What's your favorite line item?

We've been waiting for the new budget, the first one really created by this new prez & staff, and its now on the school website for the required 30 day comment period.

We seem to have lost our main heckler (no one has called us idiots all summer), which leaves us wondering about the the mysterious "follow the money" poster. Same person?

What are you outraged about, but not willing to attend a publc comments period and risk the wrath of Brewer & Co by pointing out?

This is your forum. 

Nothing to see here, folks. Just move along.

If you watched the video of the  prez addressing the troops on the first day of school, all your questions have been answered. Well, except for why that speech was promoted, filmed, and posted... but that's a different issue.

Late budget? Easy. New budget system, much more complicated. Board didn't approve the plan when they were sposed to. 

Institutional support? No explanantion of what it actually IS, but the troops were reassured that JAL doesn't spend ANY MORE than any OTHER schools on that mysterious item. No word on why it grew by 8 million bucks during the same time that instruction (oh yea, thos students) grew by 1 million. 

So don't pay ANY attention to ANY silly blogs. Yep, we got a shoutout. If you were concerned about the appearance of impropriety, don't worry! Be happy!

 http://www.ustream.tv/channel/loganmedia

So, where IS that pesky 2014 budget?

In the past, the board of trustees has approved the budget for the upcoming fiscal year, or at least has SEEN a budget, before the fiscal year ended, since legally it has to be public for 30 days before adoption.

For example, records on the JAL website show that the FY13 budget was presented April 30 and adopted June 28, 2012. The FY12 budget was presented to the board for approval in June 2011, and adopted august 23, 2011.

But there's no mention of any FY14 budget, not in April, May, or June minutes, or on the July 23 agenda. Was it mentioned or discussed at the meeting? If you were there and taking notes, please let us know.

What legitimate reason could there be for a public body NOT to have a budget a month into a new fiscal year? Isn't that an important part of the job they were elected to do?

Is it possible there's been some attention paid to the huge increases in "institutional support," making it more difficult to keep sliding money into that category?

For example, the FY12 budget comparison page (pg. 77) shows the change from FY10 to FY 12 in expenditures on "instruction" goes from 13,530,859 to 14,510,685.

During the same time period, expenditures on "institutional support" goes frm 10,491,697 to 18,920,265. What? BIG difference in increase there.

What's being funded by "institutional support" that's more important than instruction? The increase is also larger than the increase for student scholarships and waivers. This is disturbing—what are the institutional priorities?

(And anyone who can figure out what "institutional support" really means is a more patient reader than anyone here at MW).

Maybe if they re-schedule the retreat once Mr. Rendlman's "administration" is more seasoned, and those "new" board members (ahem, neither of which is NEW, Mr. Rendlman) get some experience, they can re-consider where the college should spend money.

Any theories, followers? Where's the budget?