Review Committee Minutes - February 6, 2019

Plenary Session: 10:30 am-11:30 pm, Room A-310
Personnel and Budget: 11:30 am -12:30 pm, Room A-201

Present: D. Cintrón, M. Driscoll, G. Gebert, K. Ihrer, D. Jeruzalmi, E. Koch, F. Lam, T. Liss, J. Mercado, D.D. Mozeleski, V.P. Nair, S. Rings, T. Scala, R. Stark, C. Stewart, M. Strzeszewski, W. Thornton
Guests:  E. Medina
Excused: G. Barabino, D. Mozeleski, K. Witherspoon

  1. Approval of December 5, 2018 Minutes

    The meeting commenced at 10:32 am. The minutes of the December 5, 2018 meeting were approved as submitted.

  2. Announcements

    CUNY School of Medicine

    Dean Trevisan resigned effective February 1, 2019 due to a disagreement with CUNY Central over the level of budget authority of the Medical School Dean. An announcement of an Interim Dean is expected early next week and a search for a permanent Dean will commence soon. While CUNY has affirmed its commitment to the Medical School, Dean Trevisan's resignation has highlighted the critical need for CUNY to address CCNY's ongoing budget concerns. Provost Liss has pressed the Interim Chancellor for a meeting next week to finalize the College's FY19 budget, which is needed in order to complete the most important part of the Monitoring Report due to Middle States at the end of the month.

    Government Shutdown Impact Update

    The Provost's email announcement of Government Shutdown Procedures (1/14/2019) with respect to research elicited considerable blowback from both CCNY faculty and the RF leadership. However, although there were delays during the shutdown, 9th ledger expense requests continued to be approved. While the RF has said it is continuing to restrict approval for spending requests in light of a possible second shutdown, no requests have yet been denied. No out-going grants were delayed during the shutdown period.

    Onboarding of RF Personnel

    A communication will go out reminding the campus of onboarding procedures for RF faculty and staff. These have not been observed consistently, leading to some delays in payment to RF personnel.

    College Research Council

    At its next meeting, on February 11, the CRC will discuss setting a standard for grants that are not subject to the standard negotiated 57%. This has been done on an ad hoc basis in the past and a logic and standard rate table are needed. Also to be discussed is the possible assessment of administrative costs to grants without IDC.  These costs are currently absorbed by the College. Professor Jeruzalmi cautioned that such a proposed charge-back might disproportionately affect junior faculty.

    Science Dean Search

    A search committee for a permanent Science Dean is being formed. Dean Barabino will chair the search committee.

  3. CCNY Budget/Middle States

    Monitoring Report

    CUNY has designated three people to work with CCNY on the Monitoring Report for Middle States: Robert Maruca, Associate University Provost for Planning; Karen Kapp, Director of Administration and Grants; and Catherine Abata, University Executive Budget Director. So far there has been considerable disagreement between CCNY leadership and CUNY about the representation of budget questions in the report. Provost Liss expects that the anticipated face-to-face meeting will be helpful.

    Budget

    Felix Lam explained CUNY's FY2019 Mid-Year Financial Report, which contains a very different year-end projection for CCNY from CCNY's projection. Whereas the last FY19 budget plan that CCNY submitted to CUNY projected a year-end deficit of $890,000, CUNY's Mid-Year Report projects that CCNY will end the year with a surplus of over $6M.  Premises in CUNY's calculation that account for this discrepancy include:

    • A higher projection of College tuition revenue collection
    • An addition of $1M to base budget added by CUNY instead of the $2M requested (to match last year's amount)
    • A $2M dollar error in projected tuition by the Medical School, which CCNY has already addressed
    • Projected OTPS spending at the same level as last year. Last year's expenses were artificially low due to processing delays of purchase orders. Professor Stark asked how processing delays in purchasing would be avoided this year. Felix Lam said the critical personnel gaps have been filled so such delays should not be repeated.
    • Consideration of the Medical School's CUTRA funding in excess of the CUTRA level required by the LCME as available to CCNY, though Matthew Sapienza, Senior Vice Chancellor and Chief Financial Officer, has stated CUNY's commitment to making the Medical School's CUTRA in its entirety accessible to the Dean if needed.

    These discrepancies will be addressed at the meeting with CUNY next week, with the question of OTPS being especially critical.  In order to meet CUNY's budget projection for FY19 OTPS spending, CCNY would be unable to spend any more OTPS for the rest of the fiscal year, which is untenable for the operation of the College.

    Felix Lam will give also give a budget presentation at the next Faculty Senate meeting.

    Dean Driscoll asked whether a decision had been made regarding whether to proceed with the divisional commencement ceremonies, which in some cases may require supplemental funding from the central administration. The Provost said that the divisional ceremonies will take place and funding needs addressed as needed.

  4. Summer Session

    The College is close to a new budget model for summer session expenses that will allow Deans to offer summer session classes without spending their FY20 adjunct budgets. The Provost encouraged Deans to offer as expansive a summer session as possible.

The Plenary part of the meeting adjourned at 11:35 am and the Personnel and Budget Meeting commenced.

Last Updated: 03/06/2019 16:25