In April, Vice President for Administration and Finance Stephen Taksar held two informational sessions on the budget process. The “Campus Budget Presentation for Fiscal Year 2019: How Does the Process Work?” presentations followed a general overview of the process at the university-wide Town Hall meeting that took place in February.
Last week, a preliminary version of the FY19 Budget was shared with the Board of Trustees for members’ input. A final budget will be presented to the board at its June meeting.
In the informational sessions led by Taksar, helpful background on the process was provided.
Westfield State University’s FY2018 budget totals $116 million, primarily comprised of the general fund ($74 million); auxiliary residential life and dining budgets ($32 million); and the budget for the College of Graduate and Continuing Education ($10 million).
It is important to note that the General Fund budget is further broken down into:
- Divisional budgets (personnel, operational costs);
- An institutional budget (utilities, audit/legal; overtime); and
- A capital budget (divisional projects, facilities).
Westfield State’s current budget process is established using an incremental budget. This assumes the prior year budget is intact and any changes (increases or decreases) would be adjusted in next year’s budget.
All budget requests are vetted through each respective vice president. According to Taksar, as part of the FY19 Budget process, nearly $7.6 million worth of new budget requests comprised of 150 individual requests were submitted, but only $4.45 million was available. Decisions regarding funding of new budget requested were based on resource allocation priorities, as approved by the Board of Trustees, at the beginning of the budgeting planning process last fall. These decisions were made by the Finance Cabinet—comprised of the vice presidents, the chief of staff and the director of Campus Communication. FY19 resource allocation priorities include:
- Strategic planning
- Staffing
- Student success
- Enrollment management
- Academic college structure
- Technology
- Capital projects/facilities
Taksar explained that these priorities and process may change, once our Strategic Plan is completed by December 2018. The priorities/initiatives defined in the plan will be used as the resource allocation priorities to build the budgets for FY20 and beyond.
He also described the decision process regarding the new budget requests by the Finance Cabinet as a lengthy and difficult one. Each of the vice presidents and the Chief of Staff presented his or her prioritized new budget requests from his or her respective division. As a group, Finance Cabinet clarified, discussed, and evaluated the requests. In the end, the Finance Cabinet recommended its decisions on new budget expenditures to President Ramon Torrecilha, who signed off on the group’s recommendations.
The FY19 Budget continues to be reviewed and formalized by Administration and Finance for Board of Trustees sign-off in June.
For more information on the slides used in the budget presentation, click here, and enter your credentials to view the materials.
Note: If once you log in, the presentation is not automatically viewable, follow these steps:
- Click on “Documents” on the My Westfield main menu;
- On the left hand side of the page, under “Administration and Finance”, select “Vice President – Presentations” (the last bullet);
- Click on “FY19 Campus Budget Presentation” (4-2018).