October 9, 2002 Revised
October 3, 2002
Chair Theodore DeJong, Committee on Academic Planning and Budget Review
Assistant Vice Chancellor Marj Dickinson, Government & Community Relations
Vice Chancellor Janet Hamilton, Administration
Vice Provost Barbara Horwitz, Academic Personnel
Assistant Executive Vice Chancellor Bob Loessberg-Zahl, Office of the Provost
Chair Bruce Madewell, Academic Senate
Vice Chancellor John Meyer, Resource Management and Planning
Dean Bennie Osburn, School of Veterinary Medicine
Vice Chancellor Judy Sakaki, Student Affairs
Dean Steven Sheffrin, Division of Social Sciences
Assistant Vice Chancellor Maril Stratton, Public Communications
RE: Budget Planning Work Group
Dear Colleagues:
I am writing to invite you to serve on a Budget Planning Work Group that I will chair. This Group will advise me in framing the budget process for the balance of the current fiscal year and for 2003-04.
As you know, the campus is facing a great deal of uncertainty with respect to the State budget. Additional cuts at some level are all but certain for this year and next year. For the current year, I assigned program specific targets for the organized research and outreach program reductions. For the balance of the reductions, I funded a portion using central resources and assigned the balance to campus units on a one-time basis using a 1.7% across-the-board reduction. As we move toward 2003-04, it will be necessary to develop a framework for meeting all of the reductions (known and anticipated) permanently. Moreover, the opportunities and challenges associated with continued enrollment growth, and the state buy-out of the summer session, need to be addressed in a multi-year budget plan. I need your help developing the priorities, process, and consultation framework for making these decisions.
I will ask each of you to partner with me to communicate with key constituent groups about the campus budget. Open, honest, frequent, and broad communication with the campus community is key to a successful outcome from the budget process. However, I cannot meet this objective alone. I will rely on you to help me deliver and magnify information about the budget throughout the planning and decision processes of the coming year.
As you know, time is already running short. Therefore, I appreciate everything you can do to accommodate meetings of the work group in the near-term. My assistant will contact your staff soon to schedule the first meeting. I am providing a copy of my December 18, 2001 memo (Attachment 1) that announced a campus process for achieving budget reductions on the order of eight percent. I propose that we use the process articulated in this memo as a starting point for discussions about how we move forward with campus budget planning. In addition, the Office of Resource Management and Planning will prepare a set of briefing documents about the campus budget in advance of our first meeting. I have asked Assistant Vice Chancellor Ratliff to serve as principal staff for the work group.
I look forward to working together to meet the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities that the campus faces in the near-term. Thank you in advance for your willingness to participate.
Best regards,
Virginia S. Hinshaw
Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor
/dfu
c: Chancellor Vanderhoef
Assistant Vice Chancellor Ratliff