EDUC 6261 Walden University Strategic Financial Plan

Part 1: Develop a Financial Plan for Your Department Based on New Institutional Priorities

As a manager you will be involved in a variety of organizational processes. You will need to determine the priorities of your department based on your institution’s strategic goals, create initiatives that support those priorities, and creatively find resources and funding. You will also need to offer proposals on how resources should be allocated, collaborate across departments to implement the department’s goals, and assess the financial health of your department in the larger context of the institution’s strategic direction.

This week’s assignment is the first part of a three-part Course Project which requires you to develop a financial plan for your department, and will give you practice with all of these critical skills. Download and use the following Word template to complete the Course Project: Develop a Financial Plan.

The Course Project is based on the following scenario:

A new president has been selected to run your university. His first initiative is to impose a new strategic direction that focuses on three key priorities:

• Increasing student engagement
• Integrating information technology into programs and services
• Developing measurable learning outcomes

This has the potential to change a number of operations, priorities, and the allocation of resources in your department.

For Part 1 you will consider new priorities on which your department should focus, identify what new initiatives should be undertaken based on those priorities, develop proposals based on those initiatives, and explain how they meet the new institutional priorities.

Optional Resources

Israel, C. A., & Kihl, B. (2005). Using strategic planning to transform a budgeting process. New Directions for Community Colleges, (132),77–86. Retrieved from the Walden Library using the Education Research Complete database.

Krawitz, N. (2003). Capital budgeting. American Council on Education Online Resource Center. Retrieved from http://www2.acenet.edu/resources/chairs/docs/Krawitz_Capital_BudgetingFMT.pdf

Barr, M. J., & McClellan, G. S. (2018). Budgets and financial management in higher education (3rd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

• Chapter 4, “Management of the Budget Cycle”
  Focus on the steps involved in developing a new budget request as well as the processes involved in ongoing budget management.

Enneking, E. A. (2003). Preparing the department budget. American Council on Education Online Resource Center. Retrieved from http://www.acenet.edu/resources/chairs/index.cfm?s…
Eugene A. Enneking, chair, Mathematics and Statistics, Portland State University. “Preparing the Department Budget.” Written specifically for the ACE Department Chair Online Resource Center. Washington, DC: American Council on Education, 2003.
Focus on the factors essential to preparing a departmental budget.

Salluzzo, R. E. (1999). Using the budget as an effective management tool. New Directions for Higher Education, (107), 61–71.

Using the Budget as an Effective Management Tool by Salluzzo, R. E. in New Directions for Higher Education, 99(107). Copyright 1999 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Reprinted by permission of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. via the Copyright Clearance Center.
Focus on how the budget communicates institutional direction to the university community.