Contributed on behalf of Gerald Hector, Vice President for Finance and Administration.
This installment of “In the Loop” is to update the campus community on where things stand with our almost yearlong effort at the Zero Based Budgeting exercise. Before we go into some of the details, we would like to take this opportunity to say THANK YOU!!!! Thank you to the entire Ithaca College family for stepping up in immeasurable ways to go through this process. Many individuals spent a number of hours doing significant research into the practices, processes and understandings of their respective departments and divisions. Needless to say it is because of your efforts that the Budget Office, the Institutional Effectiveness and Budget Committee (IEBC), and other stakeholders now have much needed data in appropriate contexts to help answer some of the questions that were raised in the January 2014 All College meeting. At that meeting, we endeavored to revisit all aspects of the College’s budget, and because of your hard work, we can clearly say that we are well on our way to crafting and putting forward a budget that seeks to continue the financial strength of the College in the months and years to come.
The deadline for all budgets to be submitted through the formal process was Monday, December 15, 2014. The submission process was flawless and was well-managed by the Budget Office. The initial rolled up overall College budget provided an opportunity to identify areas that require continued review and possible modification prior to finalizing the proposed fiscal year 2015-2016 budget. This review effort will continue until the conclusion of the budget hearing process currently taking place in IEBC. The budget hearing process is one that is critical for allowing all proposed costs to be reviewed in the context of the proposed revenues, expenses, and capital needs of the College. These hearings will continue into the second week of January 2015.
The IEBC is currently weighing the campus-wide submissions made and discussing options for balancing the proposed budget for the 2015-2016 fiscal year. The IEBC is working with new data gathered by external sources that will inform the budget. The master plan and deferred maintenance studies are close to being completed, and both have yielded critical information for both the operating and capital budgets. Data surrounding higher education market pressures has been shared with the committee, and other much needed independent reviews of the College’s processes and procedures will be shared in context that will help to inform the final proposed budget.
As the IEBC completes its work, we will continue to update the campus community about how the 2015-2016 budget is taking shape. We would like to encourage campus constituents to make attempts to attend the Dollars and $ense discussion series meetings, which are held three times per semester. We also encourage everyone to continue to engage with your respective departments and divisions around ways we can continuously improve upon the communication channels.
As always, members of the Budget and Financial Services offices stand ready to engage in discussions around the issues affecting the finances of the College. We will be more than happy to explain, clarify or address any questions throughout the course of the fiscal year.
https://www.ithaca.edu/intercom/article.php/20141216083842982