Editor’s note: The following message was sent to the CSU community on March 21.

The Steering Committee of the Budget Model Redesign Initiativeinvites the university community to attend a hybrid open forum on Wednesday, April 3, 2-3 p.m. for an update on Phase 3: Design. In-person attendance is available at the Lory Student Center, Rooms 304-306, or online via this Zoom link. We encourage online attendees to submit questions or feedback during the forum via the Q&A option.

The Steering Committee has been providing regular progress reports to the University community via email during this phase of the initiative. All reports to campus are posted online at Budget Model Redesign Updates. Below is the current update from the committee.

Steering Committee update

The Steering Committee’s four work groups have been evaluating strategic metrics and governors for aligning a new budget model with past and future growth, measuring priorities, and contemplating new opportunities while remaining mindful of unintended impacts.

We have focused on these primary areas: student success, academic and research excellence, outreach and impact, and institutional competitiveness, in line with the priorities set by President Parsons, and are working to develop metrics which align with each of these priorities. As we move through Phase 3, we will be consulting with the Technical Committee to further inform our work through their expertise, with a goal of then making recommendations around metrics and governors to share with the Executive Sponsor Committee. Though the work groups have agreed that a model should encourage strategic growth, we are also assessing other metrics in our deliberations, including supporting programs and services that are critical to our mission.

As a reminder, the guiding values below were approved by the Executive Sponsor Committee last October for the Budget Model Redesign process following stakeholder input. The goal of setting forth guiding values was to build trust and set the expectation that fiscal decisions will be made with the University’s best interest in mind. In accordance with that intent, these values have guided our work and discussions through Phase 3 of the initiative.

A new budget model should:

• Be a tool to support and renew the core mission areas of the University in teaching, research, engagement, and inclusion, ensuring that resources are appropriately deployed to priority areas of demonstrated need.
• Foster trust in our fiscal decisions through commitments to transparency, clarity, simplicity, consistency, accountability, and shared governance.
• Enhance our flexibility to empower local innovation, creativity, and responsibility while keeping the common good as our primary objective.
• Encourage collaboration, efficiency, productivity, performance, and quality, in service to our overall commitment to the success of our students and our ability to recruit, retain, and reward faculty and staff.
• Retain capacity for making strategic investments to provide CSU clear pathways to excellence and growth.

We encourage you to stay engaged with this process and provide your feedback or ask questions by emailing us at budget_model@colostate.edu or through the Budget Model Redesign online feedback form. The engagement of our University community is essential to the success of this initiative and its outcomes.

We look forward to seeing you on April 3 for the open forum.

Sincerely,

Steering Committee
CSU Budget Model Redesign Initiative

————————————————

About CSU’s Budget Conversation Series

Colorado State University is inviting all faculty, staff, and students to engage in two different yet simultaneous series of campus conversations and listening sessions around the institution’s budget. The first series of conversations focuses on the University’s current budget for FY23-24 and FY24-25, referred to as the operating or Incremental Budget.

The second series of conversations focuses on options for renewing our budget model for an innovative future in alignment with our land-grant mission and institutional priorities. The goal is to design a budget model that enables greater creativity and increased agility while improving fiscal responsibility and transparency in our financial decision-making processes. This is what is referred to as the Budget Model Redesign.