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MCC Daily Tribune Archive

President's Wednesday Message


If you spend much time with me, you're likely to hear the phrase "big
table." Discussions and decisions that impact the college as a whole
need to happen around a big table so that all stakeholders are
represented and varied and sometimes divergent perspectives can be
heard. And, few discussions and decisions are more central to an
organization than those involving budgets and resource allocation.

So, beginning this budget cycle, MCC will implement a new "big
table": the Budget Resource Committee (BRC). The BRC will include
representation from all divisions and shared governance bodies (e.g.,
unions, senates). Membership within the divisions will come from
faculty, staff, and students nominated by each vice president. The
BRC will help identify college-wide priorities for consideration
during the budgeting process--and then communicate these priorities to
president's staff. While some college expenditures are predetermined
(like salaries), some are discretionary and should be driven by a
collective sense that this is where MCC should invest its resources.

It merits restating that the goal of the BRC is not to allocate
specific dollar amounts but to listen across all divisions for common
goals that could drive budgeting. In other words, the BRC will help
connect the budgeting process to the planning process so that
resources follow and support plans that move the college--again, as a
whole--forward.

A quick review of news on the state's budget suggests that the funds
available to all colleges will be tighter in the coming year (and
possibly years), so it is especially important to make our budget
table bigger and our discussions fuller. For more information on the
new process, contact Darrell Jachim-Moore, Assistant VP for
Administrative Services, who will chair the BRC.

Next week…it may be getting grey outside, but it's still green
at MCC.

Anne M. Kress
President
11/04/2009