George Herring
This is the first in a series of articles I will present from time to time that describes our college finances. As a starting point, this article will provide the college with an overview of our primary funding method - the college allocation. As you will learn, the college allocation was developed in the late 1970s out of the need to find a funding method for the seven colleges that was equitable, objective and consistent, as well as one that removed as much of the “politics” from the budgeting process as possible.
The college allocation was co-authored by the district's first two vice chancellors of business affairs - Walter Pike and Ted B. Hughes. It was my pleasure to have had the opportunity to work with Mr. Hughes on the allocation for six of the 10 years I served as district director of business services at the District Service Center. My two primary responsibilities at that time were to produce the college allocation and prepare the district's budget for presentation to the board of trustees.
The college allocation is a complex document. Its assembly requires a tremendous amount of time and cooperation between the DSC and the colleges. The time I spent working with Hughes provided me with the background and understanding of how important this process is to the district. The college allocation, while not perfect, has proven itself as an effective method for allocating funds to the colleges over its 27-year history. With that said, Hughes constantly reminded me that the college allocation itself does not generate one penny of revenue for the district - our revenues come from the delivery of our primary purpose - educating students.
The document I am presenting was prepared a number of years ago by Kathryn Tucker and is known as the ‘Allocation Narrative.’ This document was written in response to the many requests received by the DSC from other multicampus community colleges that were looking for an effective method to allocate funds. In addition to the Allocation Narrative, I am presenting two exhibits which I hope will help bring the components of the college allocation to life though the presentation of the dollars and contact hours that drive the document.
Exhibit #1 is a copy of Brookhaven College's original 2008 college allocation from which this year's budget is built. Exhibit #1 illustrates the actual dollar amounts associated with key elements and components as described in the allocation narrative.
Exhibit #2 is a bar chart that plots a comparison of Brookhaven College's calendar contact hours and original allocations for the past nine years. Exhibit #2 graphically illustrates how our allocation has increased as our contact hour enrollment has increased.
