Strategic Budgeting, Initiative Overview and Timeline

The Strategic Budgeting Initiative was initiated by Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Tim Boosinger and Executive Vice President Don Large, working with a broadly representative Steering Committee and supported by external consultants from Huron Consulting Group. The Steering Committee was convened in early 2013. During an exploratory phase of the initiative, the Steering Committee worked to understand how funds flow in Auburn’s incremental budget model, build campus understanding of budget models in higher education, and evaluate incentives that might be implemented to improve alignment between financial investments and strategic priorities. Throughout the remainder of 2013, the Steering Committee worked closely with Huron Consulting Group to develop the “Auburn Model”, a responsibility-centered management focused model. The details of the “Auburn Model” can be found in the Auburn Model section.

During 2014 and 2015, Provost Boosinger and others engaged stakeholders in understanding the “Auburn Model”. Venues such as open forums, University Senate and committee meetings, unit-specific retreats, and informational Budget Breakfasts were offered to broaden understanding of the transition from a historic, incremental model to a more robust all-funds model. During this time, unit-specific budget managers were identified and received in-depth training on the proposed model. The fiscal year beginning October 1, 2015 marked one step closer to full-implementation by shadowing the proposed “Auburn Model” alongside the historic incremental budget.

Beginning with the October 1, 2016 fiscal year, Auburn’s main campus fully adopted the “Auburn Model”. In addition to strengthening the campus understanding of the model and its incentives, the role of shared governance has increased since 2016 as well as our investment in budging and long-term planning tools. While no resource allocation model is perfect, the Steering Committee envisioned periodic reviews of the budget model in order to maintain alignment of our financial resources with Auburn’s mission and strategic priorities. The fiscal year October 2020-September 2021 will mark the first periodic review of the “Auburn Model” with any changes implemented in October 2021.