ABSTRACT
Provosts should know enough about the existing budgets that they should not have to hesitate in making their personnel decisions once they have the deans' personnel requests. At some institutions, especially smaller private institutions, personnel requests are approved by a board of trustees. Provosts and higher administrators are nervous about conducting the personnel request process early because of possible unexpected budget problems. If new personnel money is expected to be coming into academic affairs then that is another matter. Positions beyond existing budgetary parameters would most likely have been worked out in advance of the deans' presentations. Exceptions arise when there are retirements whereby the vacated positions have nearly twice the salary funding that it would cost for a single replacement. From a provost's perspective, there is no assumption of an automatic replacement for a vacated position, and there is not necessarily such an assumption from a dean's perspective either.
