Online Edition | Washington State University | Pullman, Washington | Friday, August 24, 2001

Reallocation Part II
Who gets what, how will it be used

Budgeting and planning priorities drive most colleges and departments at WSU. In July, following the 2001 legislative marathon, WSU Today published an extensive article regarding how each college and unit is handling the reallocation process and new 2001-02 budget. In that article, we provided interviews with 19 deans and administrators. In an effort to contain the article’s size, we asked the Provost’s Office to speak for all areas that it manages, and the College of Agriculture and Home Economics to speak for areas under its management. Unfortunately, that didn’t cover some areas as specifically as necessary. So, this article will address four other additional units.

In short, we asked top administrators to describe any major reallocations they made, and/or their top three or four priorities for the 2001-02 academic year. Here’s the response.

EXTENDED UNIVERSITY SERVICES

“Extended University Services is responsible for leading the academic outreach initiatives for the university,” said dean Muriel Oaks. “Our budget focus for the biennium will help us meet this responsibility, providing the best possible support for distance-degree programs already underway and resources to help develop new initiatives.

 “Although our permanent funding will actually be lower than the previous biennium, we will use position reallocations to rededicate resources previously assigned to support video-based courses into Internet-based course development and support. We will also use temporary allocations to support top priorities for the current year, which are to:

1. Enhance distance-degree program quality by upgrading courses, broadening course availability and utilizing technologies that are pedagogically sound. Courses will include continuous learning assessment and be scalable to large audiences.

2. Expand program enrollments through enhanced Web marketing, interinstitutional partnerships and initiation of international marketing efforts.

3. Expand current programs and support the development of new ones based on market analysis and state educational needs.

 “On the noncredit side, Conferences and Professional Programs is moving rapidly into the development and delivery of online certificate programs using a cost-recovery model,” Oaks added. “Such programs are much in demand for various corporate and professional audiences and are proving to be a natural integration with WSU’s distance-degree programs, as many of these new certificate programs have both credit and noncredit options.”

GRADUATE SCHOOL

“Graduate education lies at the academic core of a research university. Quality graduate degree programs are not only vital to the research and teaching mission of the university but also to the recruitment and retention of outstanding faculty,” said dean Karen P. DePauw. “For FY 2002, the highest priority for the Graduate School and the focus of our budget request was the recruitment of outstanding graduate students. To achieve this, we utilized the reallocation process to align with the following priorities:

1. Development of Second Century Graduate Fellowships for incoming graduate students. The fellowships are designed to provide financial support for outstanding doctoral students across the university. The Second Century Fellowship will help make our recruitment packages more competitive.

2. Summer research support. We have redesigned the Summer RA program to focus on recruitment of high-quality graduate students. Under this new program, the Graduate School will provide summer funding to incoming doctoral students for their first summer as part of the recruitment package.

 “The Graduate School is committed to increasing stipends and funding for quality graduate programs,” DePauw added. “We are continuing our efforts to secure fellowship support through development and fund-raising initiatives under the auspices of ‘A Century of Graduate Education.’

 “In September, the Graduate School will begin the celebration of 100 years of graduate education at Washington State University. Throughout the year, we will highlight our first century of offering graduate degrees with a series of events that will usher in our second century of graduate education. In as much as graduate education in the 21st century will become increasingly important, it is the goal of the Graduate School to position us for a new century by increasing the visibility and viability of graduate education at WSU.”

OFFICE OF RESEARCH

“The most important part of the reallocation process in the Office of Research has been to direct resources to those research support units whose budgets have been static during a period of rapidly escalating needs regarding federal compliance,” said vice provost George Hedge.

“To regain the national accreditation of our animal-care and -use program, we have provided new funds to expand our veterinary care, enhance our occupational safety and health program, and establish an animal-tracking system. New resources have also been allocated to the operational support of the Office of Grant and Research Development to assure success in the recruitment of a permanent director for this crucial support unit.

“After many years of level budgets, we have now begun to address the problem of paying for the dramatically increasing costs for radioactive waste disposal,” Hedge added. “Although still based on temporary funds, we are fortunate that the faculty seed-grant program will continue through the coming biennium.

“Since the operational budgets of all reporting units have been underfunded, some funds now have been added to their budgets to help these units recover from previous shortfalls. We are very pleased with the level of support we have received for our research infrastructure this biennium, and the Office of Research has made its own contribution by reducing equipment matching funds, relinquishing travel funds and excluding some printing costs. This combination of reallocated and new resources will allow the Office of Research to enhance its support of faculty research and scholarship throughout the university.”

COOPERATIVE EXTENSION

“Recently, the charge of WSU Cooperative Extension has broadened to include an expanded role in the outreach function of the entire university,” said Sally E. Horton, associate dean and associate director. “In February, President (V. Lane) Rawlins appointed Mike Tate dean and director of extension, reporting to the provost.

“With this broader mission and its strong community relationships statewide, extension will be the ‘front door to the university’ not only for educational programs, but also for recruiting students and increasing access to distance-degree programs. Some refocusing of existing positions has already begun this process of adding a focus on recruitment, and it will continue to be strengthened by the newly reallocated funds.

 “Other Cooperative Extension priorities receiving funds in the budget process include the Center to Bridge the Digital Divide,” Horton added. “Most of the center’s work is supported by grants and gifts, but it will now have a small amount of core funding from the state as it pursues its goal of providing research and education to underserved communities and helping them get access to digital, high-speed technology. Some funding was also provided for a new initiative that will use interinstitutional visits and faculty exchanges with minority-serving colleges to enhance the diversity of the extension workforce. It will also improve outreach to culturally diverse audiences through adaptation of educational materials and intensive language training for some faculty.”