The Budgets and Fiscal Planning Committee engaged
in four primary activities during this year. They were: (a) preparation
of a solution to a homework problem assigned by Bruce Sorte to make a
rough estimate of the cost of OSU 2007 (b) review and make recommendations
concerning the budgets and feasibility of several category I proposals
(c) represent the views of the faculty in the University Budget Committee
and (d) to summarize and present, in the most transparent manner, the
OSU budget for FY 2004.
The rough cost estimate for OSU 2007 is attached
to this report as an appendix. The principal findings from this exercise
were: (a) the need for a capital campaign for 400 M$ to fund the estimated
non-recurring costs of OSU 2007, many of which are tied to the “top
tier program” in engineering (~180M$). (b) the savings in recurring
costs approximately match the new costs provided personnel reduction takes
place “from the top down not the bottom up”. Deans, etc. need
to fired rather than clerks.
The B&FP Committee examined the budgets and
other aspects of seven category I curricular proposals. Many hours were
spent on the Education double degree proposal, primarily to clarify what
the proposal actually involved. In this case and in several other cases,
the B&FP group served as a screening group to clarify proposals. In
this regard, we recommend that new category I proposals be routed (by
Academic Affairs) to the B&FP group before proceeding to curricular
review so that fiscal and budgetary issues can be identified early in
the process. A second concern in this area is the need for some sort of
guidance to the B&FP group as to the fiscal limits of growth of the
curriculum. The E&G budget for OSU increased by ~ 6% from FY03 to
FY04, largely due to increases in tuition and fees. It is not clear to
us whether that rate of growth is sustainable and what limits, if any,
there are for new programs, degrees, etc.
Members of the B&FP group went to University
Budget Committee meetings to make sure our views were represented and
to report back to the group as to what had transpired.
In late spring (May ’03) the B&FP group summarized the detailed
preliminary budget for FY04 and posted the results on a web site where
faculty and staff could see what was happening.
Appendix—OSU 2007
Name: Budgets and Fiscal Planning Committee
Assignment: OSU 2007 Homework Problem
Bruce Sorte asked the B&FP Committee, as
a homework assignment, to develop a crude cost estimate for the various
components of OSU 2007. This paper represents our attempt to work this
problem. It should be emphasized that our estimates are CRUDE, based on
“back of the envelope” calculations intended to illustrate
the magnitudes of various items. They should not be used in place of more
accurate estimates developed by Institutional Research, etc. A further
caveat is that we did not treat some items in OSU 2007 because either
we did not understand what a particular proposal entailed or it did not
seem appropriate to use very crude techniques to “guessestimate”
a cost. Examples of this are “space charges” (where it was
not clear to us what the financial implications were) and “service
centers” (where better estimates are being developed). We submit
this homework in hopes that it might be a rough first step in understanding
the cost implications of OSU 2007.
The bottom line of our estimates is that if all
the sections of OSU 2007 were implemented (recognizing that some of them
are contradictory) a non-recurring capital expenditure of about $400,000,000
would be needed (presumably to be raised by a capital campaign of the
OSU Foundation.) We estimate an increase in recurring expenses of ~$29,000,000
/year with a savings of ~$30,000,000 /year leaving a net “zero sum”
or a possible savings of $1,000,000/year in recurring costs.
Our estimates are given in the following tables.
|
Non-recurring Expenses |
||
Action |
Cost |
Basis for Estimate |
Top Tier Status for COE |
180,000,000 |
OSU2007 |
House all freshmen in University
Housing |
70,000,000 |
=frac fresh off campus x #fresh x cost/student
of new dorm space=0.4 x 3900 x $9,500,000/210 students |
Establish Technology Enterprise
Institute |
60,000,000 |
OSU2007 |
Do deferred maintenance for UHDS |
50,000,000 |
OSU2007 |
Update/fix large classrooms |
20,000,000 |
OSU2007 |
Make all buildings accessible |
15,000,000 |
OSU2007 |
More enhanced classrooms |
5,000,000 |
= #classrooms x cost per classroom = 20 x $250,000 |
Enhance conference capability |
650,000 |
OSU2007 |
Fix/replace Blackboard |
500,000 |
BFP |
Bring campus wiring up to date |
1,250,000 |
$25,000 per building x 50 buildings |
Gigabit connection to outside world |
350,000 |
IS |
Create Strategic Communications
Plan |
50,000 |
OSU2007 |
Remodel and relocate Office of Services
for Students with Disabilities |
50,000 |
OSU2007 |
Establish Web Content Management
System |
150,000 |
OSU2007 |
Charter two new organizations to
facilitate University Communications |
10,000 |
OSU2007 |
Revise course scheduling |
10,000 |
BFP |
New testing fee schedule |
1000 |
BFP |
Totals |
403,021,000 |
|
