What is Eastern Michigan University's total budget for
2006-07? Where do its revenue streams come from? How
many student credit hours are currently being taken?
The answers are 1) $241.4 million 2) student tuition and
fees, state appropriations and other funding streams, and
3) 541,023.
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ACCOUNT-ABILITY: Dan Cooper, assistant
vice president and controller, discusses the
accounts
receivable process during
"Building Transparencies,"
an EMU
Finance 101 workshop offered Nov. 28 in
the EMU Student Center Auditorium. |
These were some examples of information shared at "Building
Transparencies," the first in a series of EMU Finance 101
workshops offered Nov. 28 in the EMU Student Center Auditorium.
The purpose of the morning and afternoon sessions was to
help EMU faculty, staff and students better understand
EMU's finances and budget development in an effort to promote
transparency and trust within the community.
"An awful lot of work goes into developing a budget plan," said
Dan Cooper, assistant vice president and controller. "An
equal amount of work goes into maintaining it."
Cooper and Vickie Bagherzadeh, director, University Budget,
reviewed EMU's general fund budget process, broke down
the University's operating budget, and discussed
accounting procedures.
The University budget is broken as follows: $138 million,
or 57 percent, comes from tuition and fees; $77 million,
or 32 percent, comes from state appropriations; and $26
million, or 11 percent, comes from other funding streams,
including auxiliary funds, charter schools, grants and
financial aid, among others, Bagherzadeh said.
Ideally, revenue streams are exactly the same as or exceed
your expenses, thereby creating a balanced budget, she
said. But, she was quick to add that hasn't been the reality
for EMU of late.
Until this year, state appropriations for EMU had decreased
each of the four years prior. At the same time, costs for
utilities, health insurance and salary increases continually
went up, which led to the University raising tuition to
balance its budget. In addition, enrollment has dropped,
Bagherzadeh said.
Cooper provided brief summaries of how purchasing, shipping
and receiving, mail services, accounts payable, accounts
receivable, student billing and collections operate.
"We spend an awful lot of time keeping our books in good
shape," Cooper said. "It doesn't do any good if we can't
help you. If you have any questions, please send your e-mails."
"I thought that the workshop was a welcome effort to increase
the transparency of the University budget and budget process," said
Jeanne Thomas, dean of the College of Health and Human
Services, who attended the afternoon session.
"It's great to see our budget and finance areas being
pro-active like this," said Steve Watson, associate athletics
director-internal affairs. "While today we went through
more of an introductory session, it was encouraging to
hear that more meetings will be held in the future dealing
with specific topics. We were able to let them know what
we wanted to hear, and they will plan the next sessions
based on that feedback."
Future workshop topics may include: purchasing procedures,
allowable expenditures, travel/expense reimbursement process,
how to hire a new employee and online time entry.
For information about future workshops, call Cooper, 487-0124,
or Bagherzadeh, 487-4190.
