ABSTRACT
Professional student affairs administrators believe that their work is important and central to institutional mission and priorities; therefore, the institution should adequately fund their programs, interests, and activities. Although these professionals invest themselves in being informed about theory and contexts, which impact on their program development, they do not always show the same commitment to being informed about the mechanisms of finance that enable or inhibit their program implementation. Many practitioners view oversight of the constantly changing mix of revenue, politics of allocation, and accountability and control measures designed to insure financial integrity as being the responsibility of the student affairs budget control officer or even the departmental administrative assistant. The budget is after all “only numbers” and pretty dry and dull stuff when compared to fostering human development, promoting community, or responding to individual urgencies. The budget is perceived as an “out of sight, out of mind” abstraction that only requires focused attention once a year during budget preparation season. It is not until requests for increased allocations are denied, accounts are overspent and frozen, or audits underway that many in student affairs pay heed to the budget.
