[Plsfaculty] Follow up question from faculty meeting

[Baltrus, David A - (baltrus)]

Hi all,

Just wanted to follow up on a couple of discussion points at faculty meeting yesterday. First is that (and apologies for my own ineloquence on this, it was definitely not my intention to even give the appearance of slight towards any of our faculty or programs), since the Dean started, he has told SPLS to work to our strengths and grow in the ways that work best for us. From what I can see, we have done everything they have asked and have actually grown all aspects of our program in all directions. I think we are now an incredibly strong teaching and research program and while the main Plant Sciences major might be the numerical focus of some in the Dean's office and has declined, it's important for us to continually highlight how we have built this program into a well-rounded School. At the heart of it, I think this is what one of the most frustrating aspects of the recent financial crisis is...we've done everything that upper admin has asked and yet their solution is to do more, more. And to do more over time frames that are unreasonable given how academic bureaucracy works.

Second, following on a comment/response from Ramin/David at faculty meeting yesterday with David answering that he passes along everything he knows/has. One of the issues that's causing the most confusion and frustration right now amongst faculty is a lack of understanding of the context of the fiscal challenges we are facing. I don't know whether changes like forsaking lunch at faculty meeting or spending less on seminar cookies is a situation where we're rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic or actually making a difference. I understand that every little bit helps to bridge a gap, but outside of a ~1.5 million dollar figure I don't understand what the gap actually is in the context of the overall operations budget. So, I'd like to echo Ramin's question to better understand the financial situation in the School. From what I understand, CALS directly gives us the bulk of our money for a budget each year... please correct me if I'm wrong on this. I don't know that seeing a bunch of numbers in a spreadsheet will help everyone in a clear way. However, I think a better understanding of a few simple metrics, even at a ballpark level, will provide a much better context for all of us to understand the situation:


  1.  approximately how much did SPLS receive from CALS for this financial year?
  2.   Do we receive any money for general operating expenses from sources outside CALS?
  3.  How much does it cost to operate SPLS at a bare minimum salary-wise while maintaining all salaries at present levels?
  4.  How much are we billed by CALS (or upper admin?) for operations and maintenance for buildings / rooms / electricity etc....if at all?
  5.  How much other "cash on hand" do we have that can be spent on operation expenses if need be (not startups or other accounts that I agree should not be touched at all)?
  6.  I tried not to be too granular or specific about "discretionary funds" like money for cookies and whatnot while acknowledging that cookie money has to come from somewhere, but am I missing any other significant source of either income or operations expense that SPLS absolutely must​ cover in order to function?

I think that the general sense of confusion at finances is leading to a decent amount of stress for all of us and that stress manifests in frustration at many levels, and so any information that would provide a better context for understanding the state of SPLS in the context of what it takes to operate and function vis a vis the state of the University would be greatly appreciated.

Dave

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