ABSTRACT
In some institutions budgeting for all of academic affairs is highly centralized. Under these circumstances deans may have little actual control over most of the money being spent in their college. The obvious risk of allocating money from budgetary play for long-term commitments is that it is possible that during a particular year the amount of play in the budget could drop dramatically and one might not have enough funds to cover all of the unbudgeted long-term commitments that have been made. Decentralized budgeting and spending allows deans to be independently supportive of their faculty and programs as needed. Indeed, committing funds out of budgetary play for long-term annual expenditures can become risky. New programs are approved with a pro forma, which is a financial projection for the new program if approved. Hence, a pro forma may include requests for new faculty lines, as well as other related expenses.
