Section 2: Budget Management

This policy provides guidelines aligning fiscal duties and responsibilities with the revised College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES) organizational structure and guide the coordinator of Fiscal Affairs in the preparation, coordination, and distribution of budget materials.

General

The organizational chart aims to define and outline the administrative budgetary process and management authority consistent with the College’s most recent organizational table.

No statements or provisions in this document aim to conflict with institutional or system policies or to prescribe a management system that is inconsistent with sound principles of effective line and staff leadership and management.

Responsibility

The dean and director is responsible and accountable for all budgetary and fiscal matters pertaining to the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. The dean and director is assisted in the discharge of these responsibilities by the College coordinator of fiscal affairs. Given the size and complexity of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, the dean and director may delegate some specified budgetary authority to the associate deans for academic affairs, research and extension. In addition, direct budgetary responsibility and accountability shall be vested in department heads and other line administrators in the College. This includes assistant deans, superintendents, and district heads who exercise direct supervisory and programmatic responsibilities over units in the College. The individual officers are both responsible and accountable for funds entrusted to their units.

The associate/assistant deans as principal staff administrators shall exercise delegated authority over the budget allocated in support of their respective function. This includes personal and non-personal services, contracts, and sponsored grants. In particular matters, assistant deans may serve as both staff and line administrators regarding budgetary issues.

Unit heads serve as principle line administrators and shall exercise direct responsibility and accountability for all funds entrusted to their units.

With the approval of the dean and director, line administrators may delegate authority but not responsibility for budget and fiscal matters within their organization.

All budgetary, personnel, and program requests must be processed through channels as shown in the current College organizational chart.

A budget conference will be scheduled with the dean and director, coordinator of fiscal affairs, associate and assistant deans, and department heads, addressing the fiscal year budget (personal and non-personal services).

The coordinator of fiscal affairs shall publish a budget conference calendar.

Budget Development Process

Nonpersonal Services

Each budgetary unit in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences should be provided with a realistic budget for the fiscal year. While historical data obviously must be taken into consideration, the associate deans should carefully review and provide each unit administrator a reasonable budget that will suffice for accomplishing the assigned responsibilities.

Associate deans shall meet with each subordinate unit head to develop the non-personal budget for the coming fiscal year. These conferences will be coordinated by the senior associate dean. This process should begin annually immediately following publication of the Governor’s executive fiscal year budget. The institution and the College may provide supplemental guidance for budget preparation.

Associate deans should give explicit consideration to allocation and reallocation of budgets within functions and across locations, if necessary, to conduct programs in a prioritized manner.

Associate deans will present their non-personal budgets to the dean and director for review and approval. The offices of the dean and director and the coordinator of fiscal affairs will publish a budget calendar.

The dean and director shall forward the approved budget to the coordinator of fiscal affairs for inclusion into the approved College budget.

The coordinator of fiscal affairs will provide on a monthly basis a status report of the operational budget to each associate dean. The status report should be provided on or before the 10th of each month. This should enable all administrators to have up-to-date information on budget matters. In addition, this should eliminate the need for separate bookkeeping in the offices of the associate deans.

Personal Services

Upon the direction of the dean and director, the personal services budget will be distributed to each budgetary unit by the coordinator of fiscal affairs. Each unit head should review the budget for errors or omissions. Particular attention should be given to observations regarding productivity and market, gender, or racial inequities in faculty and staff salaries.

A preliminary budget conference will be conducted by the associate deans with department heads and assistant deans to review the personal services budget. The preliminary conference will take place after unit heads have made their initial salary recommendations. These conferences will be coordinated and managed by the senior associate dean.

The dean and director’s budget conference will be scheduled in accordance with the published budget calendar. Typically, the conference will usually occur in late March. The dean and director, associate deans, and coordinator of fiscal affairs and respective unit heads shall be in attendance at the conference. The senior associate dean will coordinate scheduling of these conferences.

Allocation of Contingency Funds

At the appropriate time in the budget cycle, (usually quarterly) the associate deans will request input from each subordinate budgetary unit regarding unit needs which might be served by a one time allocation from contingency funds. As these funds will be allocated on a college-wide basis, unit considerations will be guided by well developed statements of priority justification. The dean and director may use contingency funds to initiate priority programs.

Requests for reclassification of classified personnel will normally be processed in November/December but not funded from contingency funds.

Associate deans will collectively review unit requests for contingency funds and advise the dean and director of their recommendations.

The College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences does not allocate contingency funds to the College of Family and Consumer Sciences or the School of Forest Resources, since both units retain salary savings from their vacant positions.