GUIDING
PRINCIPLES FOR BUDGETARY ACTIONS
OU Faculty
Senate– Norman Campus
The Faculty Senate reiterates the importance of an active
participation process between University administration, staff, students, and
other relevant parties in matters related to long-term financial plans and
short-term budgetary actions. To foster effective collaboration, we offer three
fundamental principles to guide meaningful and useful discourse.
Efforts
to restore budgetary collaboration between the administration and the Budget
Council will help assure that the University budgeting process follows
generally-accepted, good financial management practices; will maintain fiscal
prudence; and will promote adequate and appropriate long-term sustainability as
required for the institution. To achieve this, we offer these suggestions:
·
The participation of the Budget Council throughout the annual budget process
should be substantially increased, with an expectation that the council will
have regular work sessions to discuss budget issues and to make
recommendations.
·
There should be transparency, starting with information sharing and
continuing into budgetary deliberations concerning the future, current, and
historical revenues and expenses. Potential adjustments to the operations of
the institution should be presented to the Budget Council and reviewed on a
regular and recurring basis.
·
To ensure that
meaningful and timely input can be provided, information concerning the impact of budget
projections on employee compensation and benefits must be routinely provided to
shared governance groups, such as the Budget Council, Employee
Benefits Council, the Senate
Over the course of time, it
is anticipated that the University will confront a variety of issues having
differing time horizons. Some will represent concerns that may arise far into
the future and will affect the long-term sustainability of the institution;
others will represent problems that must be addressed in the short-term in
order to operate within annual revenue and resource estimates.
Long-Term Issues
· Examples of substantial
longer term issues include: [1] rapid growth in the cost of employee health
care coverage, which are affected in part by independent external forces, [2]
retirement health care costs, which may be viewed as unfunded future budgetary
mandates, and [3] other substantial externally-mandated expenditures applied to
the university above those currently foreseen, which could include requirements
for increased institutional support of system-wide OTRS shortfalls.
· These long-term issues
require long-term strategies and may even require more permanent changes in
fiscal structures and arrangements as well as changes in the benefit programs
we offer to be more in line with current best practices. Issues such as these
should be considered as part of the regular activities of shared governance
groups. Proposals that will impact former, current, and future employees should
benefit from an extended vetting period where information is shared and
feedback is gathered before decisions are finalized.
Short-Term Problems
· This category includes unexpected
increases in fixed costs, as well as any budgetary cutbacks that occur due to
substantially decreased revenues affecting the fiscal needs of the upcoming
academic year. Substantial decreases in
legislative allocations to the institution in a given fiscal year, for whatever
reason, are a good example of a “short term problem.”
· Short-term problems should
be addressed through short-term and temporary solutions whenever possible,
avoiding permanent modifications to existing policies and benefits. Only after
such problems have persisted or deepened should the institution consider
promoting them from short-term to long-term issues, with the latter
necessitating more permanent forms of remediation.
An
essential mission of the university is to educate its students to achieve
academic excellence. A critical
component in this endeavor is the faculty. To reduce the support of the faculty
is to take aim at the very heart of the university. We request that the
university take every measure to preserve its educational mission. To achieve
this, we recommend these fundamental strategies:
·
Make every effort to minimize impacts to the fundamental educational
mission and consider the short-term and long-term impacts of any changes.
·
Invite input from all affected parties throughout the decision-making
process. Their involvement is critical to avoid deterioration in the quality of
faculty, staff, students, and mission achievement from budgetary reductions.
·
Encourage maximal flexibility within colleges and units for short-term budgetary
reductions. If long-term cutbacks are required, allow similar flexibility as
much as is practicable.
·
Consider how to effectively share the burden of reductions across the
entire academic community making sure to balance this value against
disproportionate impacts to less financially advantaged persons.
·
Remain sensitive to the employment expectations established when
employees joined the institution. Maintaining a competitive position will
require consideration of how changes in compensation will impact both
recruitment and retention. Employees who committed to the institution in
difficult times should be rewarded for their loyalty.