So what type of activities are supported by the Krasnow budget?

Without question, the largest share goes to salaries. These dollars include support for Krasnow administrative staff, but also a share of faculty, post-doctoral fellow and technician salaries. We also spend a significant portion of the budget on support for graduate research assistantships and together with tuition support.

Which makes us sound somewhat more like an academic unit doesn’t it?

Another significant expenditure is in the area of what I would call infrastructure support–things like phone, xerox and mail.

Of course the Monday Seminar series is also a significant expenditure!

Enjoy today’s seminar!

Jim

Krasnow is of course a research unit (as opposed to an academic unit) under the office of the Provost. As such it enjoys the budget standing of a school or college. Mason has one other such institute, but it is an academic unit which grants degrees (the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution; ICAR).

As such a unit, Krasnow receives a major component of its funding directly from the University. The Institute also receives indirect cost recovery dollars that are based on the sponsored research activities that go on within the Institute. Additionally, the Institute receives funds from private sources (either gifts or foundation grants) and these also are used to support the activities of the Institute.

However, the largest source of resource dollars for Krasnow activiies comes from investigator-initiated grants and contracts directly to Krasnow Principal Investigators. These very real dollars (which frankly support the majority of the Institute’s program) are not considered in the budget process, although they are very much considered as part of the budget aggregate value. In other words, those sponsored grants and contracts are budgeted separately by the PI’s.

Next we’ll consider the types of activities and programs supported by the Krasnow budget.

Jim

First some general points about the overall University budget:

The overall University budget is planned to coordinate with the
Commonwealth’s biennial budget process–this means budgeting two
years at a go. The budget year runs from July 1 through June 30 and
we commence planning approximately 18 months in advance of the
beginning of a budget year. The University’s annual budget is a
little over a half-billion dollars. Of these budget dollars,
approximately 1/3 comes from the Commonwealth, 1/3 derives from
tuition and the last 1/3 comes from sponsored research and various
auxiliary enterprises (such as the Patriot Center).

Now to talk a bit about Krasnow’s internal budget process. As with
the University, we begin planning about 18 months in advance of
actually spending the dollars. Ever since Krasnow merged with Mason
in April of 2002, the budget is ultimately based upon the previous
year’s budget which serves as a “base”. The planning process, which
is completely integrated with that of the University, involves using
the base as a starting point and then looking at the new activities
and programs that will need to be funded de novo under the new
budget. We also are asked to carefully evaluate the current program
with the notion of finding savings where that is possible.

What you should take home from the above information is that it is
very difficult to find funding for contingencies and opportunities as
they come up, because in general the money has been committed long in
advance. For this reason I urge Krasnow staff, when they approach me
for support of some program or activity, to consider the relatively
long time-line when making their requests.

Next up we’ll write about the various sources of the Krasnow budget
dollars.

Jim

This is an image of our delegation meeting with folks from St. Martinus Faculty of Medicine just before returning to Washington. Mason VP for Research, Matt Kluger is in the blue polo shirt.

It’s always nice to return to Krasnow after a trip, but this morning
it was particularly enjoyable knowing that the Krasnow Expansion
Project final presentations are going forward on schedule this
morning. I have a lot of confidence in our selection team and I think
we’ll get an excellent building addition, in the end.

Over the next several weeks in this space I’m going to talk a bit
about budget issues. I want to explain something about the process
and also perhaps address questions that occasionally arise concerning
what gets funded and what gets deferred. The hope is that at least
the process will become considerably more transparent (both within
Krasnow and in the larger context of the University).

I’d also like in the next several blog entries to spend some time
writing–in general–about what goes through my own mind about
contingency requests–that is those that aren’t planned for.

Jim

Congrats to Krasnow folks on their generosity! And huge thanks to
Erin for organizing our efforts!

