A college survives off a skinny budget

By Robert Shikina

Funding issues face the College of Social Sciences at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa. If the college filled the 15 vacant faculty positions today, over 98 percent of the budget would be spent on faculty salaries. Currently, the college's 14 internal departments operate off the savings of the 15 vacant faculty positions, which amounted to roughly $1.2 million in 2004.

As of August 2005, CSS counted over 2,500 students, 149 faculty members and a budget of $15 million.

The College of Social Sciences uses a college budget policy as the guiding principle for allocating funds equally among the 14 internal departments. Numerous factors drive the basic funding allocation to each department, such as student hours and the number of majors, students and classes.

According to CSS Administrator Annette Chang, there are two budgets within CSS, the faculty salary budget and the operational budget. Ms. Chang manages the faculty salary budget and pays the faculty first. Departments do not control the faculty salary budget, nor can a department can hire additional faculty without the CSS and UHM chancellor's office approvals.

The operational budget covers items such as equipment, phones, supplies, student advising and lecturers. This budget is largely generated from the savings of vacant faculty positions. Each department decides how to spend its operational budget.

Although the operational budget is allocated by Ms. Chang, a smaller percentage of the department's operational budget may come from sources within, such as research grants, buy-outs (a grant pays for the cost of a faculty member's time spent on research instead of teaching), or salary savings (a percentage of a faculty member who resigned or temporarily on absence may be refunded to the department).

The communications department's total operating expense for 2004 was $125,717. Of that amount, $22,611 was allotted by CSS for basic operations, $9,825 for student help and $9,804 for phones. A larger portion of the budget, $46,470, is a smaller reimbursement from three vacancies on the communications teaching staff. After one year, the reimbursement from the salary savings for the department ends, and the salary savings are then redistributed to other departments.

In comparison to other departments within CSS, funding for the communication department seems average. The budget for communications, with 418 students including 40 graduate students, was $125,717. Sociology, with 317 students including 72 grad students, was $147,125. The additional funding covers the added expense of teaching graduate students, as well as more than $20,000 in buyouts. By comparison, communications received nothing from grants and buyouts.

Vacancies around the CSS are equally shared. Psychology has the highest faculty vacancies; at least 3 this year. Seven departments have no vacancies, while nine departments have three or less vacancies.

As of June 30, 2005, UHM lost 162.5 faculty positions. The legislature mandated that positions vacant on June 30, 2004 were to be eliminated. Out of the 162.5 positions eliminated at UHM, social sciences lost five.