Dear College of Science Faculty and Staff,
When I was at elementary school, there was a ‘tuck shop’. It was run by the moms and sold almost entirely unhealthy snacks (raisins were the healthiest). There was a nice array of small chocolate bars, candies and gummy-type confections for sale. If you had after school sports, you could buy a brown bag lunch consisting of a donut, chips, chocolate bar and apple for fresh.
I really wanted to buy the large gummy bear, at sixpence, and saved my pocket money until I had sixpence and a penny. At recess next day, I set off for the tuck shop, a small hut on one side of the quadrangle where we played. Somehow, along the way, I dropped the sixpence and although I looked for a long time, it was gone. I managed not to cry, and sadly made my way to the tuck shop to buy a chewy ‘Pink Sweet’ with the remaining penny. You can tell this was a big deal because the memory still makes me sad. My pocket money was collected in a red, blue and yellow plastic pig, standing on its hind legs, with a slot for coin entry in the cap on its head, and a removable plug for fund withdrawals. I held the pig in high regard. This was my first experience in budgeting.
Today, in our College of Science, we are far beyond sixpences, but the idea is exactly the same. Revenue comes in, and we spend it only on what we can afford. No sixpence, no big gummy bear. When I became your Dean, I promised that we would keep the College’s balance sheet positive. We have done that every year, with the expert oversight of Associate Dean for Administration and Finance Sam Inman, the excellent staff in our Finance Team, Associate Director Settenah Savoy and her team, and with our fantastic department Business Managers: Patrick Fodor, Yvonne Malcolm, Liz Magee, Sheila Magee, Rich Pumphrey and Elizabeth Qudah. Every faculty member with research awards needs to keep track of your expenditures, assisted by our outstanding Post-Award Grants Administration Team led by Associate Director Andrew Caldwell and his team. THANK YOU! Each one of us must be financially responsible with precious COS budget, that comes from our hard work across the College and University and allows us to read out the Good Power of Science.
We and all other Colleges and cost centers at Northeastern have been asked to make some budget cuts right away to support university goals, from which we benefit directly or indirectly. I want to emphasize that our COS budget remains robust, and Northeastern University finances are strong. There is no cause for alarm. No staff positions will be cut, and you will be able to continue your important work without interruption. We are going slow on new staff hires, and scaling back on various categories such as travel, professional services, equipment, maintenance, and food for some events. There may be some inconvenience and I am very sorry about that, but we must do our part towards supporting university goals, that are also our College of Science goals. I’m happy to answer your questions, as always. We are a vibrant and successful university, and we are a brilliant, innovative College of Science. Thank you for helping meet university goals! THANK YOU! for your important, wonderful work that is building up the Good Power of Science.
Warmest wishes to everyone.