The committee that was selected to review the proposed budget model spoke to a full house at the forums in the Memorial Union on Wednesday and Thursday.

At both meetings, a member of the Budget Model Review and Implementation committee gave a brief overview of the new budget model.

Ellen Rasmussen, associate vice president for budget and planning and member of the committee, said the two most important changes made in the new budget model will be “transparency” and “accountability.”

Under the current budget, the majority of the revenue generated by the university is centrally pooled and then divided out to each of the seven colleges based on a percentage.

“We basically gave [the colleges] an allowance,” Rasmussen said.

Douglas Epperson, committee chairman and associate dean of liberal arts and sciences, said one of the problems with this model, which the committee refers to as the “historical incremental model,” is that it goes so far back the university doesn’t even remember what that allowance is based on.

Under the proposed budget model, student tuition dollars will be more closely tied to the college or colleges that student is taking classes from. If the new budget model is adopted as is, 25 percent of an undergraduate’s tuition will go to the college he or she is enrolled in and 75 percent will go to the colleges that student is taking classes from. The committee foresees that this will make the budget more transparent.

“A much brighter light will be shone on the budget,” Epperson said.

The other goal of the proposed budget is accountability. Rasmussen said right now, if a college attracts 200 more students, there’s nothing in the budget that ensures that college will get a larger allowance to educate those students.

One concern raised by a faculty member in attendance was, if colleges are being financially rewarded for the number of students in their college, what would stop them from making class sizes bigger and programs easier to pass?

Epperson said there are factors in place that ensure that the university’s quality will not deteriorate.

“If you don’t have excellent programs, you’re going to have a harder time recruiting students,” Epperson said.

Another issued raised was the varying cost of educating students.

“Most of the students on this campus pay the same tuition, and we know [the cost of their education] greatly differs,” Rasmussen said.

A cursory calculation from a forum attendee revealed that the cost of educating an engineering student was significantly higher than educating a student in liberal arts and sciences.

Both Rasmussen and Epperson stressed that this question was being looked into and that feedback from the university community would be especially helpful on this decision.

Johnny Pickett, associate vice president for business and finance and committee member, made clear that the new budget model will not solve all of the university’s financial problems.

“Many of the problems we have now will continue to be issues under the new budget model,” he said.

Epperson agreed, saying “The [new budget] model doesn’t create any new money.”

Committee members are asking for more feedback from the campus community. They urge anyone with comments or concern to e-mail them at [email protected]

Darin Wohlgemuth, program manager for enrollment services and committee member, said that so far, the committee has been impressed with the university community’s feedback and concern.

“With the exception of today [Thursday’s forum], we’ve been about 10 handouts short,” he said, commenting on the unexpectedly large turnout.