In addition, there are three items (update faculty position descriptions, development of new University themes, 3 --> 4 credit re-packaging of curriculum) that could lead to an investment of substantial amounts of faculty time, which is a resource expenditure. In the estimates of recurring costs below, we have counted expenditures of faculty time where that action would lead to the need to replace the instruction or other service offered by the faculty member. We did not include costs of faculty time for the usual overloading by insensitive administrators. All financial data is from 2001 OSU Fact Book. We have assumed any new infrastructure carries a minimum cost of $100,000/year including OPE and that new deans, etc cost $200,000/year including OPE. |
||
Savings of Recurring
Costs |
||
Action |
Savings |
Basis for Estimate |
Eliminate low productivity units |
15,000,000 |
~15% of ~ $100,000,000 academic budget involves
low productivity programs |
Reduce Administration by 10% |
9,000,000 |
0.1 x $90,000,000 |
Merge colleges—Create new
colleges around areas of inquiry |
6,000,000 |
16 colleges/programs x 0.75 x $500,000/college
–(assumes firing deans, etc.) |
Efficiencies in curriculum management,
student financial services, enrollment management |
150,000 |
OSU2007 |
Surcharge on athletic tickets |
50,000 |
$1/ticket x 50,000 tickets |
Substitute non-lab courses for lab
courses in BACC CORE Science Perspectives |
100,000 |
BFP |
Totals |
$30,300,000 |
|
In addition, one can identify a non-recurring saving of $2,000,000 by a proposed transfer of funds from Athletics to the Academic portion of the University. |
||
New Recurring
Expenses |
||
Action |
Cost |
Basis for Estimate |
Allow each faculty member 0.1 FTE
for non-departmental work |
8,200,000 |
0.1 x $82,000,000 |
Ensure all faculty will have international
experience |
1,100,000 |
= 0.33 x average asst prof salary x #asst prof
x 1/5 = 0.33 x 48300 x 358 x 0.2—a low estimate given issue
of travel support |
Increase Library funding to 4% of
total University expenditures |
1,200,000 |
In 1998-99, library was 3.4% of total U exp.;
increasing that to 4% for 1998-99 (low estimate) |
Establish Technology Enterprise
Institute |
100,000 |
OSU2007 |
Establish new PhD programs in CLA |
1,000,000 |
10 programs x $100,000/ program of new hires |
Increased support for research facilities |
1,700,000 |
34 facilities x $50,000/facility |
Increase financial aid in parallel
with tuition increases |
1,050,000 |
yearly tuition increase x yearly financial aid
= 0.05 x $21,000,000 |
Make graduate students 20% of overall
enrollment |
5,250,000 |
# new grad students x cost of average GTA/GRA
= 350 x $15,000 |
15% of students will be from minority
groups |
3,750,000 |
# new minority students x cost of “full-ride”
scholarship = 250 x $15,000 |
Support innovative curricular development |
200,000 |
# faculty x # hours/faculty x average faculty
hourly wage= 100 x 40 x 50 |
Centralized Academic Success Center |
100,000 |
BFP |
Expand Office of Institutional Research
to include Assessment |
100,000 |
BFP |
Establish Ugrad College to provide
new courses for first two years |
100,000 |
BFP |
Establish Global Systems Science
Institute |
100,000 |
BFP |
Hire VP for International Affairs/Dean
of International Programs |
200,000 |
BFP |
Restore Faculty Grants and Awards
for International Activities |
900,000 |
OSU2007 |
Re-institute/redefine Dean of Research |
200,000 |
BFP |
Increase ugrad scholarly activity |
500,000 |
# new projects x average $/project = 500 x $1000 |
Increase grad student scholarly
activity |
450,000 |
# new students x ($/grad fellowship + tuition)
= 15 x $30,000 |
Create Training and Development
Clearinghouse |
100,000 |
BFP |
More computer support |
100,000 |
BFP |
Strengthen Marketing |
200,000 |
OSU2007 |
Restructure University Publications |
200,000 |
OSU2007 |
Establish Web Content Management
System |
200,000 |
OSU2007 |
Adopt web standards |
100,000 |
BFP |
Establish Center for Teaching and
Learning |
100,000 |
BFP |
Benefits package for part time faculty |
700,000 |
# fac x $/month x mo/year x OPE = 100 x $2000
x 9 x 0.4 |
Increase Provost’s Fund |
400,000 |
OSU2007 |
Hire VP of Diversity |
200,000 |
BFP |
Establish Coalition for Healthy
Campus Community |
50,000 |
OSU2007 |
Hire Alcohol/Drug Specialist |
60,000 |
OSU2007 |
Enhance “study abroad”
programs |
50,000 |
OSU2007 |
Better communication with international
alumni |
50,000 |
new staff person |
Enroll 10% of ugrad students in
foreign study |
115,000 |
#US ugrad students x 0.1 x $100 additional expense/year
= 11500 x 0.1 x $100 |
Establish Performance Development
Network |
50,000 |
BFP |
Create on-going personnel needs
assessment program |
50,000 |
BFP |
Improve IT consulting desk |
10,000 |
personnel |
More IT training |
50,000 |
personnel |
Improve event publicity, web council |
50,000 |
OSU2007 |
Establish Interdisciplinary Council |
50,000 |
staff support |
Professional development funds for
advisors |
50,000 |
BFP |
Advisory Board for summer term |
BFP |
|
Improvements in search procedures |
50,000 |
BFP |
Formal faculty mentoring program |
100,000 |
BFP |
Revise P&T guidelines |
10,000 |
BFP |
Hold workshops on dealing with international
students |
10,000 |
BFP |
Increase Honors College Enrollment |
25,000 |
BFP |
Totals |
$29,335,000 |
|
