Division of IT fails to allocate more than $1 million

The division failed to submit a budget on time, leaving funding unclear.

By Campbell Massie

Published March 13, 2009

The Division of Information Technology's unallocated budget carryover for this year consists of more than $1 million from student fees.

Representatives of the Missouri Students Association met with representatives of DoIT Thursday to go over the budget from fiscal year 2008, and the projected budget for 2009 and 2010 for the Student Fee Review Committee.

DoIT's projected budget stated they expect a $1,006,825 carryover for this fiscal year, which comprised 11.3 percent of the total expected information technology student fees collected, which is yet to be allocated.

"It is a million dollars in unallocated funds," MSA President Jordan Paul said. "No one does that."

The provided budget stated that in the 2008 fiscal year, there was $1,567,981, 18.5 percent of the total budget, left over with $750,000, 8.7 percent, going into a contingency fund. MSA has requested a more detailed report as to what the money in that fund went toward and what DoIT will do with 2009's carryover.

Kevin Bailey, DoIT director of customer service and support, said part of the money in the fund will go toward ongoing projects such as the eventual renovations of the computer labs in Memorial Union, as well as 24-hour computer labs in other places, such as Stanley Hall.

The meeting with DoIT was requested by SFRC and MSA in October when the committee started going over different auxiliaries to determine increases or decreases in student fees.

SFRC reviewed and made recommendations for 18 different auxiliaries, but the budget from DoIT was the only one they had not received.

Former MSA President Jim Kelley started to e-mail DoIT about its budget in November, Paul said. Paul asked for this meeting in the first weeks of January.

Bailey said there were other competing projects for DoIT to take care of, so the budget was "back-burnered" due to several factors.

"We felt like we needed to make sure it was vetted out, appropriated and make sure that we had all our facts and figures straight," Bailey said.

The overall student fee was recommended to go down 25 cents overall, without information from DoIT.

SFRC may make recommendations to the UM system Board of Curators any time until their meeting in April. Paul said if SFRC were to not make recommendations on DoIT, it would send a message that it was ok to not give the committee the proper materials when asked.

"It took us longer than any of us would have liked to get the information back to the students," Bailey said.

DoIT receives $12.20 per credit hour taken at the university, former MSA Senate Speaker Jonathan Mays said.

The amount DoIT receives is dependent upon how many students are enrolled, so this year with the increase in freshman enrollment they are expecting an increase in student fees collected.

"Historically, we have always budgeted very conservatively," Bailey said.

MU Information Technology Committee Chairman Mike McKean would like to include student leaders in the discussion over what to do with the excess funds.

"We want students to help us plan the budget next year," McKean said.

Paul said the budget should act as a target and that the carryover would have been more acceptable if it were a smaller amount.

"That is so incredibly ridiculous," Paul said. "That's a million dollars in student fees that they don't have plans for."

Paul would like to see the fee reduced, not just go into other programs.

"Don't you think most students would rather just not pay it?" Paul said.