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IBS and Heller respond to deficit
by Miranda Neubauer
Senior Writer
News | 2/10/09
Posted online at 5:45 AM EST on 2/10/09
/ Last updated at 2:35 AM EST on 2/10/09
The International Business School and the Heller School for Social Policy and Social Justice have undertaken their own budget cuts in order to help close the University's budget gap, according to Dean of IBS Bruce Magid and Heller School Dean Lisa Lynch.
Lynch explained that both IBS and the Heller School operate under a system called Responsibility Center Management, in which the University sets a target of how much more revenue the school needs to take in relation to its expenses to determine how much it must contribute to the University's budget as a whole.
IBS is projected to make a direct contribution of $1.9 million to the overall University budget in fiscal year 2009, an increase of $400,000 from the previous year as was specifically requested by the University, Magid wrote.
In fiscal year 2008, the University's target under the Responsibility Center Management system for the Heller School was $1.2 million, Lynch said, which Heller exceeded by bringing in $2.6 million. "That net revenue all went to the University," she said. To help meet the University's overall projected budget deficit this year, "I committed to increase our target … to $1.8 million," she said. Lynch explained that there had been some concern among Heller faculty that "we could have used [the $600,000 difference in target revenue] for financial aid at Heller." Lynch said she responded to those concerns by stating that the Heller School has a responsibility to support the University as it is, "not independent of the University."
At a Jan. 21 budget briefing for faculty, Prof. Steven Burg (POL) expressed concern that IBS and Heller would be exempt from budget cuts and that the administration was not being transparent about the financial role of the professional schools, which he characterized as "cash cows" for the rest of the University. Burg told the the Justice last Thursday that those concerns had been "redressed" after he communicated them to senior administrators who he said are now more transparent about the professional schools' role.
Lynch explained that both IBS and the Heller School operate under a system called Responsibility Center Management, in which the University sets a target of how much more revenue the school needs to take in relation to its expenses to determine how much it must contribute to the University's budget as a whole.
IBS is projected to make a direct contribution of $1.9 million to the overall University budget in fiscal year 2009, an increase of $400,000 from the previous year as was specifically requested by the University, Magid wrote.
In fiscal year 2008, the University's target under the Responsibility Center Management system for the Heller School was $1.2 million, Lynch said, which Heller exceeded by bringing in $2.6 million. "That net revenue all went to the University," she said. To help meet the University's overall projected budget deficit this year, "I committed to increase our target … to $1.8 million," she said. Lynch explained that there had been some concern among Heller faculty that "we could have used [the $600,000 difference in target revenue] for financial aid at Heller." Lynch said she responded to those concerns by stating that the Heller School has a responsibility to support the University as it is, "not independent of the University."
At a Jan. 21 budget briefing for faculty, Prof. Steven Burg (POL) expressed concern that IBS and Heller would be exempt from budget cuts and that the administration was not being transparent about the financial role of the professional schools, which he characterized as "cash cows" for the rest of the University. Burg told the the Justice last Thursday that those concerns had been "redressed" after he communicated them to senior administrators who he said are now more transparent about the professional schools' role.
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