Budget Model Steering Committee

Committee Charge

Goals

The goal of the Steering Committee is to recommend an incentive-based budget model that provides:

  • Incentives to reward unit level success and fuel the development of new programs and other revenue streams, balancing achievement of core values that are not revenue-generating.
  • Tuition and other resources to degree-granting colleges in a “predictable” manner.
  • Resources to advance strategic initiatives aligned with the goals and vision in the Focus URI Strategic Plan.
  • Funding to support units responsible for delivering essential, university-wide support services.

Assumptions

The guidance and recommendations provided by the Budget Model Executive Committee will inform the work of this committee.

  • The Steering Committee will provide recommendations to the Executive Committee for their consideration.
  • The Steering Committee can recommend the establishment of sub-committees to the Executive Committee for their consideration.
  • Not all issues identified through this process will be resolved in a timeline that allows for immediate Budget Model implementation. As such, there is likely to be a phased approach to the implementation. The Steering Committee should consider which recommendations are essential versus ones that could be implemented within a Phase II rollout.
  • Deliverables in the subsequent section are not limited to those outlines and may be amended for consideration by the Executive Committee.

Deliverables

  • Recommend formulaic allocations to colleges and units in a way that aligns accountability and responsibility.
  • Define the parameters and allocation of tuition dollars (both graduate and undergraduate, including online).
  • Recommend how to best incentivize various levels of the University with a particular emphasis on:
    • Student success goals and outcomes
    • Expansion and enhancement of the research enterprise
    • Targeted, new academic program development
    • Other incentives to be discussed by this committee
  • Recommend how teaching v. majors should be weighted within the tuition allocation.
  • Recommend related and complementary adjustments to current strategies and policies across the University. Examples may include:
    • Review and enhancement of major declaration policies, as well as inter-college/major transfer policies.
    • Make intentional connection to academic program assessment, accreditation decisions as well as to course and program creation to eliminate duplication.
  • Acknowledging legacy agreements across a variety of spaces related to tuition and other revenue streams (i.e. URI Online, Office of Strategic Initiatives, Coastal Institute, etc.), recommend a transition plan to ramp up to recommended allocation methodologies.
  • Recommend principles and processes to deal with negative externalities, including federal budget and policy uncertainty, declining state support, potential F&A cap, national recession, etc.
  • Recommend how to balance central coordination of services within a distributed resource allocation model.
  • Identify data inconsistencies that may be barriers to successful IBB model implementation and recommend ways to address each, including anticipated timeframe and stakeholders involved in the resolution.
  • Recommend campus reporting plan to enhance transparency regarding funding allocation process and expenditures, and assign accountability for goal realization and analyze return on investments.