Budget Plan - UM

The budget development process at the Missoula campus provides the campus community with an opportunity to participate and provide feedback on various budget proposals. The Executive Planning Council looks to the Strategic Goals when setting the budget parameters and the Strategic Budget and Planning Committee then becomes the forum where more specific recommendations are proposed and discussed. After all constituencies have had an opportunity for input on the budget, the final proposal is presented to the EPC and the President for approval and implementation in accordance with the goals of the university.

The Executive Planning Council is made up of the President, Provost and Vice Presidents, and the Chair of the Executive Committee of the Faculty Senate. The Council sets broad budget parameters based upon projected tuition revenue, Pay Plan and employee benefit costs and the goals set forth in the University s Strategic Plan. A preliminary budget is compiled and sent to the Strategic Budget & Planning Committee for discussion.

The Strategic Budget and Planning Committee is made up of the Provost, the Vice Presidents, four representatives of the Council of Deans, six faculty members, two students, three members of the professional staff, and two members of the classified staff. The Enrollment Management Committee, Institutional Research and the Budget Office provide technical support for the Committee. Budget hearings are conducted to review and consider sector budget priorities and reallocation scenarios for the biennium. The SBPC then recommends a budget plan to the President based upon the results of the budget hearings and revenue and expenditure projections.

The Enrollment Management Committee is chaired by the Assistant Provost for Retention and Enrollment Management and includes the Associate Provost, Dean of the Graduate School, Registrar, Admissions Director, Financial Aid Director, Budget Director, Director of Institutional Research, and the Director of Foreign Student Services. The Committee consults with academic units, analyzes historical enrollment and retention data and reviews national enrollment trend data. The result of this analysis is an FTE projection, broken down by class status as well as fee status, which is provided to the President to assist the Executive Planning Council in developing broad budget parameters.

The Strategic and Budget Planning Committee meets on a regular basis to review both annual and biennial budget projections. The continuously changing nature of revenue and expenditure projections requires that not only current year projections be reviewed, but that changes must be analyzed for possible impact on proceeding budgets.

The following represents the University s current revenue projection for the FY00/FY01 biennium. The limited increase in FY01 is partially due to the $1,175,651 carry back of General Funds from FY01 to FY00. This "borrowing" of General Fund was done to assist the University in leveling out budget swings between the two years of the Biennium.

The following list contains the identified budget obligations for FY01. It should be noted that the first item on the list is related to the tuition shortfall that the University has experienced in FY00. In order to balance the budget in FY00, certain one-time-only budget reductions were made. Unfortunately, these reductions are not available in FY01 and will need to be included in the FY01 budget.

None proposed