Date: January 27, 2006
Congress Budget Committee Report
Jerry Calton, Chair
Members: Kelly Burke (COBE), Jonathan Dresner (CAS-Social Sciences), Bill Heacox
(CAS-Natural Sciences), Helen Rogers (Library), Norm Stahl (OSA). CAS-Humanities,
CAFNRM, and CHL member slots are currently vacant. Student representative: Dylan
Nonaka.
The Budget Committee is charged with:

Assuring that all information concerning current budgets, resource allocation and
processes used to develop future budgets are widely available to all members of
the UHH community and

Representing the UH Hilo faculty and participating with UH-Hilo administration
in the development of future budgets and resource allocation. Specifically, the
Chair of the Committee and one other faculty member selected by the Committee
shall, with the agreement of the UH Hilo administration, participate in those
decision-making processes leading to the development of budgets and resource
allocation priorities.
Plans/Activities for 2005-2006 academic year:
1. During the Fall semester 2005, there was little committee activity because the
academic year begins in the middle of the university budget cycle. VCAA Hora
has been conscientious in keeping the Congress informed of the issues and
outcomes of on-going budget negotiations.
2. Since the new budget cycle is now beginning, it is appropriate that the Budget
Committee become more active at this time.
a. The most urgent task of the Committee (and of the Congress) is to clarify
and institutionalize processes to shape faculty involvement in the budget
process. The faculty don’t claim the right to control or dictate budget
priorities, but they want more than timely reports about what college and
university administrators have decided about spending levels and
priorities. They want and have the right to expect active engagement in
the budget process.
b. Since the budget process is ultimately entwined with the program
development and evaluation process, we need to clarify procedures for
how and when faculty should be involved in the review and approval of
program initiatives. Should new program initiatives always be reviewed
and approved at the Congress level after college-level reviews, or should
Congress review and approve only programs that impact more than one
college? Should administrators have the discretion to lobby for programs
in the legislature and at the system level before they have been reviewed
and approved by faculty representative bodies? How do we manage the
tension between entrepreneurial responsiveness to suddenly unfolding
funding opportunities and the need for thorough faculty-driven reviews
before authorizing new program initiatives? These questions remain
unresolved.
c. What is the proper role of the Congress and Budget Committee in
initiating and evaluating new program change requests (PCRs)? Should
we wait for PCRs to trickle up from departmental, divisional, college and
other unit brainstorming sessions, or should the Congress Budget
Committee serve as a clearing house or initiator of ideas for program
proposals that will impact the university as a whole? Many PCRs seem
rather parochial and not necessarily responsive to the most pressing
concerns of the university community. This more proactive role seems
preferable to the reactive role of merely prioritizing PCRs originating
elsewhere. In many cases, administrators feel compelled to respond to
system or political pressures and priorities that do not necessarily reflect
faculty preferences.
d. Is the budgeting process, based on growth via incremental and often
parochial program change requests, so dysfunctional that it should be
replaced by a “formula funding” approach that allocates resources to
campuses and academic units on the basis of established program
performance criteria? This is a controversial issue, but it is a subject that
deserves closer study by the faculty, as well as by administrators.
e. Should the Chair of the Faculty Congress be present (in a voting or ex
officio capacity) when the Chancellor’s Cabinet makes the final decisions
about annual budget priorities and spending levels?