Guiding Principles

The following initial guiding principles have been adopted to inform George Mason’s budget model redesign process and communicate its objectives:

Theme: University-first, all-funds, multi-year
Principle: Prioritize and create a university-wide budgeting framework, wherein George Mason functions as a cohesive ecosystem, leveraging all available funding sources, including: Higher Ed Operating (E&G), Auxiliary, Research Grants and Contracts, Indirects, and Philanthropy (GMUF), and allowing for multi-year planning and innovation.

Theme: Rigor, clarity, fairness, and full financial transparency for s/cs and central
Principle: Establish rigor, oversight, clarity, and transparency for all academic and administrative units.

Theme: Funding for strategic initiatives
Principle: Enable investment and bridge funding mechanisms for strategic initiatives that offer opportunities for units to take risks to envision new research opportunities or build programming with adequate supports, assessments, and guardrails to optimize success and minimize setbacks.

Theme: “Live within our means”; stability; flexibility; simplicity; predictability; technology
Principle: Provide stability, simplicity, ease, and flexibility within a given budget year, along with adaptability to grow and evolve with the university over time, investing in infrastructure to support these activities and ensuring fiscal health is sustained.

Theme: Performance outcomes beyond one marker
Principle: Establish metrics for university performance outcomes that include areas that align with George Mason’s goals for student, faculty, and research growth and success.

Theme: Stewardship, cross-disciplinary, revenue-generation
Principle: Reward cross-college, cross-disciplinary efforts and initiatives resulting in revenue-generation that are consistent with our institutional values and strategic direction