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UNC Board of Governors reviews bond campaign

Members of the North Carolinians for Educational Opportunity dropped in on the UNC Board of Governors' August meeting to tell them that efforts to push the $3.1 billion bond issue for the state's university and community college systems have shifted into high gear under the leadership of campaign director Leslie Bevacqua.

The board also received an update on grassroots efforts by supporters of the university and community college campuses across the state.

At the same time, UNC Board of Governors Chair Benjamin Ruffin and UNC President Molly Corbett Broad thanked board members for their ongoing efforts to inform people about the importance of the bond issue. They also urged board members to contact their area chancellors and community college presidents to ensure that campaigns were taking shape at the county level. Board members were encouraged to be active and visible at all bond-related functions in their home communities.

In other action, the board adopted tightened budget flexibility reporting procedures that will require that spending plans be in place at each institution early in each fiscal year. Under the revised guidelines, chancellors will submit by mid-July plans that identify the proposed uses of funds from all sources that have been carried forward from the previous year under established budget flexibility guidelines.

These plans must also estimate the amount of funds that will be made available through lapsed salaries during the coming fiscal year and outline how these funds will be expended.

Another new restriction is that authority for approving departmental plans for expenditures authorized under budget flexibility may not be delegated below the vice chancellor level. Campus internal auditors will routinely conduct reviews of financial transactions carried out under budget flexibility.

Broad said the revised procedures employ tools of effective management and strong measures of accountability, without crossing the line into micromanagement of campus finances. No policy, no matter how comprehensive, can prevent bad judgment, she said. Still, these amendments will help to ensure that the UNC system is doing everything possible to promote and ensure fiscal accountability.

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