UConn Advances Budget Overhaul, Plans More Town Halls

UConn is making substantive progress toward its work to transform its budgeting processes, engaging with hundreds of faculty and staff across the institution in recent months to develop roadmaps for the new incentive-based model.

UConn started the process last year, working to replace its current incremental budgeting process with an approach that is more transparent and intuitive and supports its commitment to student success. It is closely aligned with the goals outlined in the UConn Strategic Plan and its operational priorities.

Specifically, the new model will align UConn's budget allocations more directly to specific instructional and research-based metrics, ensure that centrally managed costs are fairly distributed, and incentivize units to allocate resources in alignment with institutional priorities.

Since early November, working groups have been meeting weekly to develop roadmaps for five key components of UConn's new model:

• Tuition, fees, and state appropriations

• Academic unit and central services costs

• Auxiliary units

• Strategic initiatives

• Research and scholarly activities

The working groups convened with the steering committee in early February for a collaborative BTI Working Group Summit, where they had the opportunity to ask questions, share insights, and deepen understanding of how the interconnected components will form a cohesive new budget model.

"The summit was truly a success, as it showcased the power of our diverse group coming together to tackle challenging issues and develop well-informed recommendations," says Reka Wrynn, UConn's interim vice president for finance.

To date, nearly 800 faculty and staff have participated in listening sessions, small group meetings, and one-on-one discussions since the effort launched last summer.

The efforts are guided by a steering committee, ensuring that diverse perspectives will inform the development of the new budget model.

"The process has gone well so far, especially in terms of communicating with representative stakeholders in working groups, ensuring that members of the community have had input and buy into the general wisdom of this type of model," says Robert Day, UConn Senate Executive Committee chair and a steering committee member, who was among the participants in the Feb. 6 summit.

That being said, he adds, the Senate, UConn Board of Trustees, leadership in schools and colleges, members of UConn's central administration, and state government leaders still need to co-govern and wrestle with the difficult decisions of fiscal responsibility across many competing objectives.

"I'm optimistic that the new budget model will provide greater clarity in these conversations, but there is still a lot of work to be done in harmonizing and tuning the model during the shadow year," Day says.

Next, meetings will be scheduled with leaders of UConn's academic, auxiliary, and several central cost units in early spring, with additional Town Halls set in April for all members of the UConn community to learn about the progress and ask questions.

The current budgeting approach will remain in place for fiscal year 2027, which runs from July 1 of this year through June 30, 2027.

However, the new prototype model will operate concurrently as what is known as a "shadow year." The dual-track approach will enable side-by-side comparisons between the existing and proposed models, allowing for refinement and necessary adjustments before full implementation in FY28.

The budget transformation initiative honors shared governance and will be built on the feedback received from all corners of UConn's operations. Once established, the model will continue to evolve, with continual updates to adapt to changing circumstances.

As the model takes shape, the University community is also being invited to help name it. Organizers have narrowed it down to a few options, and invite faculty and staff to visit the Budget Transformation Initiative website to cast their vote.