2024 Carryforward Funds

Forum Post

This concern has been raised on behalf of the ANR-Extension unit and the Puyallup Research and Extension Center faculty, who helped craft the language below:

A recent memo from WSU’s Executive Vice President of Finance and Administration & CFO states that operating/salary accruals funds and other revenues generated by individual programs will only be allowed to carry into the next fiscal year with mandatory justification. Instead, funds that are not adequately justified could be returned to some central budget to compensate for tuition shortfalls. Faculty and program staff, especially in Extension, are concerned that the dollars they use to keep their programs afloat will likely be taken away for no fault of their own. Salary accruals provide tremendous peace of mind for those on partial grant-funded appointments.

The memo was directed at colleges and academic units. Now, individual faculty and staff have been required to prepare justifications for the use of dollars, with the threat of those dollars being taken away if justifications are not ready by Dec 14th, 2023. One of the areas targeted as being subject to a “claw back” is royalty money generated by faculty inventors. This is an unprecedented and unauthorized contradiction to the royalty income distribution rules specified in the Faculty Manual. These rules stipulate that royalties should be directed back to inventor programs for further research, not for shortfalls generated centrally. A similar claw back was proposed at Dalhousie, but faculty, who are unionized, were able to prevent its implementation. We should not be collectively punished for loss of tuition revenue. Our stakeholders depend on us just as much as we rely on these dollars to keep programming going.

~Ani Jayakaran, Faculty Senator
ANR Program Unit, WSU Extension

Response

We reached out to Leslie Brunelli, the EVP of Finance and Administration, and received the linked FY2024 Carryforward Usage Memo in addition to the response copied with permission below:

The intent of the policy is not to centrally manage individual program budgets, such as faculty startup accounts or programs holding royalty funds. We are looking at fund level totals at the college/area level. If cumulative expenses across programs exceeds current year budget in a fund, then I’m asking college leadership to submit a request to Provost Chilton and myself to request the use of funds. This should include a justification for the use of funds and an estimate of the total amount of carry forward to be expensed this fiscal year. Requests will help us better plan for FY25, which may include another slight decline in overall student enrollment, and to maintain healthy reserve balances.   These dollars are the institution’s working capital and have to be carefully managed to consider liquidity across the fiscal year and impact on overall financial health of the University.  Because these funds are not recurring, I am focused on the use that doesn’t create structural budget deficits.

With regards to the December 14^th due date noted: this was not a deadline set in the memo or by further communication from my office. I expect requests to be submitted once college leadership and their fiscal teams determine that carry forward fund balances need to be utilized this fiscal year.  I received a flood of requests as the memo went out, but expect to see those across the next months.

For some context – you likely have seen the news from the University of Arizona where a cash shortfall has been discovered. Please let me know if there is further clarification that I can provide on the carry forward use policy. Happy to continue the conversation. Thanks ~Leslie Brunelli, Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration

It appears that this policy is directed only at the level of colleges and other areas. If a faculty member’s unit addresses this issue by altering policies for the handling of individual faculty accounts, we would like to be made aware of this and are also happy to pursue additional questions. ~ Faculty Senate Executive Officers

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