By Ashley Anderson | Asst. News Editor
There are major conversations taking place regarding the current way the budget is allocated for each college within Riverside Community College District.
The Budget Allocation Model or BAM is being discussed by the budget revision task force made up of the three college Presidents and their leadership groups, Chancellor Gregory Gray, and chaired by Vice Chancellor of Finance Aaron Brown.
“There is a process to revise the budget allocation model…there is a model used by the entire district,” said President of Riverside City College Cynthia Azari.
“There is a long to do list of things we need to look at and so some of the things we’ll look at is clearly defining the roles of the district and the college,” said President Azari.
“We don’t have our own budget and so that’s really what we’re trying to do is for the college to be given a budget and it’s our job to stay within that budget.”
How a college or district receives its revenue from the State of California is by the amount of full time equivalent students (FTES).
The number of students that attend the college equates to a budget given to Riverside district which is currently being allocated by the district.
An example, “the district budget used to fund the part time faculty … if we are given the budget for part time faculty then we will know how many classes to offer,” said President Azari.
This budget discussion has been brought up three years after becoming RCCD with three colleges and before Proposition 30 funds take effect. When asked why now for a discussion over the current budget model President Azari stated, “I have been here two years and I have been asking for it since I first came here, I was use to that at my previous college I was use to having our own budget.”
“Each college has their own budget, I just want to make that clear,” said Brown.
“We are just talking over concepts… establishing principles for how we want a budget allocation model to be,” said Aaron Brown, Vice Chancellor of Finance. “We are determining the methodology for allocation.”
“We have transitioned to a three college environment the previous budget allocation model was prior to the time we became three accredited colleges,” stated Brown.
“From my position I look at what are we doing from an overall basis,” said Vice Chancellor Brown.
“The main thing we need to do is we need to provide services to students and what does it take to provide services to students and so that is why we are going through these exercises.”
For more information on the consolidation of community college districts, visit Viewpoints Online for a supplemental article from California Watch, a part of the Center for Investigative Reporting.