Over the coming months, the University will overhaul itsbudgeting procedures and separate some aspects of the budgets forthe School of Arts and Sciences and the School of Engineering.
Administrators hope the partial budget separation will help Deanof Arts and Sciences Susan Ernst and Dean of Engineering LindaAbriola develop more specific budget proposals.
Executive Administrative Dean Wayne Bouchard said that formerDean of Engineering Ioannis Miaoulis felt a separate engineeringbudget would permit the school to be "more autonomous, morevisible, and more like how other schools across the country arestructured."
While certain parts of the budgeting process will be separated,the parts associated with undergraduate admissions and student lifewill likely remain combined, Director of Public Relations SiobhanHouton said.
According to Bouchard, keeping cross-registration proceduresbetween the Arts and Sciences and Engineering Schools was apriority. "The challenge is to develop ways for the schools todevelop more independence in some ways without losing tremendousbenefits from the schools having a very strong relationship betweenthem," Bouchard said.
An interim budget committee will take some time to separate thebudgets, a process that will continue after Bouchard's departure atthe end of this semester to the Museum of Science in Boston.
The committee will be comprised of Abriola, Ernst, SeniorDirector of Finance and Planning Sue Leverone, and AssociateProvost Peggy Newell.
The committee will also redistribute administrativeresponsibility over the combined budget previously held byBouchard. "My hunch is that it will not be replaced in the way myposition is currently configured," Bouchard said.
He said different people would likely be appointed to overseethe Arts and Sciences and the Engineering budgets.
In the meantime, Houton said, Leverone will help out with theday to day management of the two budgets.
The budget committee will also deal with the Tufts Fund -- moneyraised by the development office based on specific goals outlinedby the deans. So far, Bouchard said, the fund "is falling short ofits goal this year."
The Tufts Fund's growth, Bouchard said, is "less than we hadhoped from fairly ambitious goals that were set." Bouchard said thesituation was not "a crisis," but he did say the Fund would requirecareful attention and monitoring to ensure stability.
This year's projected revenue has already been allocated in theUniversity's budget. "It is a shortfall for this fiscal year, whichwill end June 30," Bouchard said.
"Unfortunately budget projections were perhaps overlyoptimistic, given the current economic climate," Houton said. "Weare currently examining the implications of any potentialshortfall."
According to Bouchard, the University is "anticipating beingable to compensate for this revenue shortfall from budgetedcontingency, better indirect cost recovery on grants, and costsavings in other operating lines in this year's budget."
