Travel
Q: Is travel allowed?
A: Yes, with some additional financial controls in place for the remainer of Fiscal Year 2023-24 (through June 30, 2024). Note: After June 30th the controls will be reviewed to determine if they need to be extended. Any financial controls planned for FY25 will be likely be communicated prior to the end of Spring Semester.
Student travel has no restrictions because it is considered essential for the student experience. The College is still supporting student travel with matching support from the Office of Research, Innovation and Collaboration (ORIC) and student travel incentives should continue to be used as a recruitment tool.
Faculty travel funded externally has no restrictions. For all other travel, additional financial controls are in place. Every effort should be made to conduct business remotely. If not, it must be considered business essential travel.
Q: What are common examples of external funding for travel?
A: Funds from Office of Sponsored Programs grants, Office of Academic Affairs funding, Women’s Place funding, and earnings operations, contracts, STEP, other comparable sources.
Q: What about the use of certain start-up funds for junior faculty to support travel?
A: These requests will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. Current financial controls permit two funded trips per year. Additional requests may be submitted through the exception process.
Q: I’m not sure if my travel meets the level of business essential – where can I check?
A: You can start by checking in with the finance officers in your unit. You may also send questions regarding EHE guidelines to EHE-BusinessOperations@osu.edu.
Q: My travel doesn’t seem to meet the requirements for business essential, is there anything else I can do?
A: Yes, you can fill out an Exception Request found here on the EHE Office of Finance and Business Services web site. The request will be routed up an approval chain for consideration with the Dean’s review as the final step in the process.
Budget
Q: What is the current issue with the college’s budget?
A: The College has healthy cash reserves, robust research funding and has been experiencing record-setting fundraising. The issue is the General Fund Allocation – general spending exceeds what we are bringing in as revenue. The college’s GFA budget is determined by our revenue (generated from credit hours) and based on a 3-year rolling average. The college has lost over $2M in revenue since COVID due to the decline in enrollments and credit hour generation. Consequently, we are tasked with reducing our expenditures to fall within the generated revenue. There is a reconciliation every year where the University can take funds back if projected revenue is not being met. This reconciliation also contributes to our negative net margin.
Like many of our peers both inside and outside the University, we have been experiencing declines in enrollment in some programs. Overall, college enrollment still remains below 2019 (pre-Covid) levels.
Q: Have we considered using our cash reserves to help us now?
A: The college has healthy cash reserves and can cover some expenditures; however, this is not a sustainable solution. We have must adjust our spending and bring it in line with the revenue we generate each fiscal year.
Q: How do donor dollars affect the College?
A: Funds raised by the college, stay in the college. No part is allocated to the central university. Most donor contributions cannot be used toward operational funds, rather they are restricted to fund things like student scholarships and brick and mortar projects that enhance the student experience.
College and department leaders are reviewing opportunities to shift allowable expenses to development funds if the proposed use matches the designated purpose. While this reduces costs and provides some GFA savings, it is not a long-term solution.
Q: Are there any restrictions surrounding Graduate Research Associate Positions? When will we have additional information about GRA restrictions? What about the GRAs that are committed to junior faculty in startup packages? What about decisions to be made on the hiring of lecturers?
A: Discussions about FY25 budget allocations for GRAs, GTAs, and lecturers are currently being discussed by the budget transformation committee. Decisions will be made in collaboration with the department chairs and other college leaders.
Q: Will individual (personal) memberships to professional organizations be paid for by internal funds?
A: No. For the remainder of FY24, our fiscal controls restrict expenditures to essential purchases only. Membership fees, subscriptions, and other professional costs are deemed non-essential under university guidelines. Institutional- or College-level memberships are permitted. Examples of covered memberships are ones needed to maintain college/program accreditation, such as the American Psychological Association, American Educational Research Association, and the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation.
Q: Is the renovation project for Campbell Hall contributing to our need for fiscal controls?
A: No. The fund that we have for Campbell Hall is new money received from the State of Ohio capital fund, university FOD, EHE cash reserves, and donor funds. This project does not affect operational budgets for the college.
Q: What opportunities exist to generate income for operational needs?
A: One identified opportunity is the addition of online programs (courses and certificates) due to the lower overhead cost of running these programs. The college has recently established the Center for Digital Learning and Innovation (CDLI) which has as part of its mission to partner with OSU Online and work with EHE faculty and staff to develop online courses and offer distance education-focused certificates and professional development.
Q: Is sharing staff across units and departments a good idea? Aren’t some staff already overworked?
A: We are looking at opportunities to streamline staffing where it makes sense, but recognize that some areas may be understaffed.
Q: How does the College plan to engage with faculty and staff on budgetary matters going forward?
A: Engagement will take place through multiple avenues, including written communications and meetings with College Council, the EHE Academic Review Committee, Department meetings and future Town Hall sessions.
Short-term/Long-term Planning
Q: What is the overall plan to address the financial health of the college?
A: There are multiple approaches underway to address the financial health of the college to address short-term reductions needed and plan for long-term sustainability.
Q: What are the key ideas of the college’s fiscal plan?
The fiscal plan is informed by the Fiscal Transformation Framework, as outlined in the summary below.
Principles:
- Preserve funding for ongoing essential cash expenditures that continue to cultivate our personnel, students, and mission-critical programs/initiatives.
- Direct divestment and investment strategies that will result in the permanent changes to programs/initiatives, faculty/staff/administration positions, and operations; and
- Enable highly selective continued and new investment in aspects of our college that directly tie to growing revenues in a manner that far outpaced the expenses associated with these investments.
Priorities:
- Programmatic Changes
- Assess EHE initiatives, academic programs, courses for financial implications
- Evidence-based divestment
- Evidence-based and highly selective new investment
- Operational Changes
- Explore the possibility of a new faculty instructional load policy and tracking procedure
- Evaluate and reduce idiosyncratic arrangements with some faculty
- Re-evaluation of GTA/Specials Model to focus more so on higher enrollment programs
- Organizational Changes
- Change operations of units serving the university or other OSU entities
- Evaluate ROI and long-term sustainability of all EHE Centers, EHE Offices/Units
- Change existing EHE organizational structures to yield reductions in administrative expenditures, leverage consolidation and synergy of personnel, programs/ initiatives and productivity
Process:
- Phase 1 - EHE and OSU leadership collaborate to develop framework for the fiscal transformation that will be enacted to achieve an overall budget surplus for EHE within 3-6 years (Timeline: 2 weeks). Done
- Phase 2 - EHE and OSU leadership collaborate on a menu of specific, durable, changes needed to achieve a budget surplus over a 3 to 6-year period with selective investment to elevate the excellence of EHE’s academic and scholarship enterprises. (Timeline: 2-3 weeks). In progress
- Phase 3 - EHE enacting an internal deliberation, inclusive of EHE faculty and staff, to identify the specific changes in EHE that will occur to yield an overall budget surplus within 3-6 years (Timeline: 6-8 weeks w/ proposals submitted to OAA by end of 2024). Beginning in January.
Expenditure Approval Requirements and Helpful Links:
- Please review the Fiscal Guidance Document (dated 11/27/23) for details regarding new fiscal controls.
- Please contact the finance officers in your respective units for clarifications. You may also send questions regarding EHE guidelines to: EHE-BusinessOperations@osu.edu
- The Dean has shared important updated information about the EHE College Budget for FY 2024 here: https://mailchi.mp/osu/update-to-colleges-budget?e=339dd5e111
- Visit the link to identify and communicate with finance officers in your unit.