CBS Budget Idea Generator

Allow and encourage unpaid time off. Make the paperwork and process easy. This would be great for people who would like to take an extended trip, or who want to enjoy the summer.

Some people might like to voluntarily cut their hours (and pay) due to personal reasons (daycare, commuting time, hobbies). CBS and the employee could set up a 6-month renewable contract with the reduced hours. If the reduced hours are working for both CBS and the employee, it could be renewed.

My suggestion is to allow those who can do their work effectively remotely for one or two days a week to do so. The savings to the college would come in the form of reduced power usage (lights, computers, heaters, fans, etc) and has the additional effect of potentially reducing the amount employees drive, a worthy "green" goal in itself.

A few suggestions to consider as a way for us all to contribute to a solution to the impending budget restrictions:
1. Ask for volunteers to take a 2 week or 1 month furlough, with the guarantee by the U that their health care and other benefits would continue during that month. That way the person's salary would be saved but the person would not be taking a pay cut that would affect future wages or benefits.
2. Decrease contributions to retirement accounts for some period of time (I thought of this as I noticed I lost more than I contributed in 2008. Of course, if contributions were decreased, I would have lost even more... and I wouldn't be accumulating stock at the lower price... but the pain wouldn't be so immediate.)
3. Across the board salary decreases at same percentages as we have gotten increases? Spreads the pain... but it is concerning to decrease salaries at the lower end of the pay scale.
4. Transition as many as possible or willing from full year to 10 or 9 month appointments.
5. A cafeteria approach: (bean counters might really love the extra work this would give them!) Ask each employee to come up with some percentage of their salary by some combination of the ideas above. This way, everyone contributes to the solution in the way that is least painful to them.

Consider creating new revenue-generating certificate programs for non-traditional students.

Food/Beverage Expenses

It may be University policy to allow per diem; however it is abused. If a person only spends $35 on food for a day, they should not be allowed to request per diem of $64. It's dishonest.

Fewer free lunches, meetings, classes, etc.

Limit $$$ spent per person and amount of attendees to dinners with visiting scholars.

1. I also recommend allowing people to work remotely when possible, and/or offering the option of switching to a 10-month appointment temporarily (assuming that employees would get to keep their benefits during their 2 months off).

2. Publish the Bio magazine only in electronic format, instead of sending out hard copies.

when interviewing students who have applied to more than one UMN grad program, we should coordinate their visits to save on airfare and hotel costs.

A few comments: a) perhaps a furlough for people higher in CBS admin to save funding for those in the lower ranks; b) absolutely encourage more people to work from home...we can send emails from anywhere and write as effectively out of the office; and c) cut seminar programs because it appears that we are seminar rich at the U; we spend many hours and much money hosting seminar speakers.

Idea for more efficient use of resources that we have - limit the requirement for justification of grant expenditures to dollar levels that could actually do harm if wrongly accounted.

It often takes the same amount of work for a PI and a departmental accountant to justify a $10 expenditure as for a $10,000 expenditure. Our time is one of the biggest costs to the U, but we waste it on nickels and dimes, literally.

Cut unnecessary course prerequisites and major requirements. The net effect would be fewer course sections, because of reduced demand, which means fewer teaching assignments. Besides, I think there are many professors who would like to not teach in exchange for a pay cut. And we should give students more freedom in their course selection anyway. I will single out in particular BioC4025 in my department, which could handle--to put it lightly--fewer sections with little ill effect.

It is very important for all staff to remember to save money whereever possible. This means that the CBS leadership and middle management needs to set the example for frugal spending habits - cut out the staff lunches, unnecessary expenses, and (for those in an Approver role) make it a point to scrutinize all purchasing cards purchases for inappropriate spending.