ISU President Gregory Geoffroy approved implementation of a new formula for managing the university’s finances Wednesday. It could be in place by July 2008.

The long-debated resource management model will disperse existing funding – not create more – among Iowa State’s seven colleges based on credit hours, enrollment totals and tuition revenue. Other “resource responsibility centers” at the university, such as administrative offices, will also be affected by the new model.

The university will continue working under the current budget model during fiscal year 2007-08 while developing a “parallel” budget using the new model to help refine the process. If no significant problems are encountered, the new model will take over for the 2008-09 fiscal year.

Throughout the development process that began two years ago, concerns have arisen from some in the campus community that tying enrollment totals to funding could lead to eroding academic standards. Geoffroy and budget model committee members said worries have waned, though, because of extensive input from faculty and the openness surrounding the development of the model.

“I think the process overall has been especially good with a lot of opportunity for people to have feedback and be involved,” Geoffroy said.

Douglas Epperson, chairman of the budget model committee and associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, agreed that initial concerns have declined.

“There’s some possibility in the system that less positive ways to recruit and retain students could be used, but those concerns have substantially decreased over time,” he said.

Colleges won’t be competing against each other to recruit and retain students under the new model, said Todd Holcomb, associate vice president of student affairs. With Faculty Senate supervision, curricula and standards won’t be lowered to allow more students in to boost enrollment. The new model will instead promote more collaboration between university entities, he said.

“If you’re able to work collaboratively together, that can create unique and dynamic programs,” Holcomb said. “That will attract and retain students.”

Geoffroy said interdisciplinary programs would need especially close monitoring to ensure they are properly supported by the model when it is implemented.

“We need to make sure that the resources flow in a way that enhances interdisciplinary activities,” he said.

Under the traditional budgeting system, tuition revenues go into a general fund that is distributed across the university. The new model features increased transparency faculty and administrators say will help colleges understand what they need to do to increase funding.

Michael Whiteford, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, said the change should be “attractive to everybody.”

“You aren’t simply handed a stack of dollars, but you get dollars because you’re doing things such as bringing in external funding,” he said.

One detail yet to be resolved is the cost of teaching. Colleges whose cost of instruction is higher due to equipment or other costs may be at a disadvantage under the new model. Dean of Engineering Mark Kushner said the college could lose funding for adding some students.

“If you have a laboratory in which you can only have 25 students at a time, and in that laboratory you have a million dollars worth of equipment, that cost of teaching is very high,” he said. “At present, how to compensate and account for the cost of education is not quite clear. That is something the implementation committee needs to deal with.”

Executive Vice President and Provost Elizabeth Hoffman has been charged by Geoffroy with overseeing the implementation of the model. Whiteford said if the transition is handled properly, students shouldn’t have their educational experience altered.

“It should be seamless,” Whiteford said. “If we do this the right way they will not notice that we shifted from one type of bookkeeping to another type of bookkeeping.”