Initiative Review Group XVII Final Report June 30, 2001
Create a flexible and understandable budget process including analyses, projections, distribution, and reports.
Members:
Jo Grippe, leader; Usha Gupta, Liz Justice, Marilyn Rogers, Lisa Turner.
1. Briefly describe the background, present setting/structure which applies to the initiative
The UA allocates two amounts of money for the library. One is the materials budget; the other is the operating budget.
Materials: The dean and associate dean made allocations to serials and acquisitions considering the ongoing commitments for serials along with the ever increasing inflation rate. If there was any one time money for materials this also was allocated usually for one-time purchases-sometimes being spread over several years. After the monies for acquisitions and serials were determined the monies were allocated along university department lines.
Operating: Operating funds include salary and for the last year fringe benefits. Salary allocations were made by the dean and the administration group during the annual budget preparation in the spring of each year. Requests for more personnel were usually approved by UA administration but no funds were provided. Wages, equipment, travel, supplies, printing, telephone, etc. were paid for from the small amount left from the budget and foundation (gift) funds. Specific allocations were not made for these types of expenditures with the exception of wages. Each year the dean and associate dean reviewed the past expenditures, forecast areas that would need more funds and determined if this would be a "lean or fat" year and spend accordingly. Most large capital expenses such as furniture and computer equipment were made from funds other that the materials or operating funds such as gifts and one time state funds.
2. Develop an inclusive list (in ranked order of importance) of issues that must be addressed/considered for that initiative, consulting non-group personnel as appropriate.
Ranked 1:
A. Salaries-non-classified personnel
a. Policies and procedures for merit increases
b. Expectations of tenure-track versus non-tenure track faculty
c. Policies and procedures for hiring and terminating
d. Evaluation of the need for non-classified personnel
e. Policies and procedures for requesting new positionsB. Materials
Policies and procedures for this section of expenditures are being recommended by IRG 12.
C. Method of communicating the financial state of the libraries to library staff.
Ranked 2:
D. Travel
a. Development of new travel request policies and procedures-including definitions of travel, deadlines, and forms.
b. Allocation and reporting of travel funds-to individuals, to departments, or to divisionsE. Salaries-classified personnel
a. Procedures for evaluation including job descriptions and reclassification of positions
b. Policies and procedures for hiring and terminating
c. Fair labor market
d. Policies and procedures for requesting new positionsF. Part time personnel
a. Centralization of hourly and work study processes.
b. Allocations of wage funds-to departments or divisions
c. Evaluation of the need for part time personnel
d. Evaluation of the hourly pay scaleG. Supplies / Equipment / Computers / Photocopying / Postage / Telephone / etc issues:
a. Policies and procedures for requesting and receiving.
b. Allocation and reporting of funds-to individuals, to departments, or to divisions
3. Briefly describe how the initiative fits into the long-term goals and/or fulfills the mission of the University Libraries.
Initiative 17 is essential to fulfilling the long term goals and mission of the library.
4. Indicate other of the initiatives that should be considered in connection to, coordinated with, or that may overlap the initiative.
While all initiatives could affect Initiative 17 depending upon the implementation of the recommendations of the different initiatives and also the implementation of Initiative 17 could affect most of the other initiatives, Initiatives 10 and 12 are essential to this initiative. Initiatives 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 13 and travel portion of 18 are closely related to this initiative.
5. Note any initiatives or considerations that are lacking from those delineated thus far which may be essential to the planning and redefining the process.
None that we could think of.
6. Recommend names of individuals who are essential (i.e., add to, delete from, or leave intact the list of the IRG) to the Initiative Planning Team that works on developing and implementing the initiative in the subsequent phase.
Our group recommends that the issues be broken down into subgroups. Depending upon the issue to be discussed different members of the IRG may participate or not. For example, the issue of salaries for non-classified personnel may be decided by FCC and the Administrative group with no participation by any member of this group.
7. Recommend, based on best educated guess, the amount of time that will be required to effectively develop the plan for implementing the initiative.
While this is a never-ending process, due to the ever-changing state and university regulations, policies and procedures, work can be begin immediately and progress can be made over the next three fiscal years.
8. Recommend the priority level to be assigned to this initiative in the three-to-five-year planning phase: first(1) = mission-critical; places this initiative among the top few to be engaged in as soon as possible; may also be required to be completed before other initiatives may be worked on; second(2) = a very important initiative, deserves attention as soon as possible; third(3) = important but not essential to be developed in the first year of planning; fourth(4) = important but can be deferred till later in the planning process; has less impact on overall revision of services
While the overall initiative is priority 1, we recommend that parts of it be ranked as in the second question above.
