The campus’s financial planning decisions will preserve and enhance the institutional values that make Berkeley both great and unique: the integration and synergy of education and research; a comprehensive foundation in the liberal arts; a passion for inquiry and discovery; the synergy of academic and professional programs; a vital and diverse community; the value of contiguity; a partnership of students, faculty and staff; independence of mind in the pursuit of knowledge; the primacy of public service; and excellence in every endeavor. Source: “The Essence of Berkeley,” Strategic Academic Plan (2003)

Within the context of these core institutional values, the Executive Budget Steering Committee has adopted the following set of operating principles to guide the budget planning process for FY 2004. The process will:

1. Sustain and enhance the excellence of Berkeley’s academic and professional programs as the top priority. Consistent with a presumed full funding of enrollment growth, maintain the long-term campus student-faculty ratio target at approximately 18.7:1.

2. Articulate and implement a transparent process for making budget decisions.

3. Implement budgetary decisions with full consultation with appropriate Senate, staff, and student representatives.

4. Base strategic decisions on data, analysis, and evaluation, thereby resisting reactive, short-term, and crisis-driven decisions.

5. Delegate decisions to the lowest practical operational level, striking a balance between flexibility and control, responsibility, and authority.

6. Leverage improved and streamlined processes, organizational restructuring, and more effective use of information technology to maintain and improve the quality of administrative support and student services.

7. Avoid reductions in support of extramurally funded programs - to the extent that they do not require state or mandated student fee (e.g., registration fee) fund expenditures.

8. Seek new sources of revenue to mitigate necessary reductions.

9. Minimize layoffs.

10. Communicate information and decisions in a clear, concise, and timely manner to all segments of the campus community (faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends).