Dean's Update - Budget Assessment
Dear Faculty and Staff Colleagues:
Yesterday afternoon, I shared with program directors plans for a comprehensive budget assessment.
Curtis Reynolds, chief financial officer and vice president of business and finance is leading the assessment, which encompasses all divisions of the university (academic, advancement, athletics, human resources, student life, etc.). The aims are to fulfill a high order of stewardship in relation to our mission, ensure we are prudently prepared for headwinds facing American higher education, and hold down future increases in the student tuition that funds the majority of the university’s budget. These are important goals and it’s easy to affirm them.
To support the assessment process within the academic affairs division, each dean has been asked to address alignment with Baylor in Deeds, operational efficiency, personnel alignment, and financial resources. Additionally, scenarios have been requested for possible budget reductions at various percentage levels. Only scenarios, not actual reductions, have been requested at this point. However, I honestly anticipate reductions at some level will be implemented for next year.
If these things make you a little anxious, you’re in good company. Because I care so deeply about who we are and what we do in the Honors College, I’m apprehensive about the idea of trimming budgets. We run a tight ship and have an outsized impact within the university, so can’t we leave things be? This is how my thoughts run, and perhaps yours as well. Yet precisely because I’m confident that we allocate resources effectively in service to the university mission, I’m not overly anxious, and I don’t want you to be either. We will be okay.
Our program directors’ counsel and judgment will significantly guide preparation for the budget assessment. In addition, our business officer, Sherri Honza, and our associate dean for faculty, Mike Stegemoller, will be valuable sources of insight and help. I welcome anyone’s advice and questions, so please know that lines of communication are always open.
Let me underscore that Baylor undertakes this comprehensive budget assessment from a position of relative strength. Our enrollment picture is sound, balance sheets good, bond ratings high, and endowment growing. These features of Baylor’s circumstances deserve our recognition and gratitude. Even so, it’s important to take stock now, when things are good, of ways to be better stewards. That way, we’re prepared—as Joseph-like viziers storing up grain during good years as hedges against lean years—for further changes in federal funding, student access to financial aid, rising healthcare costs, and the like. Prudent planning now will only help us later.
It's the honor of a lifetime to lead and serve you. I’ll always give my utmost on your behalf!
All the best,
Douglas V. Henry, Ph.D. | Dean
Honors College | Baylor University
honors.baylor.edu | 254.710.7689