July 2021 Finance Town Hall

Adam Day, Associate Vice President and Associate Treasurer hosted the July 2021 Finance Town Hall, attended by more than 300 people from across the university. From his on-campus office, he expressed his eagerness to “see everyone in person” soon and set the stage for presentations.
 

Responsibility Center Management (RCM): Five-Year Review

Brian Ballentine, Senior Vice President for Strategy, started his presentation by giving background on the five-year review of the Responsibility Center Management (RCM) budget model. The review committee recommended efforts to ensure that the RCM budget model “aligns with the university priorities, support interdisciplinary activities and collaboration, and to take steps to promote transparency and clarity,” Brian said.

Feedback during the review indicated that across the campuses, schools, and departments, the design of the current budget model is perceived to hinder interdisciplinary efforts and collaboration across budget lines, making transparency and collaboration difficult. The review and prioritization of the review committee’s recommendations begins immediately and will continue through fiscal year 2022. Read the RCM at Rutgers: Five-Year Review Report for details and more information.
 

FY 2022 Budget: A Budget that Reflects Our Priorities

David Moore, Associate Vice President and Chief Budget Officer reported that this fiscal year, budget spending consists of $4.8 billion on the things that are most important to us. “77.9% is spent on our core missions of student instruction, research, public service and patient care, 14.5% is spent on administration, operations and maintenance, 4.8% is spent on auxiliary enterprise, and 2.8% is spent on athletics,” David stated.

The Budget Office’s aim is to keep Rutgers among the most affordable major public research universities in our peer groups, he added. Rutgers’ annual budget reflects the values of the university in fulfilling its core priorities of outstanding teaching, research, service, and clinical care while providing the best academic experience for students.

Lease Administration and Scarlet Journey

John Fahey, Associate Vice President and Project Management Office Executive, shared updates on the new Lease Administration Program  This new system establishes a single approach to administration and financial accounting and reporting for real estate and equipment leases as well as providing the necessary platform for compliance reporting for the new GASB87 standard. This includes extensive qualitative and quantitative disclosures from the University Controller Office (UCO), in collaboration with University Procurement Services and Institutional Planning and Operations (IP&O) – Real Estate.

He also shared the latest updates on Scarlet Journey, the Enterprise CRM Initiative that has delivered five out of six major releases. The final major release of Phase 1 will be on August 2 and August 23, respectively, introducing a new Rutgers application portal, reading/decision experience, and case management.