More than 100 CAOs attended the two budget workshops, which were designed to help participants gain a greater understanding of the budget process as well as financial statements and reports. Topics included the essential elements and timeline for the budget process, key financial terms and indicators of fiscal health, difficulties CAOs and CFOs encounter in preparing the budget, and providing effective oversight of the budget process. Workshop participants also learned more about the annual balance sheet and the operating budget of the institution.
     Because fiscal issues are playing a larger role in the work of the CAO, a pre-conference workshop for a limited number of teams of chief financial officers and chief academic officers assisted each officer in exploring significant issues for independent institutions, understanding the key issues and perspectives of the other role, examining the problem-solving approaches each uses, and learning about effective means of working together to strengthen the institution. They used case studies to examine issues such as planning for an unexpected major expense in a time of budget constraints, becoming a turnaround institution, forecasting revenues and the tuition discount rate, and budgeting in an enrollment constraint mode as well as in a growth mode.
     According to one CFO, participating in the workshop helped him see the “value of a close working relationship with the chief academic officer.” Another said it was good to “learn from one another about actual experiences and systems for resolving problems.” Several indicated that they learned a lot from informal conversations over lunch about new strategic plans on several campuses, and one participant said, “We need to talk about what small colleges are doing to survive for the next 20 years, as we did in this workshop.”

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Last updated: December 2003
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