Budget Process for 2014-15

Colleagues,

I hope you enjoyed a smooth launch of the new semester.

With the holiday season fully behind us, we must turn our attention to preparing for the upcoming year, and that means planning next year’s budget.

The budget process for the coming year (2014-15) will closely follow what we have done in previous years.  I am committed to a budgeting process that is open and transparent, and fully engages our academic deans in the process to ensure that our academic priorities are at the forefront of budget planning.  We must provide the best possible education with a focus on student success.

The Tennessee General Assembly is back in session and Governor Bill Haslam continues to make higher education an important priority in his administration. We have heard reports from Nashville that revenue collections are weaker than projected, so we do not know exactly what that will mean for us in terms of state funding as we begin our budget talks.

I am pleased to tell you that our campus is fiscally strong.  Previous administrations have been wise stewards of resources, and because of this prudent planning, we are well positioned moving forward.

In the coming weeks, there will be opportunities to participate in budget conversations at multiple levels across the campus.  I hope that this open approach to building a budget will give everyone an opportunity to share their opinions and offer ideas that will lead to comprehensive budget proposals from each college and division.

I hope you will join me on Wednesday, February 19, 8:30-9:30 a.m. in the Raccoon Mountain Room, as we kick off the budgeting process with a campus-wide overview of our current budget, the projections and parameters for establishing next year’s budget, and an explanation of the 2014-15 budgeting process.

Many of you have expressed the desire to have a better understanding of the campus budget and our budgeting process.  In my short time here, I have found Executive Vice Chancellor Richard Brown and his budgeting staff to be helpful in answering specific questions about budgets and the process.  I encourage you to take advantage of all of the opportunities offered for input into the development of our budget.  Suggestions and ideas about the budget and the budgeting process can be submitted to the Budget Chatt website at http://www.utc.edu/business-financial-affairs/budget-chatt.php.

Steve Angle

Budget Overview
February 19, 8:30-9:30 a.m.
Raccoon Mountain Room