As CU Boulder carries out its academic mission amid the COVID-19 pandemic and takes important steps to advance diversity, equity and inclusion, the university remains committed to a third priority—fiscal resilience—that supports the entirety of CU Boulder’s mission.
More than just sustaining current campus activities and paying bills, “resilience means having the resources and flexibility to adapt to changing circumstances and to thrive in the midst of those changes,” says Chief Financial Officer Carla Ho’a.
CU Boulder’s strategy for fiscal resilience relies on three key factors:
- Proactively planning for budget fluctuations through budget modeling and scenario development
- A comprehensive redesign of the campus budget, with a new model to launch in fiscal year 2023
- Integrating the resource alignment strategies the campus developed through Financial Futures
“The campus budget is a tool for delivering on our mission as a comprehensive public teaching and research university,” says Executive Vice Provost for Academic Resource Management Ann Schmiesing. “Fiscal resilience is a means of ensuring that we can remain dedicated to the needs of students, faculty, staff and our greater community.”
In a January letter to campus, Provost Russell Moore and Chief Operating Officer Patrick O’Rourke shared that the campus is being asked to plan for continuing (versus one-time) budget reduction scenarios of 3%, 4% and 5% for fiscal year 2022, which begins July 1, 2021, and ends June 30, 2022.
Each of the units across campus will be asked to participate in the budget reduction planning, with the guiding principle that the campus will not cut more than is necessary, says Ho’a.
“It’s imperative that we are responsive to the current budget state in a way that supports our mission as well as our short- and long-term aspirations,” she says.
As examples of cultivating fiscal resilience, Ho’a points to prioritizing the end of temporary pay cuts and furloughs implemented earlier this year and increasing the minimum hourly wage across campus in fiscal year 2022.
“The furloughs and temporary pay reductions were an important part of our campus budget balancing plan for the current fiscal year and represent faculty and staff coming together in shared sacrifice in order to continue to meet the needs of our students,” Ho’a says.
Looking ahead, Ho’a and Schmiesing see great potential in the redesign of the budget model for increasing fiscal resilience.
This project officially kicked off in December 2020, and the Strategic Alignment Committee began meeting in January.
“This is a transformational project for CU Boulder,” says Schmiesing. “We are actively engaging the talents of our faculty, staff, and students to envision a model that better supports our work now and into the future.”
Another campus initiative developed to align strategic resources to the campus mission, and cultivate fiscal resilience, is Financial Futures. Specific examples of Financial Futures projects delivering value in support of CU Boulder’s mission and vision include the launch of a technology copilot program, support for the Quantum Initiative, the development and launch of a new transfer student website, and funding to increase mental health access for undergraduate and graduate students.
As a flagship state institution, CU Boulder is committed to fiscal resilience as a means of furthering the public good. Our ability to take action to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion and to respond to challenges like COVID-19 depends on our strength both as a community and as an organization.
“We accomplish fiscal resilience through present-day actions and activities, as much as if not more than through even the smartest future-state planning,” says Schmiesing. “Our community is truly incredible, and their ingenuity, dedication, and creativity make it clear that we have a lot to look forward to.”
Look for a recorded State of the Campus fiscal resilience conversation on Feb. 24 with Chancellor Philip DiStefano, Ho’a and Schmiesing.
