The following rules were approved by the Strategic Direction and Steering Committee (SDSC) on Oct.6, 2020. They govern revenue allocation, cost allocation, Strategic Investment Allocation, the University Participation Assessment, strategic initiatives and renewal/replacement reserves.
Revenue Allocation
Revenue
- State appropriation, tuition and course fees to be allocated to the college responsibility units (RU’s) as follows:
- State appropriation allocated by college of primary program based on head count.
- Undergraduate tuition, excluding differential tuition, will be pooled and netted with institutional financial aid and allocated 100% to college of instruction based on student credit hours.
- Graduate tuition allocated to college of program of study based on head count.
- Differential tuition allocated to college assessing the tuition.
- Allocations will be determined by using a two-year smoothing average.
- Allocations will be transferred to the colleges based on a schedule that calls for 80% of revenue to be transferred at census, 10% of revenue to be transferred at the end of the semester/session. Any remaining revenue will be transferred after all adjustments/write-offs have been made at the end of the fiscal year
- Facilities and administrative cost recoveries will be allocated based on the current administration approved guidelines recommended by the Research Policy Council:
- Colleges–90% (College central office: 70%, department: 10% and primary investigator: 10%).
- Office of Research and Innovation research initiatives–10%.
- Assigned Revenues (i.e., course fees, departmental revenues and auxiliaries) allocated directly to unit.
- Other designated revenue has been separated into two categories and will be assessed as follows:
- Study Abroad, CELCIS and other “instruction/tuition” forms of revenue will be assessed the college responsibility unit’s University Participation Assessment.
- Other activities, such as conferences and other one-time events, will be assessed the auxiliary responsibility unit’s University Participation Assessment.
Cost Allocation
Expense/Assessments
- Direct operating expenses, including responsibility unit specific service and support (i.e.: dean’s office, advising), will be allocated directly to each responsibility unit.
- Costs for space, including maintenance, custodial services, utilities purchased and debt service, will be allocated based on net assignable square footage unless it is included as a direct expense to a unit.
- Shared business resource space and unassigned space will be included in the central pool but shown as separate categories of space.
- General fund service unit expenses (indirect expenses allocation) will be allocated to the college RUs and auxiliary units as part of the University Participation Assessment.
- College RUs will be assessed on revenues at a rate to cover 97.5% of general fund service unit expenses.
- Auxiliary units will be assessed on revenues at a rate that will be sufficient to cover 2.5% of general fund service unit expenses.
Strategic investment Allocation
- Year 1 Strategic Investment Allocation (transition year)—all units (RUs and service units [SUs]) are held harmless from impacts of SRM. This includes auxiliary units that may result in a deficit due to space cost allocations that currently are not assessed.
- Year 2 and after:
- Provost to determine method of strategic investment allocations to the colleges within college pool resources.
- The president, with input from the cabinet after the provost has consulted with the deans, will decide how to strategically determine the method to use to distribute to service units any revenue growth or revenue decline allocations to the central pool.
- Auxiliary units that need Strategic Investment Allocation due to space cost allocations will need to determine a financial plan to cover those costs or submit a request for consideration of ongoing Strategic Investment Allocations. The president and cabinet will determine whether it is a priority for WMU to maintain the auxiliary activity and if the Strategic Investment Allocation is to be provided.
University Participation Assessment, Strategic Initiatives and Renewal/Replacement Reserves Determined by SDSC
- College RUs will be assessed a University Participation Assessment on total general fund revenue (course fee revenue including enrollment fee will be moved to the general fund) and will be sufficient to cover:
- General fund service unit expenses
- Strategic initiatives
- Renewal/replacement reserves
- Auxiliary unit Strategic Investment Allocations
- University strategic initiatives will be held harmless in times of declining revenues (establishing a $3 million target) but will be increased as revenue growth occurs in proportionate share of the central pool increase. Initiatives brought forward for funding consideration can be one-time requests, multi-year commitments (i.e., program seed money) or permanent funding requests.
- Academic affairs strategic initiatives—under the discretion of the provost—will be a separate account from the University strategic initiatives and will be established with a tax increase over 3 to 5 years to build the reserve ($2 million target).
- Renewal/replacement reserve will be a separate account from strategic initiatives and will be established with a tax increase over 3 to 5 years to build the reserve ($4 million target). This reserve will be held harmless in times of declining revenues and will be used for both deferred maintenance and technology infrastructure needs.