Jim

Begin forwarded message:
>
>
> Jim,
> The total raised for the American Red Cross Hurricane Relief was
> $1,045.
> Not too bad! Several people told me that they had already donated
> online as well.
> Erin
>

From Krasnow Advisory Board Member and Friend Bill Nitze….

——– Original Message ——–
Subject: Complexity Theory
Date: Thu, 08 Sep 2005 13:35:36 -0700
From: William Nitze

Jim:
I came across a classical passage that I thought might intrigue you.
You may have thought that complexity theory is a recent development, but
it arguably originated more than 2,500 years ago. Here is Gut
Davenport’s translation of Fragment 40 from Herakleitos of Ephesus:

“The most beautiful order of the world is still a random gathering of
things insignificant in themselves.”

I’ll be leaving town again this weekend for a quick work trip outside the US and then at the end of next week I’ll be headed to Woods Hole for my final stint of the year–two weeks. This time we’ll be making some fairly major decisions about the Journal–however, I’ll be available by telephone and email for any Krasnow issues that come up.

As I head off, I’d like to relate to you the general details of a very interesting meeting that I attended this morning: how to deal with the massive unintended consesquences of explosive growth at Mason. What I began to glean was that these issues (parking, magnetic fields etc. etc.) are the stuff of serious strategic planning….something I’m not sure we have engaged in enough, at least here at Krasnow.

One of my favorite books, Management of Research and Development Organizations, Managing the Unmanageable by Jain and Triandis (Wliey NY 1997) has a great chapter on strategic planning that I highly recommend. Here’s a concept that is in there that I think we might think about some more:
Strategy=Ends+Ways+Means

Where the ends are the objectives (What, Why? When), the ways are concepts (How, Where) and the means are of course the resources (with what? with whom?).

If we’re going to add a new program, what are the resources were going to use to pay for it?

You see where I’m going…

Jim

We’re going to be scheduling some big events over the next year. I don’t
have the exact dates, but I wanted to put these on your radar screens so
that you’ll be getting ready. First, we’ll have the groundbreaking for
the new building expansion. That’ll probably be sometime in late October
or early November. Following that we’ll have the ribbon-cutting for the
new MRI. I anticipate that in December. In January we’ll have the
scientific retreat, as usual and then we’ve begun the planning for an
international symposium to mark the opening of the new building.

Along the way, I believe there will be the usual workshops sponsored by
outside agencies and of course the Monday afternoon seminar series which
I hope everyone will attend–that’s at 4PM on Monday’s in the Krasnow
Seminar Room.

Jim

I bring your attention to a fantastic article on the movement to teach “intelligent design” as science–in the Chronical of Higher Education. It was authored by our own Jim Trefil, Harold Morowitz and Bob Hazen. Kudos!

Jim

As we head into Labor Day weekend here in Washington, the weather, as
if by some unseen clockwork, has taken a certain crispness and the sky a
much deeper shade of blue. For me it can’t help but remind me of that
Tuesday four years ago, when I woke up to such weather and went to
sleep in a much changed America. This weekend, we find ourselves as a
country similarly challenged: the flooding and despair from New
Orleans, particularly outside the Convention Center where many of us
have spent so much time, provokes among all of us in science a deep
seated need to do something useful, to be of help to others.

I have heard many stories of colleagues at Tulane and LSU medical
center–of experiments lost, of being trapped in labs, of homes lost
and friends also. While these are just a small vignette of the
suffering that is occurring on a much larger scale, it also brings the
pain closer to home. Imagine the Krasnow community in similar
circumstances….

I am particularly grateful for those who have joined with me in our own
Krasnow Red Cross Drive. And I salute the Krasnow support staff,
particularly Erin, for coordinating this. I know that individual PI’s
and post-doctoral fellows are making inquiries and extremely generous
offers to scientific colleagues from the region who are in distress.
This is Krasnow at its best .

As we relax on this last unofficial weekend of Summer 2005, let’s also
keep our thoughts on those who are less fortunate.

Jim