Imagine that you are the new Director of Student Activities at a small state university. The university has experienced budget cuts every year for the past 8 years. You have been asked to demonstrate how and what students are learning from the programs that you run in Student Activities. Since you believe in what you do, this assessment is expected, but is challenging given your small staff. In short, you are being asked to do more with less. This coming year the university is expected to experience another cut in its budget allocation from the state, along with frozen tuition prices and rising enrollment. In preparation for the budget release, the Vice President for Student Activities has asked you to take a look at your office to see where you will cut additional money. Please address the following questions, and be realistic in your consideration:
From which areas or allocations will you take money?
Will you lose programs or staff? If you choose to eliminate programming, how do you choose which programming to cut or eliminate?
If, in your budget analysis, you found that monies were misspent and the accounting system was weak, what would you do? How might you consider this to be an ethical dilemma?
Are there ways to be more creative in raising money for your office?