In my brief three months at Angelo State University, I have had little time to meet with all the areas in the Finance and Administration department. I am doing my best to get out and visit each area and meet all the employees and am grateful to those who have, and continue, to reach out and let me know the wonderful work that is taking place in their areas of responsibility.

This is a tumultuous time with the uncertainty of the budget and economic turmoil throughout the country and world. It’s no wonder that many people are concerned about their future and position stability.

To date, the severity of the budget situation is still unknown but things have not changed substantially from the situation communicated to the campus during the budget forums in April. Two key elements are still pending before we will know the full ramifications of the budget: 1) the state appropriation is still being debated between the House and Senate, 2) tuition and fee rates are still pending Board of Regent approval. Once these two factors are determined, information and more specific direction on the budget can be established.

In the meantime, Angelo State University must continue to plan and prepare for the education of its students. The Finance and Administration operation plays a vital role in the success of our student’s education. There is much evidence that documents the impact facilities and grounds have on the recruitment and retention of students. In other areas, the friendly, service oriented personnel that interact with students in any capacity can have a significant impact on a student’s decision to come or leave an institution.

I believe one of the greatest ways the Finance and Administration (F&A) area can make a positive impact on the support of Angelo State University’s mission is to become exceptional in its ability to provide support services to the other departments of the university. While it’s true that many F&A departments play a dual role between support and regulation, experience has shown that excelling in the support role greatly simplifies that of the regulation. Over the next several months, significant focus will be centered on the processes and policies of F&A as we seek to simplify and streamline the workflow and continue to improve processes to be more supportive to the goals and timelines of the university. Please help in this process by being a participant and helping to identify those processes and policies that may need to be modified as we continue to seek for continued improvement on a daily basis.

I look forward to working with you as we continue to build upon the past successes of Angelo State University.

Announcements

Budget Office

The mission of the Budget Office is to support programs offered by the university through an integration of planning and budgeting. This office works with campus academic and administrative units in guiding the annual budgetary process, assessing ongoing budget and planning issues, and establishing and monitoring controls over fund allocations.

Is our budget due yet?

This is the question of the day in the budget office. At this time, you should have all of your information in SPOL and ready to be approved. Hopefully, the Texas Tech University System Board of Regents will approve our tuition fee rates early in June, and pending any final instructions regarding budget requests, first approvers should be ready to submit their budgets. The time frames between approvals will be very tight. The completed budget will be submitted to the System Office around mid July for submission to the August Board meeting. In order for this to happen, the Vice Presidents will need to have approved all budgets by June 30th. Watch for updates!