Faculty Council Committee Corner: Budget
The Faculty Council Budget Committee (FCBC) is charged with acting as the advisory body to Faculty Council on matters of budget, evaluating the management of the university’s resources, reviewing budget requests with administrative system representatives prior to their submission to the Board of Regents, and providing recommendations about financial implications (see the full charge here).
During the 2020-2021 academic year, much of FCBC’s focus has been on reevaluating the above-mentioned committee charge. We have done this with an eye toward reestablishing priorities, identifying areas that fall within the committee’s responsibilities but have not been a regular part of the committee’s activities in recent years, as well as formulating new, aspirational goals that are to be incorporated in the updated committee charge.
To date, FCBC members have emphasized the desire to be more relevant, build more rapport with system administration staff, and develop a framework to be more involved with budget-related decisions. Particularly, we are working toward establishing a regular cadence of recommendations to the administration on key budgetary issues, as is common at many universities, and toward serving in more of a consultative role with system administration.
Steps are already being made in the right direction. We are particularly grateful that our committee was asked to nominate a representative on the search committee for the new University Treasurer. It is our hope that, in the spirit of shared governance, our committee’s faculty will continue to be solicited for meaningful input related to the financial health of our university.
Throughout the committee’s efforts to revise the existing charge to date, we have been advised by Brenda J. Allen, Ph.D., Professor Emerita of Communication at CU Denver, and former Vice Chancellor for Diversity and Inclusion at CU Denver | Anschutz. Starting from the premise that a budget is a moral document — that is, a moral statement of priorities (be it areas, issues, things or people) that reflects the values of the creators of that budget — Dr. Allen prompted us to formulate important questions to guide the revision of our charge, including:
What do we want our work to be?
What are our priorities?
What do we want to be consulted on and when?
What do we want to give back to the administration?
Our committee’s work with Dr. Allen also has included a consideration of diversity, equity and inclusion principles. Through micro-trainings and discussions, we have gained new appreciation for the ways in which we can become more inclusive in terms of our work together as a committee.
Feel free to contact any of our members with questions or comments:
Diana White, Chair | CU Denver, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Monique French, Vice Chair | CU Colorado Springs, College of Business
Vicki Grove, Secretary | CU Boulder, College of Arts and Sciences
David Port | CU Anschutz, School of Medicine
David Paradis | CU Boulder, History
Rhonda Glazier | CU Colorado Springs, Kraemer Family Library
Carol Dee | CU Denver, Business School
Christine Martell | CU Denver, School of Public Affairs
Chad Marturano | CU System, Senior Associate Vice President for Business Operations and Deputy Chief Financial Officer*
* Non-voting member