Faculty members at Friday's Faculty Senate meeting expressed concern with the transparency of the new internal financial model.
The day after youth advocacy group Virginia21 marched to the steps of the State Capitol to encourage legislators to support Gov. Bob McDonnell's $200 million dollar increase in funding to colleges and universities, Faculty Senate members discussed the University's plans to streamline its internal budgeting model.
Law Prof. George Cohen said University faculty members needed to be kept updated with the transition from the old financial model to the new system.
"We are in the dark in this process," Cohen said. "We just want to make sure the values are all in there."
The new model, proposed last semester, aims to align the University's resource allocation more efficiently with its core concerns in education, research, patient care and service, according to a University website detailing the new financial system.
Implementation of the new model is planned for the 2013-14 fiscal year. The model will decentralize budget planning to individual schools, or units, within the University, and allocate funding based on the resource generation capabilities of each unit.
This makes faculty engagement essential for the efficient development of the internal model.
"Engaging deans and their faculty in a more robust, transparent and ongoing dialogue about how to best align our resources with our shared aspirations for excellence in teaching, research, patient care and service is the primary goal of moving to a new financial planning process," Strine said in an email.
Drama Prof. Gweneth West suggested the creation of a finance committee or finance task force to enable faculty members to contribute to the development of the new model.
"The role of faculty in governance has been growing and evolving," Faculty Senate Chair and Commerce Prof. Robert Kemp said. He stressed the importance of uniting faculty members to improve transparency and group communication.
Kemp said there will be a faculty survey, which would create a dialogue between faculty members about the new financial model similar to the Friday discussion between Faculty Senate members.
"The ideas raised yesterday in the Faculty Senate provide evidence that our efforts to engage the community as we develop a new process are working," Strine said.
The Faculty Senate will convene again March 20.
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