Spring Break
Drees reviews implementation of the new budget model
Derek Simons
Issue date: 1/28/08 Section: News
Dr. Betty Drees, dean of the School of Medicine, and for another two weeks, UMKC Interim Provost, presented to the Faculty Senate her vision of the university's financial future under the new budget model.
"I think the concept is not sudden pain anywhere, but a transition to a sustainable budget model," Drees said.
The implementation plan will be over a three- to four-year period, and will be helped by increased enrollment and debt abatement, according to Drees.
She said the University Budget Committee (UBC) is nearing completion of the new model, but will only present it publicly after the deans have seen results of preliminary models of the impact on each academic unit.
Senator Dr. Saul Honigberg, Biological Sciences, asked if there would be significant reallocations among the units.
"There will be some reallocations," Drees said. "But, in the vast majority of cases, over the three-year period, any gap that one unit will have, they will be able to address that through increasing enrollment."
Later in the discussion, she offered more insight on the subject.
"You can't implement a budget in a single year that has huge shifts of revenue from one unit to another, so it has to be phased in over a period of time," Drees said. "… I don't think it's a dire thing. There may be some short-term pain in some areas, but I think in the long term, we'll all be much healthier."
Under the new model, revenue from tuition returns directly to the unit in which it was generated. The reallocations will affect money coming from the state, which accounts for about 32 percent of the operating budget of the university, according to Faculty Senate Chair Dr. Gary Ebersole.
Drees offered a positive outlook for the next few years, through, what she called, "modest increases" in enrollment.
"It would only take right now about 6-700 students to radically change our fiscal picture because we've become more dependent on tuition revenues," Drees said.
"I think the concept is not sudden pain anywhere, but a transition to a sustainable budget model," Drees said.
The implementation plan will be over a three- to four-year period, and will be helped by increased enrollment and debt abatement, according to Drees.
She said the University Budget Committee (UBC) is nearing completion of the new model, but will only present it publicly after the deans have seen results of preliminary models of the impact on each academic unit.
Senator Dr. Saul Honigberg, Biological Sciences, asked if there would be significant reallocations among the units.
"There will be some reallocations," Drees said. "But, in the vast majority of cases, over the three-year period, any gap that one unit will have, they will be able to address that through increasing enrollment."
Later in the discussion, she offered more insight on the subject.
"You can't implement a budget in a single year that has huge shifts of revenue from one unit to another, so it has to be phased in over a period of time," Drees said. "… I don't think it's a dire thing. There may be some short-term pain in some areas, but I think in the long term, we'll all be much healthier."
Under the new model, revenue from tuition returns directly to the unit in which it was generated. The reallocations will affect money coming from the state, which accounts for about 32 percent of the operating budget of the university, according to Faculty Senate Chair Dr. Gary Ebersole.
Drees offered a positive outlook for the next few years, through, what she called, "modest increases" in enrollment.
"It would only take right now about 6-700 students to radically change our fiscal picture because we've become more dependent on tuition revenues," Drees said.
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