University of Pittsburgh
Office of the Provost
809 Cathedral of Learning
(412) 624-4228
Fax: (412) 624-4220
robert.pack@pitt.edu

Provost’s Area Planning and Budgeting Committee (PAPBC)

Composition

The PAPBC is comprised of 19 members, representing the Office of the Provost, and 20 schools, campuses, major research centers, and support units in the Provost’s area. One member chosen by the Staff Association Council represents Provost’s area staff. Each member representing a school, regional campus, research center, or support unit is selected to serve a two-year term on the PAPBC by their unit’s Planning and Budgeting Committee. The PAPBC is chaired by the Vice Provost for Academic Planning and Resources Management.
Activities

The primary activity of the PAPBC is to support long-range and operational planning and budgeting each year. For example, during the spring of 1994, the PAPBC spent considerable time identifying the most important strategic issues facing the Provost’s area relative to long-range planning. In a series of facilitated focus groups, PAPBC members developed strategic issue statements. These statements were subsequently merged with similar input from the Strategic Issues Subcommittee of the University Planning and Budgeting Committee and the University Council for Graduate Studies. The text of this document was included, with only minor editorial changes, in the body of the University long-range planning document, Toward the 21st Century.

In 1995, PAPBC subcommittees met extensively throughout January and February to review the long-range plans of each of the units in the Provost’s area in order to:

• make recommendations on relative priorities;
  
• compare unit plans to the strategies and objectives outlined in Toward the 21st Century; and
  
• integrate long-range plans with long-term budgets.

Groups met again throughout March to review the long-term budgets submitted by each unit. In each case, detailed comments were prepared based on the discussions held by the subcommittees and discussions held with the full committee. These comments were forwarded to the Provost, who incorporated them in his decision making relative to long-range resource allocations and the FY 1996 budget, as well as to the units themselves.

From 1996 to the present, the PAPBC has played an integral role reviewing unit planning and budgeting submissions. Members review these documents and give the Provost objective commentary assessing their quality, the consistency of unit objectives with institutional priorities, and the effectiveness with which unit resources are utilized to achieve articulated goals.

Review Process

As planning and budgeting documents are submitted by units to the Office of the Provost, each member of the PAPBC receives a copy. Since the amount of documentation submitted would be too large for the full Committee to review, the members are divided into subcommittees. Each subcommittee reviews in depth a subset of the total submission.

After reviewing each planning and budgeting submission, the subcommittees write brief comments analyzing the contents relative to the criteria identified by the Provost at the beginning of each planning cycle. The PAPBC then meets with the Provost and discusses these comments and general findings on the planning and budgeting submissions. The Provost takes these comments into account when making budgetary allocation decisions for the coming fiscal year and shares them with the respective units.