P.A.C. to present new budget next month

The President’s Administrative Council will take a proposed budget for the ’10/’11 school year to Biola’s board of directors in January for approval.

Harmony Wheeler, Writer

The President’s Administrative Council, also known as P.A.C., will take a proposed budget for the ’10/’11 school year to Biola’s board of directors in January for approval.

Brian Shook, President Corey’s executive assistant, said budget issues include how tuition will change, whehter the council anticipates a raise in donations, how much operations, such as running the natural gas power plant, cost, what the economic conditions are and other assumptions.

“We’re doing everything we can to keep tuition as little as possible,” Shook said.

Shook said the council started planning the budget as soon as the budget for this school year was established. The university, he said, is always looking at ways to cut unnecessary costs. The on-campus power plant, for example, provides cleaner and cheaper electricity. The university is also keeping an eye on new contracts with the Gas Company might lower costs even more.

The all-day meeting Tuesday also included discussion on staff and faculty health insurance and university planning.

According to Shook, P.A.C. will release a university plan accessible to everyone in early 2010. The plan will give a vision for Biola’s future. Such future plans include the possibility of creating a hub in the city that Shook said would reestablish a connection with inner-city Los Angeles and provide a place of ministry in several areas such as nursing, art, and education.

Corey said the council, itself, acts as a method of communication on what’s happening on campus and where the university is headed.

According to Shook the council tries to keep up on what’s going on in the world in order to keep Biola from lagging behind. For this reason, the council tries to keep an eye on new media. Working with six basic initiatives and five certified research questions, the council looks at both down-to-earth concepts and imaginative concepts as part of Biola’s possible future.

“It’s the stuff of real leadership,” Shook said. “These people elevate the real crucial issues that might get lost in day to day things if a leader did not say we must hop on these.”

The council meets for an hour once a week and all day once a month to discuss and make decisions on such issues. The ultimate decision, however, lies with Corey. Shook said Corey may postpone a decision if he does not have enough information to make an informative decision.

Shook said discussion would continue on the process of selecting a new provost and a new vice president of business and financial affairs at Biola to replace Carl Schreiber, who recently announced his plans to leave Biola.

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