(DePaul University/Jeff Carrion)The Strategic Resource Allocation Committee has begun meeting to launch the university’s budgeting process for the 2020-21 academic year.
The goal of the committee, known as SRAC, is to propose a budget that continues to achieve the university’s strategic objectives and further DePaul’s pursuit of its mission. Committee members representing DePaul’s faculty, staff and students will discuss broad financial decisions, such as tuition pricing and employee benefits and compensation, and recommend a comprehensive university budget.
DePaul’s budget challenges were shared earlier this academic year in President A. Gabriel Esteban’s State of the University address and in town hall meetings hosted by Interim Provost Salma Ghanem and Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Jeff Bethke.
“For the 2020-21 budget, the board’s finance committee asked the university to set a budget that is based on conservative enrollment projections and moderate tuition pricing increases,” Bethke says.
SRAC meets several times in late fall to hear budget presentations from the Offices of Academic Affairs, the President and the Executive Vice President. The committee considers enrollment projections and tuition pricing, fees and financial aid as proposed by the tuition pricing committee. They also consider the executive areas’ presentations on proposed expenses and the university’s projected financial position, which includes potential benefits and compensation costs and other expenditures for the coming year.
SRAC’s nine members will vote on a budget proposal to recommend to the Office of the President. The university president can approve or modify the recommendations before making a budget proposal to the board of trustees’ finance committee.
The board finance committee considers the president’s recommendations for approval and may send the budget as proposed or a modified set of recommendations to the general board of trustees. At its meeting in early spring, the board votes on a final budget that will take effect July 1, 2020.
SRAC members are appointed by the president, including representatives who are recommended by Staff and Faculty Council and two dean appointments who are recommended by the provost. This year’s voting members of SRAC include:
- Jeff Bethke, executive vice president and SRAC chair
- Erin Berkowitz, Staff Council president
- Gisselle Cervantes, Student Government Association president
- Salma Ghanem, interim provost
- Scott Paeth, Faculty Council president
- Sherri Sidler, vice president for finance and controller
- Guillermo Vásquez de Velasco, dean, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
- Michaela Winchatz, Faculty Council representative
- Paul Zionts, dean, College of Education