—present their preliminary budget recommendations to their fellow Ways and Means Committee members. These recommendations are incorporated into the budget model, which continues to evolve through December and into January. All revenue sources and planned expenditures are reviewed.

“During this portion of the budget development cycle, we have to balance the budget and make thoughtful decisions about the investments we make in initiatives that advance institutional priorities,”Johnson said.

“The rate of growth for our revenue streams has slowed, but revenues are still increasing,” said Edie Murphree, associate vice president of administration.

The University administration has anticipated this trend, which was a contributing factor in the decision to develop a 3 percent reallocation plan. Other factors included the need to include full-year operating costs for several major new buildings, such as the Whitehead Research Building and the Oxford Arts Center. The Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts and Phase II of Science 2000 operations will need partial-year funding.

Once Ways and Means develops a balanced budget, the President’s Cabinet, the Board of Trustees’ finance committee and finance/budget subcommittee review it. The finance committee is responsible for making the recommendation for approval to the full board at its February 2001 meeting.

The need to set tuition rates and determine resources available for student financial aid packages dictates this time frame. Aid packages must be awarded in early spring in order for Emory to compete for the best students.

 

Back to Emory Report Nov. 13, 2000