Chancellor Venkat Reddy spoke to SGA about the UCCS budget redesign model during the senate meeting on March 23.
According to Reddy, the budget model is part of UCC’s 10-year strategic plan and aims to make up for the lack of Colorado state funding for higher education. It creates an incentive-based model that will be more efficient by investing in areas that will perform and generate revenue.
“The reason for the budget model is that the state gives us 13% funding. A well-funded public university should have at least 40% funding from the state,” Reddy said.
According to Reddy, as state funding continues to decrease over time, the tuition rates rise to make up for the loss. He thinks the budget model will decrease student tuition by creating more equitable distribution of money and encouraging growth. He also said that the model will be more consistent and transparent.
The Budget Redesign Task Force has been tasked with making the model. They are evaluating the best university budget models in the nation and creating a draft based on their findings.
According to Reddy, their current draft has a revenue breakdown that distributes 70% of revenue to maintain the college and schools and the other 30% will be set aside for different financial pools.
“Some percentage will go to support all the campus-wide stuff: keep the lights on, mow the lawn, pay for utilities. And another pool will be that incentive pool, so if a college does really well, they can access that pool,” Reddy said.
The incentive pool accounts for 10% of revenue in the current draft, but Reddy emphasized that a college will not lose funding just because it isn’t performing to the highest standards.
“We made a promise to the students we serve that these are the colleges we are going to have. There may be mission critical areas that will not make us any money, but we are going to keep them alive through subsidization from other areas,” Reddy said.
To make the process more transparent, Reddy and the Task Force want feedback from UCCS faculty, staff and students.
“I want us to do a lot of listening sessions to get more informed from [the UCCS community] and really create a campus where the decision-making happens across the board because sometimes the cabinet does get accused of being black-boxed,” Reddy said.
Students interested in giving their feedback can attend the budget redesign town hall in Berger Hall on April 17.
In other news:
- Reddy also spoke about increasing the enrollment and retention rate, which is another part of the 10-year strategic plan. The current retention rate is just under 70%, and Reddy wants to increase it to 73.5% by 2026.
- SGA passed three bills for a clothing swap event called ClydeCon. The bills allocated funds for catering, crafts, clothing racks and hangers for the clothing swap. The event will take place in Kettle Creek on April 19 from 2-8 p.m.
- SGA passed the Self-Care Goody Bags Bill that allocates $375 for supplies that are meant to encourage mental and physical wellness. This amount of funding will allow SGA to make 50 grab-and-go bags full of self-care items such as Vaseline lip therapy, reed diffusers and spa exfoliating gloves. Students can pick up a bag in the MOSAIC lounge.