Budget Advisory Committee

Report to the College Senate

March 19, 2018

Committee Charge:

The purpose of the Budget Advisory Committee is to work with the Vice President of Finance and Administration to:

  1. Maintain a highly transparent, informative, and participatory operating fund budgeting process;
  2. Integrate campus strategic planning with the budgeting process;
  3. Analyze the budget context and its impact on the institution;

Membership:

  • Chair (selected from the teaching faculty) appointed by the President
  • Two Faculty at Large elected by the Senate
  • One Professional staff elected by the senate
  • One Classified staff appointed by the President
  • Presiding Officer of the Senate or designee
  • Chair of the Senate Committee on Academic Planning and Resource Allocation
  • Dean appointed by the Provost
  • Strategic Planning Council Chair or designee
  • Student Association President or designee
  • President’s Cabinet
  • Director of Budget

Names of each representative are available on the website.

Activities This Year:

Conducted 6 meetings. Notes and materials for each meeting are posted at

  1. Review of the 2017/2018 campus budgets including trends and future outlook.
  2. Reviewed a detailed report on changes in staffing and personnel spending for all units and departments, comparing year over year changes as well as changes since 2008-2009.
  3. Reviewed campus reserves and budget outlook through the 2020 academic year.
  4. Used reserve information to make recommendations on the amount of recurring and nonrecurring reserve funds to be used in the annual StAR process and campus operational needs. The recommendation to the President was to commit $500,000.
  5. Reviewed residence hall budget, spending funding sources and budgets, Student Comprehensive Fees, and Cost of Attendance estimates through 2018-19.
  6. Reviewed (planned for April 27th) IPEDS report for most recent fiscal year. This report compares and contrasts our expenditures by category to peer institutions.

Current Budget Status and Outlook:

The budget outlook for SUNY Oneonta is fair. There is no immediate crisis but there is cause for concern.

The percentage of state tax support to operate the College remains flat at $13 million (11% of our operating budget), forcing us to increase other revenue sources to cover inflationary costs such as salary increases and utilities increases. The Governor has authorized a $200 tuition increase (3.1 %) which will cover salary increases but does not allow for any other funding increases. The College’s comprehensive fees will be increased by $55 which represents 3.7%. The overall cost to attend SUNY Oneonta next year will have risen by 3.4% for new incoming students, slightly more than the 2018 national Higher Education Price Index of 2.6%. Relying on tuition and other fee increases alone is not a sustainable model due to our lack of flexibility and control. Because significant increases in state support are unlikely, the College must either look for new sources of revenue (e.g. increased enrollment, fundraising, sponsored activity), or we can stop doing certain activities or discontinue specific services. Our history of implementing these difficult and less desirable cuts is not strong.

One indicator of our financial health is our campus reserve. The Campus Reserve represents how much money we have that is not committed to any single purpose, nor to any operating or departmental account. This is the pool of money that campus has to allocate for strategic and or unanticipated operational needs. Our projected FY2018-19 uncommitted recurring Campus Reserve is projected to be $1.4 million, which is 10.8% of state tax support for operations. The Campus’s goal as stated in our strategic plan is 15% of state tax support, or $1.9 million. This is an improvement over the previous year but the short story is that our recurring resources are still low and additional actions are necessary to increase them.

Our projected nonrecurring reserve for FY 2017-118 is $4.6 million. This is one-time money that cannot be used for salary increases or new positions. This reserve is and has been very healthy, at 36% of state operating support. As the suggested range is 10 – 25%, we have been using these funds for StAR and other one-time campus operational needs.

Respectfully Submitted,

Thomas Sakoulas , Chair, Budget Advisory Committee