Starting summer quarter, students will not be the only ones managing a tight budget.  A change in budget model means the dean of each individual college will be in charge of managing their department’s budget.

 
CWU will be switching to a Responsibility Centered Management (RCM) budgeting model, which will cause funds to be distributed at a college-level instead of at a department level.

Funds are currently being allocated based 80 percent on student credit hours, 10 percent of students enrolled in a major program, 5 percent for pre-majors and 5 percent based on graduation rates.

According to a presentation by Joel Klucking, vice president of business and financial affairs, the current model is intended to protect any downturn in enrollment; however, CWU is currently on an upswing. It also encourages “stealing” students from other departments because funds are distributed at a department level, leading to a relationship between number of majors and amount of funds.

The key differences in the RCM model are that funds are distributed at a college-level (i.e. College of Business) and it is based entirely on student credit hours. This will benefit colleges that have a large amount of students taking general education credits, credits that all students are required to take (i.e. English 101).

While implementation of this model has been slowly introduced since 2014, it has only gained steam in the last nine months. There were open forums during both fall and winter quarter concerning how finances work here at CWU and any implications of the change in financial model. This quarter, open forums will be held on how changes will occur.

While the academic side of CWU has had to become transparent with their budgets, there was concern that the administrative side did not have to do the same. As a result,  there will be a budget summit later this month comprised of 25 half-hour presentations over the course of a couple days. They will be held in the SURC and open to the public.

“Flipping the switch is more seamless than expected,” said Katherine Frank, vice president for academic and student life.
Frank has experienced this change during her time at Indiana University-East. She said they are “trying to involve as many people as possible” in the process.

“Tell us what you don’t like,” said Frank. “If we’re making decisions that don’t put the students first, then we’re making the wrong decisions.”