Budget & Planning and BPC Reimagined Ad Hoc Committees

ÌýBudget & Planning Committee Charge: Updated Spring 2025

The committee shall maintain a broad focus on education, faculty direction, and on conveying information and ideas from faculty to the Administration in areas such as budget and finance, academic resource management, faculty compensation, space use (in particular academic buildings and research infrastructure), graduate student support, as well as reviewing special academic programs that require budget allocation and are considered beneficial to the campus by the BFA. The BPC shall also regularly query and educate faculty on committee practices and needs, providing best practices and advice for faculty concerns as they relate to budget, finance, and resources. Additionally, the committee shall focus on the following items during the listed timelines at a minimum and more frequently as deemed appropriate by the committee:Ìý

  • Review the Campus Budget model every 5 years or on the campus timeline and provide feedback to the Administration.
  • Focus on the use of General Funds and reserves for items important to faculty.
  • Review the Campus Supplementary Fund allocation model every 3 years and provide faculty feedback to the Administration.
  • Review campus budget projections each Spring semester, Census, and True-up Fall semester. At the start of each academic year, the committee shall outline the planned committee work based on the above to the BFA Chair/Officers and the Executive Committee and schedule updates for both groups on this work. The BFA Chair/Officers may also assign additional relevant issues based on current campus issues that arise. The BFA Chair/Officers shall ensure the BPC Chair is a member of ARMAC and provides the BFA with updates on ARMAC decisions once a semester

As part of long-term efforts by the committee, BPC shall:

  • Address faculty concerns about the Administration's responsiveness to faculty governance input on budget issues
  • Seek a more determinative role for faculty in some budget decisions
  • Improve the committee's focus, preparation, and effectiveness on key areas.

Membership

The committee shall consist of a minimum of five and maximum of eight faculty senate members. At least two members shall be BFA representatives. Seats are for one 3-year term. Membership shall be inclusive of all colleges/schools and ranks in order to represent a campus-wide perspective. It is preferred that members have experience in one or more of the following areas on campus:Ìý

  • Large grant management (e.g. sciences) or small grant management (e.g. humanities, social sciences)
  • Budget management within a unit, college, or school, or lab • Have served on a unit’s salary committee
  • Have served as a center director, department chair or a former dean
  • Research in financial economics, business law, organizational/business ethics, or human resource management Additionally, the committee shall maintain non-voting administration liaison members from the campus' Budget & Fiscal Planning office and from Academic Resource Management under Academic Affairs. The committee may choose additional members, subject to approval by the Executive Committee, to ensure sufficient and diverse membership to address specific issues and concerns as they arise. There shall be nonvoting seats for campus faculty council budget committee chairs (such as the ASFS budget committee) and a Boulder member of the CU Faculty Council Budget & Finance committee. Member duties and responsibilities:
  • Must be willing to undergo yearly training on the campus budget and planning
  • Take part in a one-hour training on the Budget model, upcoming changes, and academic resource planning at the start of the academic year.

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BPC Reimagined Ad Hoc Committees

The BFA Budget & Planning Committee (BPC) was paused in August 2024 with approval by the BFA Executive Committee since, for the second time in four years*, the BPC did not have an elected chair from its membership. Upon advice of the BFA Officers, BFA Chair Shelly Miller paused the committee and formed the BPC Reimagined ad-hoc committee to consider ongoing issues and to formally revise the charge and membership.Ìý

At the 2024 September Assembly meeting, a call went out to all BFA representatives asking for volunteers to serve on the ad-hoc committee. Additionally, Miller asked all campus faculty council leaders for nominees from their units to ensure faculty from all colleges/schools were represented. Faculty from Arts & Sciences, Business, Law, Engineering, and University Libraries volunteered to serve and represent campus faculty. The group met twice a week from October through February and met with CFO Todd Haggerty, Deputy CFO Mandy Cole and several other campus administrators regarding budget issues. Along with considering charge revisions, the members also served as active members providing feedback to administration on the supplemental fund, and faculty salary issues. The BFA sincerely thanks the BPC Reimagined ad hoc committee members (see below) for their hard work this year in considering ways this committee can ensure that faculty are engaged early and often with campus leadership regarding all areas of campus budget.

BFA Chair Miller updated Assembly members and Executive Committee members on their work throughout the academic year. The final proposed charge was approved by the Executive Committee on March 3, 2025 to be introduced to Assembly on March 6, 2025 as a 30-day notice of motion. Due to feedback received the week prior to the scheduled vote, BFA representatives voted to extend the consideration period for another 30 days in order to allow representatives more time to confer with their constituents. A vote is currently scheduled for the May 1, 2025 Assembly meeting.Ìý

*In the fall of 2021 BFA Chair Tiffany Beechy paused the BPC at the advice of former chair Bob Ferry due to a lack of a chair and ongoing issues with membership.Ìý

BFA Representatives are asked to review the full committee charge with their colleagues, and to consider documents linked below and provide feedback prior to April 17, 2025. All questions, comments, and feedback should be sent to: bfa@colorado.edu. Please provide detailed suggestions or comments about the pending charge whenever possible. The Executive Committee will finalize proposed charge changes and communicate those to reps with ten days notice. If needed, representatives will be asked to vote by verbal consensus on all proposals received.

Information on the BPC and Ad-hoc Committee:

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The BFA would also like to thank the former BPC members and chairs for the many hours of hard work they invested on budget and campus fiscal matters on behalf of faculty, including recent chairs:

  • AY's 2016-2018 - David Gross, Leeds School of Business
  • AY 2018-2019 - Seth Spielberg, Geography, A&S
  • AY's 2019-2021 - Scott Parker, Physics, A&S
  • AY 2021-2022 - Bob Ferry, History, A&S
  • AY's 2022-2024 - Emily Yeh, Geography, A&S

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BPC Reimagined Ad Hoc Committee Members