Campus Resources and Planning Committee

January 28, 2011

Present: Jacquie Johnson, Josh Preston, Sara Haugen, Mark Privratsky, Sydney Sweep,

Lowell Rasmussen, Margaret Kuchenreuther, Andy Sharpe, LeAnn Dean,

Martin Seggelke, Bart Finzel, Dave Swenson, Zak Forde, Maddy Maxeiner,

Dave Aronson, Pam Gades

Guests: Colleen Miller, Gwen Rudney, Janet Ericksen, Sandy Olson-Loy,

Pareena Lawrence

Announcements

The next few meetings will concern budget related issues. Next week several members will be involved in the Community of Scholars event so committee members should feel free to come and go as needed. We will have a preliminary look at capital requests and a follow up to the budget conversation. Additional agenda items for the spring semester will include: examination of resource issues associated with our expanding international student population and a revised indirect cost recovery.

Budget discussion

Colleen presented the current super high-level campus financial model. Margaret wondered why the scholarship line would increase if we are modeling for a lower number of students. Colleen responded that stimulus funds were used to buy down tuition and we have not received information yet from the Twin Cities about those amounts for next year. We are using the same assumptions until we know what central will do regarding financial aid.

Jacquie outlined the budget process: budget instructions were received in December; a budget summit was held in January that included vice chancellors, division chairs, campus governance leaders and representatives from employee groups. After the budget summit, a message was sent to campus summarizing the meeting and outlining next steps. A campus community meeting is planned for Monday, January 28, 2011. She discussed the presentation that will be presented to the campus community, including proposals to address the expected budget short-fall.

Zak asked about the total amount of stimulus funds we received. Jacquie responded it was a total of $400K for two years. For those who were hired with stimulus funds, Martin wondered what people were told about their positions and if there was a strategy formulated. Jacquie said people who were hired with stimulus funds had a specific end date on their appointment letters. The terms of their employment were made clear. We may want to continue some of those positions and those requests will come back to this group. Mark said he would support some type of strategy for not using reserves that weren’t budgeted—they should not be fair game to offset the potential deficit. Sara thought we created the reserve last year to offset expected reductions in state support through 2014. Bart questioned whether or not the student head-count numbers were the worst-case scenarios. Jacquie said one of the dilemmas is the budget must be determined before we know what student numbers will be.

The budget discussion will continue next week, after a discussion of the capital plan.