"[The Committee] has always tried to allow the community to see where [the Committee] is with the numbers and give them information if they choose to participate in the meetings."
Garland Granger, Associate Professor of Accounting
Q: Does the Budget Committee decide salaries for faculty and staff?
A: The Budget Committee does not decide faculty and staff salaries. The Committee prepares a budget for three levels of activity - worst case, middle case, and better case scenario[s]. Budgeting is all dependent on enrollment. Since [the Committee] has no real idea what enrollment will be until near the end of a school year, [it] prepares for all three cases.
[The Committee] can recommend salary increases based upon the income under each budget condition. Due to massive government cuts over the past few years along with declining enrollment, [it] did not have sufficient funds after taking care of all major expenditures at the College to recommend any salary increase at the lower end of the budget options. [Guilford is] a high fixed cost ([costs that] do not change with enrollment but must be paid annually) organization for things such as salaries, etc., and there has been little room for discretionary expenses.
[The Committee] can recommend salary increases based upon the income under each budget condition. Due to massive government cuts over the past few years along with declining enrollment, [it] did not have sufficient funds after taking care of all major expenditures at the College to recommend any salary increase at the lower end of the budget options. [Guilford is] a high fixed cost ([costs that] do not change with enrollment but must be paid annually) organization for things such as salaries, etc., and there has been little room for discretionary expenses.
Q: Does the Budget Committee make deferred maintenance decisions?A: The Budget Committee [does] not get involved with deferred maintenance since the President and Jon Varnell have a long-range plan for deferred maintenance. ...[T]he Budget Committee does evaluate the overall budget for grounds and maintenance, but [it does] not get into the weeds as to how [the President and John Varnell] spend their budgets.
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Q: What kind of community input (or opportunities for) already exists?
A: ...[T]wice a year, the Chair has an open forum to present the progress of the process to the entire community... [The Committee] always has tried to allow the community to see where [the Committee] is with the numbers and give them information if they choose to participate in the meetings.
However, it is not always possible to give constant feedback to the community because the budget numbers are constantly changing until we get to the end of the academic calendar, due to changes in enrollment numbers and funding from other sources. |