Wednesday, May 3. 1989 / University Daily Kansan
KU budget process similar to mountain trek
by Brett Brenner Kansan staff writer
The budgetary process of the University of Kansas resembles a mountain climb. The climb starts when department heads request financing, and then the command until it reaches the executive vice chancellor's office. After the Kansas Legislature approves the budget, the budget comes barreling back down the mountain, to the point that originally requested the money.
The budget starts at the lowest levels,departments.
Charles Himmelberg, chairman of the department of mathematics, said that his requests started the climb up the mountain in the fall, when he submitted a budget to the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
Himmelberg said an associate chairman of the department also doubled as scheduling officer.
"He takes the faculty and TAS we have and assigns them," he said. "We talk a lot. We have to get the right mix for enrollment. He tells us what we need, and we convert it into a budget."
When the department submits its budget requests, it prioritizes the items it is asking for, listing them in the order of importance, he said.
It also lists the position the item had previously been assigned.
"We reprioritize each year," Himelberg said. "It's kind of an update on what we want."
After his department submits its budget, Himmelberg said that it had to justify its request.
"We stress our needs," he said. "It's a continuous dialogue."
He said that periodically, starting during the fall semester, he explained his department's position to administrators in the college office.
"This is all non-official," he said. "It's a process of continuous education."
They discuss whether the department has enough money and faculty to keep all sections open with adequate numbers. They also discuss enrollment pressures and whether enrollment is rising past the department's capacity to handle the number of students.
The budget proposal is then passed to the college.
He stressed three areas of the budget: GTAs and tenure-track faculty, supply and equipment allocations, and needs that relate to space such as offices and classrooms.
James Carothers, associate dean of liberal arts and sciences, said the job of the college was to process and identify the needs of the departments and establish priorities for them-selves.
He said that there was a base of money that was ongoing and permanent, and a temporary fund called the shrinkage budget.
The shrinkage budget is a part of the overall budget that comes from classified or unclassified employees taking leaves without pay.
The University is required to pay back to the state 2 percent of the wages it gives for unclassified employees, such as faculty members and graduate teaching assistants, and 5 percent of the wages for classified employees, such as clerical and student workers.
Budget process hindered by time crunch
The final reponsibility of the college is to allocate the funds once they have been approved.
"We try to allocate the budget in a fashion consistent with requests," Carothers said.
After the college is through with its budget conferences, usually by mid-
One of the major hassles that goes along with planning the University budget is having to deal with the time constraints inherent in the process.
by Brett Brenner Kansan staff writer
The time constraints are because of the nature of the Kansas Legislature, which doesn't approve education allocations until spring. This is a major issue for both budget and the Marlin of Excellence on April 8.
The University gets over this hurdle by basing budget plans on the perceived atmosphere of the Legislature and on what the governor says in his speech. He said he would have his State of the message January 9.
Ranley Riley, assistant to the vice chancellor for academic affairs, said the time constraints on the new degree program were significant.
"It would be better if we actually knew what dollars we had to work with," she said. "Now, we have a better idea what the Legislature will do."
She said that the turn-around time hurt departments hardest because they had to make decisions on merit salary increases within a week.
She said that this year's early approval of the Margin of Excellence and other education standards is a big step forward.
As it stands, budgets will be approved and money for the academic year starting with the fall semester will be allocated by the University by the middle of July.
Lindy Eakin, budget director, said the problem of compression of work was alleviated by the use of a new software.
Eakin said the most time-consuming job was the evaluation of faculty and the distribution of merit salary increases. Departments usually begin evaluating faculty early in the spring so that decisions can be made quickly when the money allocation comes later in the semester.
"Many chairmen have been at this long they have it down to a science," he said. "All
Eakin said the time crunch was felt especially in the review process.
they do is simply wait for the numbers."
"There is not enough time for the review procedure," he said. "We have a month to balance the whole thing. It flies by up here and the new process starts."
Eakin said that in the past the University had done two complete sets of budgets. One budget was formulated and completed in February by using the figures the University had requested in financing. The other came after the Legislature allotted the money.
Now, the University waits until after the Legislature has passed a budget before making final decisions.
He said the University started getting cautious after the recession of 1844, when the University was asked to give money back to the state.
"We asked ourselves, 'Why are we doing this?' he said. 'This way we only have to do this one.'
February, it submits its prioritized budget to the Office of Academic Affairs.
Academic affairs has the responsibility of balancing the financial needs of most of the academic units of the University.
It is one of three offices at this level, along with Student Affairs, and Research, Graduate Studies and Public Service.
Janet Riley, assistant vice chancellor for academic affairs, said it was the responsibility of her office to evaluate the requests of the different units under academic affairs and prioritize them.
Her office then has budget conferences with the different academic
Riley said the units prioritized their needs in written requests, which they submit to the office.
units, such as the college, professional schools, ROTC, libraries, the art museum, continuing education and distinguished professors.
"Then our staff evaluates the money we have to spend and their requests," she said. "We then sum up the costs of all services, the money and prioritize our list."
Riley said that if the budget office gave academic affairs full financing then the tentative budget stayed
The process then moves to its highest level, to the Budget Office, a branch of the office of Judith Ramalev. executive vice chancellor.
about the same. Then, if the legislature doesn't approve full financing of the Board of Regents budget, in order that university is included, cuts will be made.
The responsibility of the budget office then becomes the allocation of the funds.
"We have to look at several factors in our budget," Riley said. "Margin of Excellence, enrollment adjustment and maintenance. Maintenance includes salary increases, student help, or other operational expenses."
When the Legislature approves the money for higher education, there is a flurry of activity.
The process basically works backwards. The budget office passes an allocation down to each vice chancellor, who passes down allocations to the deans of schools or the college, then to department chairmen. The deans may also make their allocations, the most important being salary increases based on merit.
The evaluations for merit increases begins early in the spring semester in most cases, said Lindy Eakin. budget director.
This is where next year's budget is right now. After the allocations have been made at the department level, the budget works its way back up through the system for final approval by Chancellor Gene A. Budig.
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