Subject: Financial Transparency group
To: tublitz@uoregon.edu, "	harbaugh@uoregon.edu" <harbaugh@uoregon.edu>,
    mcnelly@uoregon.edu, rfmann@uoregon.edu, kbwolf@uoregon.edu
From: Peter Gilkey <gilkey@uoregon.edu> 
Date: Mon, 4 Jan 2010 15:42:36

Memo to: Carla McNelly, Bill Harbaugh, Roberta Mann, Kelly Wolf, Nathan Tublitz 
Memo from: Peter B Gilkey (UO Senate President 2009/10)
Date: 4 January 2009
Re: Financial Transparancy Group

Dear colleagues:

It is with great pleasure that, after wide consultation, I appoint you to a
Senate Working Group, to be chaired by Nathan Tublitz,  to implement US08/09-8
pursuant to US09/10-10 (quoted below). Thank you so much for agreeing to serve
on this important committee.

Peter B Gilkey
UO Senate President 2009/10.


US09/10-10 Motion to authorize the Senate President to appoint a Senate
Working Group to implement US08/9-8

The UO Senate passed a motion (US08/9-8) stating The University Senate
respectfully requests the University of Oregon Administration to establish a
publicly accessible, on-line budget reporting system at the University of
Oregon by 15 November 2009 that will allow users to track current and
retroactive individual university expenditures as is currently done at our
sister institution Oregon State University on their budget reporting website (
https://bfpsystems.oregonstate.edu/webreporting/ ) ".

At the 11 November 2008 UO Senate meeting, Frances Dyke reported "The tool you
will be able to access starting next Monday is the initial roll out of a
financial reporting tool for compliance with the university Senate motion on
financial transparency. In the course of discussions related to development the
work group has identified impediments to our ability to provide transactional
level detail in a publicly available financial reporting tool. There are issues
of both security and legally binding confidentiality that must be balanced
against the desire for full transparency. As mentioned at the October Senate
meeting I am now asking the Senate President to appoint an advisory group to
help analyze these problems and find solutions that can be legally and
operationally implemented. In making this request I also recommend that the
Senate President consider creating this advisory group by drawing on membership
of the Senate Budget Committee and other members of the Senate or university
community who have a particular interest or expertise in financial management
reporting." 

Motion US 08/09-8 Concerning Transparancy of University Financial Transactions

MOTION TO ESTABLISH AN ON-LINE BUDGET REPORTING SYSTEM AT THE UNIVERSITY OF
OREGON

SPONSOR: N. Tublitz, Department of Biology

BACKGROUND: The University of Oregon releases general financial information
regarding expenditures on an annual basis. However detailed information on
specific expenditures is not easily available. For example, it is currently
nearly impossible to ascertain how much did the Biology Department spend on
frogs for dissections last term or what were the monthly fax charges accrued by
the Romance Languages Department last month.

Our colleagues at Oregon State University have developed a user-friendly,
on-line budget reporting web site where users can track expenditures,
transaction by transaction, by clicking on specific budget lines in an academic
department or administrative office, from the President's office on down (
https://bfpsystems.oregonstate.edu/webreporting/ ). The OSU system easily
tracks individual line items and shows for each how much was budgeted, actual
expenditures and available balances. A video demonstration of the OSU system
can be viewed at http://oregonstate.edu/~dennisb/videos/nacubo/demo1.html

The OSU on-line budget reporting system has received national exposure and
praise (e.g., http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/03/07/financial ). A
State of Oregon legislative bill (House Bill 2500; ) has been introduced in the
current legislative session to establish a similar type of searchable budget
reporting website for all executive, legislative and judicial branches of state
government. This motion proposes to establish an on-line budget reporting
system at the University of Oregon similar to that already in place at Oregon
State University.

MOTION: The University Senate respectfully requests the University of Oregon
Administration to establish a publicly accessible, on-line budget reporting
system at the University of Oregon by 15 November 2009 that will allow users to
track current and retroactive individual university expenditures as is
currently done at our sister institution Oregon State University on their
budget reporting website ( https://bfpsystems.oregonstate.edu/webreporting/ ).

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS: OSU's VP for Finance and Administration, Mark
McCambridge, states that their cost of developing a web site to interface with
their existing budget database (BANNER) cost less than $10,000. Given that OSU
has already produced the interface, the cost to the University of Oregon should
be significantly less. 
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