craft a reply to the following discussion post response

For this discussion, I chose to answer the question on which issues I believe I will most likely struggle with when it comes to common issues that budget managers face.

The two issues I would face early on are understanding the organization and assessing capabilities. A couple months ago, I interviewed for the Assistant Vice President of Academic Affairs (AVPAA) at my college, and many of the questions that were asked of me involved how I would communicate with different departments in the unit. Being an instructor and program chair of mathematics, I do not get much experience in working with other units of the Academic Affairs unit such as nursing, professional services, and automotive technology. As Barr and McClellan (2018) explained, in order to function effectively . . . budget administrators (whether faculty or staff) need to understand the unit for which they are responsible and the larger institution, and how they interact (p. 151). If I were to receive such a position as AVPAA, I would have been in charge of the budget not only for the General Education unit which mathematics is apart of, but the budget for all other nursing, trade, and industry departments as well. Especially early on in the job, I would have needed to ask questions to the deans, division heads, and program chairs to make sure I understood where exactly the money is going toward. Are there technological upgrades that are happening in their department to keep with industry standards? Are faculty needing to be trained so they are up-to-date with their instruction methods? To keep teachers in our nursing programs, will we need to increase our salary for nursing instructors so that they are not tempted to switch career fields due to salary concerns? Again, as someone who is not in that field, it would be very difficult for me up front to understand those parts of the Academic Affairs unit.

I wanted to include assessing capabilities in this discussion as well since I believe it ties in with understanding the organization. Barr and McClellan (2018) stated that a budget manager must also be able to assess the financial capabilities of colleagues within the unit effectively (p. 154). Understanding the organization is very important to this goal as if I understand all parts of the organization, I will know what are the right questions to ask to deans, division heads, and program chairs to effectively manage the budget. However, since I do not work with them in my job field at this moment in time, I would struggle with who I would be able to trust and ask questions to when it comes to the budget. Developing positive relationships with all the deans would have been important so that they are honest with me about who to trust and ask questions to in case I was struggling with the budget. Right now, my job is very limited in scope specifically to the mathematics department. The interview I mentioned earlier opened my eyes to just how broad of a skillset I would need to positively perform in the role of AVPAA.

For those interested in other questions I was asked during that interview, a lot of it also involved accreditation. To maintain accreditation, many of our programs (including my own) have data they retrieve for the state called Student Learning Outcomes. When it comes to the budget, if faculty do not have the proper training and/or technology to maintain industry standards, students may fail their learning outcomes and accreditation for the program may be lost. Another question they asked involved our relationship with prisons since we teach those who are in the department of corrections in Georgia. While I knew about our partnership with the prisons, it again opened my eyes to the idea of knowing and understanding the entire organization. While nursing may eat up a lot of the budget, it is important to remember programs such as the prison system also need funding. Asking for help, getting to know the person in charge of the prison system program, and understanding how they fit into the overall mission of the college is important when it comes to financial decision-making.

References

Barr, M. J., & McClellan, G. S. (2018).Budgets and financial management in higher education. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.