Ohio University faculty members came to yesterday’s budget forum full of questions about a new model that would allow deans and support unit leaders bigger roles in the budget planning process.
OU will implement the Responsibility Centered Management model during a three to five year period, and faculty members spent much of the first half of the forum asking questions about when the university would have specific guidelines in place.
“We’re in phase one of the RCM process,” said Executive Vice President and Provost Pam Benoit, one of four panelists at the forum.
Other panelists included Vice President for Finance and Administration Stephen Golding, Associate Provost for Academic Budgeting John Day and Associate Vice President for Finance Michael Angelini.
About 15 people attended the forum, and a few of them also voiced concerns about continuing interdisciplinary work under the new model. RCM places budget-planning responsibility on the leader of each college or support unit, as opposed to OU’s administration deciding each unit’s budget.
“We need to figure out a way to continue to incentivize interdisciplinary work, but I don’t know what that model is yet,” Benoit said.
In addition to RCM, conversation at yesterday’s forum focused on the budget reduction scenarios released last week. Each academic and support unit submitted plans for how they will handle next year’s budget cuts totaling $9.6 million for the entire university.
“I see the environment to continue to be constrained … and I think that’s the reality you have all been living with for the last 10 years,” Golding said. “… We have to continue to look for ways to deliver our educational mission in ways that have not previously been done.”
Benoit mentioned offering some electives less frequently and increasing some class sizes as ways for planning units to cut back.
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