L&S Summer Budget Model
This document is an explanation of the summer budget model in L&S.
This document explains the L&S Summer Term Budget Model. You may find the following documents helpful for your summer planning:
- Instructions for completing the Summer Budget Proposal: L&S Summer Budget Proposals
- Guidance for selecting and scheduling summer courses: Summer Course Guidance in L&S
- Guidance for summer sessions appointments: Guidance for Summer Sessions appointments in L&S
Background of the L&S Summer Budget Model
Starting in summer 2016, UW-Madison adopted a new summer-term budget model intended to better serve student needs, expand summer enrollments, and make more efficient use of campus resources.This model provides departments with more flexibility to expand summer course offerings, and the potential to develop a new revenue stream. However, it also requires careful planning, with close attention to revenues and expenses. L&S may reject summer budget proposals in whole or part if departments lack adequate resources to cover potential losses.
Budget Model Definitions
- Paid Credits are credit hours associated with students who paid tuition to the campus tuition pool.
- Student credits are regarded as paid credits regardless of factors that determined the amount of tuition paid, like residency status (in-state or out-of-state) or level (undergraduate, graduate, or special student).
- Students in non-pooled programs (e.g., 131 capstone or masters programs) or who received full tuition waivers (e.g., graduate students with tuition remission, or students with veteran’s benefits) do not generate paid credits.
- Please consult the department’s Financial Report with Revenue from previous summers (available in Box). These reports shows both student credit hours (both paid and unpaid) as well as paid credits for each course taught.
- Revenue per paid credit is the fixed dollar amount that departments will receive for each paid credit. This college-wide amount is $300. This amount is pegged to the in-state tuition rate, and is unlikely to change unless in-state tuition changes.
- Actual costs are the expenses incurred by the department. These costs will be paid on fund 131, and so must include actual fringes on salaries. The proposal spreadsheet computes estimated fringes, which may be higher or lower than actual fringes.
- Department surplus is the net dollar amount earned by the department. Department surplus is equal to $300 per paid credit minus their actual costs.
Summer Proposals
L&S departments will complete a Summer Budget Proposal spreadsheet. The spreadsheet and its technical instructions are available on the Gateway: L&S Summer Budget Proposals- $300 * estimated paid credits minus estimated instructional costs
Preliminary enrollment & financial data
In mid-April, the College will distribute preliminary Financial Reports using early enrollment data on Student Credit Hours (SCH). Based on past experience, we anticipate that preliminary mid-April SCH may be 10% to 15% higher than final end-of-summer paid credits (due to tuition waivers and students dropping courses throughout the summer). Thus, the preliminary Financial Report is likely to overestimate the surplus generated by individual courses and the department overall. We encourage you to compare your preliminary 2020 Financial Report with your final 2020 Financial Report with Revenue to see this effect for yourself; both reports are available in Box. While mid-April SCH data is problematic, we need to provide students with adequate notice of summer course cancellation. We thus use the preliminary Financial Reports for this purpose, imposing a 10% correction for the anticipated decline in credits.Revenue Reporting
The College will distribute final Financial Reports with Revenue in late August/early September each year. This report shows actual instructional costs charged to departmental summer 131-A48##93 accounts, enrollments, student credit hours, paid credits, and department surplus. Costs may ultimately be higher (and departmental surplus lower) if some costs have not posted to WISER at the time of the report.
Summer Materials & Box
Departmental materials are available in Box. Folder name = '48-#### Summer Sessions'. Department chairs/directors and managers have access to this folder, and will need to distribute these materials to their appropriate staff.Documents sent via Box
- Initial planning materials: Distributed mid-September, due mid-October
- Summer Budget Proposal
- Initial approval from L&S: Distributed in November.
- Expense Details: This report contains specific details for instructors, student appointments, and supplies & expenses. This will be updated as changes occur based on hiring, enrollment, etc. This document should be shared with whomever is responsible for payroll/HR tasks in your department.
- Initial Financial Report: This report compares estimated costs vs. the department’s paid enrollment estimates. Similar to the Expense Details report, this report may be updated during the academic year as changes occur.
- Preliminary Financial Report: This is an updated version of the initial Financial Report, which compares estimated costs vs. enrollment figures from mid-April.
- Financial Report with Revenue: This is the final document for summer, which shows actual costs and paid credit information. This is typically distributed in late August/early September each year.
Primary Contacts for L&S Administration
- James Montgomery, Associate Dean for Fiscal Initiatives (backup: Shirin Malekpour Associate Dean for Teaching & Learning)
- Amanda Mahr, Academic Administration Coordinator
See Also:
- Memorandum of Agreement in Summer Term
- L&S Summer Budget Proposals
- Summer Accounting in L&S
- Guidance for Summer Sessions appointments in L&S
- L&S Course and Class Section Cancellation Policy