Financial Stewardship Initiative

91É«°É is undertaking a campus wide initiative to assess, adopt and implement proven financial practices to align campus resources to our teaching, research and student success mission. Expand the focus areas below to learn more about each project. Please note timelines are subject to change. Check back for regular updates.Ìý

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ÌýÌýBackground

Building on results from a financial practices bench marking exercise conducted in 2024, campus leaders have prioritized 13 projects in 6 areas of focus to pursue beginning in fall 2025.Ìý

ÌýÌýFinancial Education

  • Goal: Develop comprehensive budget guidelines to equip both experienced budget leaders and beginners with the knowledge and skills needed to make informed decisions and support effective financial management.
  • Timeline: August - December 2025; in progress
  • Goal: Provide campus with an easier way to discover trainings, courses, and resources related to budget and financial policies and practices. Increase financial education to support improved financial consistency and compliance across campus departments. The launched September 2, and is accessible to 91É«°É staff, faculty and students. Identikey login required.
  • Timeline: May - September 2025; complete

ÌýÌýFinancial Review

  • Goal: Develop guidance for how units should consider spending funds, based on degrees of restrictiveness, in accordance with best practices to ensure flexibility and financial stability.
  • Timeline: January 2026 kickoff
  • Goal: Design and implement campus reserve policies and a long-term governance structure that enables units to maintain a high degree of autonomy while establishing institutional guardrails. Policies will provide a financial contingency to advance mission-driven priorities and protect against unforeseen circumstances.
  • Timeline: November 2025 kickoff
  • Goal: Develop a strategy to address deferred maintenance needs on campus.
  • Timeline: September 2026 kickoff

ÌýÌýReporting & Planning

  • Goal: Identify options to enhance long range and what-if scenario planning, including leveraging Anaplan to decrease manual workloads while increasing ease, Ìýflexibility and replicability of planning. Ìý
  • Timeline: September 2025 kickoff
  • Goal: Develop a set of standard managerial reports supplemented by strategic key performance indicators to streamline financial reporting and provide a concise and unified financial view that enable leaders to make informed decisions.
  • Timeline: November 2025 - March 2026
  • Goal: Implement scenario planning tool at the college/school and campus support unit level to support proactive assumption based planning and forecasting.
  • Timeline: August 2026 kickoff

ÌýÌýBudget Model

  • Goal: Conduct a comprehensive review of recharge activities between campus units, including volume and time burden. Vet considerations of alternative funding mechanisms to provide campus with a holistic understanding of the financial impacts of current practices.
  • Timeline: July - November 2025; in progress
  • Goal: Review existing components of the campus budget model for effectiveness and alignment with campus priorities. This review takes place every 3-5 years.
  • Timeline: September 2025 - May 2026; in progress
  • Goal: Implement an annual campus budget request process through the budget planning tool that is flexible to fit the needs across campus.
  • Timeline: September - December 2025; in progress

ÌýÌýSpace Assessment

  • Goal: Project goals under development.
  • Timeline: September 2026 kickoff

ÌýÌýOrganizational Review

  • Goal: Assess and evaluate current financial functions across campus to understand existing accountabilities and design a vision for future service delivery. Engage campus finance leadership to recommend standardized job descriptions and an optimized organizational structure for financial roles, incorporating clear ownership models. Explore opportunities for shared service delivery of key finance activities and align all of these efforts with campus goals to decrease departmental burden while increasing consistency, efficiency, and support.
  • Timeline: September 2025 - December 2025; in progress