California State University San Marcos

Weekly Minutes for Budget and Long Range Planning Committee (BLP)

August 30, 2005

First Meeting of the 2005-2006 Academic Year

Present: Kathleen Watson (co-chair), Bonnie Bade (co-chair), Kit Herlihy, Robin Marion, Patty Seleski, Vicki Golich and David Barsky

Excused: Mary Hinchman (Only attends for finance/budget issues)

Minutes: Recorded by Robin Marion

Committee met 1:00-2:50 in KEL 3013

A new meeting time is being considered due to schedule conflicts with current meeting arrangements.

This meeting focused around setting our work schedule for the year, and revising the language of the makeup of the BLP Committee to include an IITS representative.

Draft of change in constitution wording:

Article 6.6: Budget and Long-Range Planning Committee (BLP)

The Budget and Long-Range Planning Committee shall consist of five faculty members drawn from the eligible faculty. The eligible faculty of each College/Library shall elect a representative from the eligible faculty of that College/Library to serve as a member of the committee. The eligible faculty shall elect at-large one additional faculty member. One college Dean appointed by the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, an Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs appointed by the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, the University Planning Officer, one Instructional and Information Technology Services (IITS) representive appointed by the Dean of IITS, and one student member appointed by the Associated Students Incorporated shall be non-voting members of the committee.

Rationale: The charge of BLP includes “review proposals submitted for the University Academic Master Plan” and “make recommendations on resources (for example, library, laboratory, and information technology) for new and existing academic programs.” Increasingly, proposals reviewed by BLP have significant technology resource implications and the committee would benefit from the expertise of a representative from IITS.

Fall Work Schedule:

Several items of business were brought forward from the language of the final BLP report from Spring 2005.

Items for AY 2005-2006 Agenda

1.  P-form for M.A. in History (priority)

2.  A-form revision (must be completed by December so make changes by October)

3.  Changes in BLP committee membership to include IITS representation

4.  Resolution concerning having active budget committees in colleges

5.  Review of Academic Affairs budget priorities and assessment of current operations

6.  Five A-forms are coming in after submission to David Barsky and review by administration

7.  P-form for M.A. in Speech Therapy

8.  Other new P-forms are coming

Background concerning Item #2:

There has been a request to have faculty submitting A-forms more finely articulate the purpose and resource implications of proposed programs. This provides an early alert to potential costs to the campus of the program.

Ø  A-form writers should consult with library and IITS up front to bring realistic costs to the beginning process.

Ø  In the Academic Blueprint committee there was some discussion of the A form being like a P-form without the course descriptions.

Ø  There was also some interest in having a research based demonstration of need in the community for the program, as a predictor of enrollment.

Ø  Desire to have more information without being onerous.

Ø  The A-form is an important step to decide whether to move forward with a program or not.

Ø  Need clarification of level of detail needed

Ø  Perhaps more time between the A- and P-forms would serve the process better, with time to do more in depth determination of resources needed.

Ø  Designed to be an abstract.

Flow of A-form now is to David Barsky, who sends it to the Provost Council, VP’s of all divisions, any other members of the President’s Cabinet not yet targeted, and Russ Decker in Physical Plant, Library, PDC. Once he receives back comments from these constituents, the form and comments are forwarded to BLP for review, and the Academic Blueprint Committee (ABC) is sent a copy.

The original plan was to begin the process with ABC, but the reality has been they get it after the first round of comments as a courtesy/information item.

One example of the problems with the A-form process was the Nursing program, which has IITS implications could have been more fully addressed.

History: Originally A-form was designed to provide a one page summary needed by CSU level, David Spence, for new programs. New programs have really emerged at the College level in the past, and BLP is the first university level committee to be consulted.