UH Budget Transparency Initiative
In August 2018, President Renu Khator announced a UH Budget Transparency Initiative targeted at reviewing budget models, proposing new budgeting strategies, and providing transparency in the budgeting process.
Faculty, administrators, and staff are frequently baffled by the relationship between the revenue that their unit generates and the subsequent funding that comes back (or not) to the generating unit. This initiative is intended to both add transparency to the process and to possibly change the ways in which those decisions are made.
Three Phases of Budget Transparency Initiative
- General considerations of academic operations and central support funds,
- Allocation of research funds, and
- Optimization of the allocation of funds.
The Process: Steering Committee, Two Subcommittees
The process is being carried out through a Steering Committee and two subcommittees (Activity/Interdisciplinary and Performance/Outcomes). The committees are comprised of representatives from the faculty, deans, Faculty Senate, staff, and administration.
In Fall 2018, the Steering Committee discussed budget models and developed a set of questions to be addressed by the subcommittees. Starting in Spring 2019, the subcommittees have been developing high-level general responses to those questions.
The Activity/Interdisciplinary Subcommittee had questions like: How should the academic operations budget be allocated?, How will summer school be funded?, and others. The Performance/Outcomes Subcommittee was asked to consider questions such as: What is the desired percentage of undergraduates and graduates at UH?, What are the strategic goals of the University?, Should colleges be rewarded and/or penalized for missing enrollment or outcome targets?, and others.
It is hoped that this process will lead to greater transparency of the budget process and allocations, and also lead to different processes that will more clearly tie funding to performance.
Questions or Ideas?
If you have questions or ideas, please contact Jim Briggs, Scott Gilbertson, or Dan Wells (members of the Performance/Outcomes Subcommittee).
To read more, consult the link below:
www.uh.edu/provost/university/budgeting/transparency-process/