How Fairfield builds a budget

Over the course of the year, the budget committee works to develop a balanced budget for Fr. Kelley to bring to the Board of Trustees. The committee consists of Fairfield’s five vice presidents, three faculty members, one student and one university staff member.

First, various departments within the school make presentations to the budget committee to propose expenditures for the next academic year.

“People are asked to make some difficult priorities in terms of resource allocation,” Lucas said.

Then, the committee holds open hearings where anyone can request money in next year’s budget.

Lucas described the hearings as “a time to gather information. We don’t debate the pros and cons of everything, we just get information.”

Finally, the committee reviews all of the requests, reallocates funds and balances the competing needs of the university.

“We take all the information gathered through all the various needs and come up with a balanced budget,” Lucas said. “That’s our mandate.”

Dr. Edward Deak, an economics professor, described it another way at a recent faculty meeting. “It’s like trying to fit a size 10 foot into a size six shoe,” he said.

Deak also noted that the committee “only deals with new money.” This means the committee only deals with money that comes into the school as a result of increases to tuition, room and board and other fees.

According to Lucas, about 90 percent of the school’s revenue comes from tuition, room and board and student fees. Fairfield’s other main sources of revenue are gifts from outside sources and the interest earned from investing the school’s endowment.

Fairfield spends the largest chunk of its budget on paying its employees, about 56.6 percent or $66.5 million. The next biggest part, 11.4 percent or $13.4 million, is spent on general operations, which includes maintenance of the campus and its buildings.

Contract services like food, custodial and computer services take up 10.9 percent or $12.8 million.

Depreciation, which requires Fairfield to determine how much of its long-term assets are used in a 12 month period and build it into that year’s budget, takes up 8.4 percent or $9.9 million.