Higher Education Fiscal Responsibility Aside

Higher Education Fiscal Responsibility

Aside from a Governing Board/Board of Trustees/Board of Regents; a college or university's President; Chief Academic Officer; Chief Business Officer, and Chief Student Affairs Officer, various other members of any higher education administrative team also have significant, even if sometimes smaller and/or less complete fiscal responsibility. These additional higher education administrative team members usually include a chief or head foundation officer; division deans; department and/or program chairs; and (depending on various factors like size, student enrollment, etc.) others with titles like (or equivalent to) "assistant chair"; "lead faculty," etc. Each of these positions carries with it, or should carry with it, some fiscal responsibility, even if only for a small part of an overall operation (Whalen, 1991). I will describe the respective roles of each member of available financial resources (and at times, e.g., annual or biennial state legislative sessions ask for more). For each of these positions, I shall also explain their roles as either key or supporting members of a higher education administrative team: especially in terms of a shared process of overall fiscal responsibility to a higher education system and/or individual institution.

Whether a particular administrative higher education team member's role is large; small; or varied; solely financial or only partly so, it is remains optimally important, in terms of the general and sustained financial health of any higher education system and/or institution that all administrative team members work together toward common goals that lead to making the very most of financial resources and allocating these in ways most beneficial to an institution and/or system

At the top of a higher education system responsibility management chain is a body called (most often in higher education systems nationwide) a Governing Board; Board of Trustees; or Board of Regents (or an equivalent). This group either makes or approves all important financial decisions for a system it governs, e.g. how, where, and for what purposes capital funds will be allocated; who will get salary increases where and when; rather or not new land should be purchased, new campuses or centers opened; etc.

The fiscal direction of a system is therefore (for better or worse) largely determined by such a governing board, and whichever persons (e.g., the state's Governor; its legislature, and/or other influential elected or appointed officials; various hired college; university, or other lobbyists; the electorate [in the case of the very few still purely elected higher education boards]; may or may not influence it. In addition, many state and other higher education systems have a separate Chancellor or President (or equivalent title) appointed by the board itself with signature authority over the entire system, and who is (or is at least seen by the public) as the voice of that system. In various cases it is in fact a Chancellor or equivalently-named individual, by dint of personality; networking influence, etc., who actually sets a system's fiscal tone and direction (Phelps, 1992).

Directly below a governing body and its head or chancellor are college and/or university Presidents of each of the respective higher education institutions themselves within a single system. A college or university President's fiscal responsibility is to be sure that student, faculty, staff, community needs are being met at the school (e.g., that the school has and will continue for the foreseeable future to have the financial ability to hire and pay counselors; faculty, etc.; maintain facilities; hold classes, etc. Presidents are responsible for preparing an annual (or in some states, biennial) budget for their schools that a governing board then approves or not (Robinson, 1988; Green, Eckel, Barblan & Andris, 2002).

Helping a college or university president prepare the annual or biennial budget for an institution and offering input into it are, also, the institution's chief academic officer, whose fiscal role it is to see that enough faculty and other academic support is available for enrolled students, and that sufficient academic support will continue to be available in the foreseeable future. If enrollment is projected to increase at the school next year, for example, a head academic officer would be responsible for asking that enough increased funds be in next year's budget to cover costs of hiring additional faculty, finding more classroom space, etc.

Chief academic officers may also control funds for various scholarships offered to students by the college; and/or grant funds; conference and travel funds, and related types of funds for faculty; teaching assistants; research assistants, readers, etc.

Increasingly also, chief academic officers in a great many higher education institutions are on the lookout for ways and means (e.g., distance education) to better serve both current and potential students in rural; outlying, or otherwise distant areas, and how to do so as well (but as economically) as possible (Beaulieu & Gibbs, 2005).

Chief student affairs officers at higher education institutions do essentially, within their areas of purview, what chief academic officers do in their own. That is, they make sure of sufficient counselors; counseling facilities; tutors and other student helpers, etc., at their institutions. They also often control scholarship and other funds available for various types of students and student programs, e.g., scholarship programs for "returning students"; tutorial services for remedial students; coaching for recent high school graduates or new international students, etc. Chief student affairs officers may also be responsible for writing grant proposals in their area, or requesting additional funds for new pilot student programs of one sort or another - of their own or others' initiative(s) (Green, Eckel, Barblan & Andris, 2002).

Chief financial officers, on the other hand, generally play a much more diffuse in higher education institutional financial matters, but an enormously crucial one: that of overseeing financial operations in general for the entire institution, that is, what costs how much money; is more money now needed to support this or that program or activity; should this or that be reduced or cut out, etc. The Chief Financial Officer is in charge of balancing an institution's budget as well. Chief financial officers may also (although they do not always) personally control some funds, or if not, still have the overall authority to direct deans, department or program chairs, etc., in terms of how to use them. It is also the Chief financial officer's responsibility to actually prepare an institution's annual or biennial budget, in consultation with the president, chief student affairs and academic officers, and others, with upward input from division deans; chairs, and lower administrators (Whalen, 1991; Robinson, Spring 1988).