Section 4E: Advocating for Your Department

Advocating for Your Department

Following are some practical tips for advocating on behalf of the academic department. Most important of all is to know the facts, know the rules, and know your budget. Knowing the rules requires a basic understanding of fiscal, human resources and safety policy. Knowing the facts is keeping abreast of the overall budget situation by reading about appropriations which can be expected by the State and how those appropriations may affect what the University will be able to do in any given budget year. It is also means knowing facts such as the department or university ranking among schools with similar programs.

Knowing your budget requires an understanding of how you compare, not only to other departments your size and structure, but to your peers at similar institutions. Seek the assistance and advice of others when making budget decisions. Ask for help in setting up different budget scenarios to gauge the impact of alternatives that are viable for the department. Then share the alternatives to get fresh perspectives on them. It is important to build a relationship with your dean and other administrators, to become well known on campus. Knowing your budget also means knowing why your Department has its particular cost structure. Since Boise State is an open records university, take the opportunity to look at the records of other departments. How does your department compare to the unit? How do you compare to peer institutions?

Find the resources. When making a budget presentation, the department most likely to be successful is the one with the best proposal, idea, and justification for the requested funds. The college that goes the extra mile, such as by reallocating resources to provide some of the funding for a program it considers important, is far more likely to get approval for that new project than the college that asks the University to fund all of it from the University budget. Make sure you have done everything possible to maximize the budget you have, including reallocating within that budget to strengthen the department.