By Steve Holt, Staff Writer
Preliminary reports from each of the teams formed to “seek ideas to increase revenue, reduce expenses and improve the overall effectiveness and efficiency of the university” are due Oct. 31.
Thirteen teams were organized in August after university president Royce Money announced that the university would begin to evaluate the ways in which it spends money.
Since then, the teams have focused on areas of the university, from employee benefits to athletics, and have met at least once a week, said Phil Schubert, vice president for finance. He said that nearly every team has begun drafting their preliminary proposals, with final drafts due Nov. 7. The reports will be distributed to each member of the President’s Cabinet for advanced review before each committee chair presents their proposals to the Cabinet Nov. 17-18.
Schubert said that while the process is a difficult one to execute, it is progressing better than he expected.
“I could not be more pleased,” Schubert said. “It has surpassed all my expectations for how smoothly it’s gone, and I attribute that entirely to the leadership of the individuals who chair the committees and the diligent work of each of the team members that are serving on the teams.”
He went on to say that each committee is doing an exceptional job of recognizing the important issues and treating each proposal thoughtfully and deliberately.
Money announced during the summer that the university faced a financial struggle that would result in an 8 percent decrease in every department on campus and a 20 percent decrease in capital, or campus, projects.
Money said this was partly because of outside factors-low tuition revenue, decrease in gifts, lower endowment, health care costs, insurance costs, utilities costs and scholarships-and also because of planned factors-recruiting, multicultural initiatives, fund-raising, College of Business Administration enhancements, scholarships and Study Abroad.
The university already was forced to reallocate $2 million to pay for many of the planned factors.
Each Strategic Solution Team is comprised of 7-9 faculty or staff members, with one serving as the chair. A member of the president’s cabinet assigned to each team attends every meeting, and each team also has a finance liaison to answer questions, Schubert said.
