At Trinity Western University, where 67% of the $45.3-million operating budget comes solely from tuition and fees, every change in enrolment is significant. Enrolment declined by 136 full-time students this year. At $14,520 per student per year, that translates into a revenue loss of close to $2-million.

“[The enrolment drop] is significant to us, but it’s not a huge number,” said Vice President of Finance Jim Poulsen. “100 more students and our budgets wouldn’t be frozen; we wouldn’t have the hiring freeze we have currently.”

Ultimate responsibility for TWU’s annual operating budget goes to Poulsen, who oversees Financial Services and Budget Services, as well as TWU’s business operations, such as the bookstore.

The actual division of the operating budget, however, is decided by the President’s Cabinet using an “envelope system.” In this system, each vice president is given a certain amount of money each year to cover expenditures in his area. If a vice president wishes to fund a new initiative, then he has to bring a business case forward to the Cabinet for that initiative.

Enrolment projections greatly influence the creation of a balanced budget for each year. Budget Services takes the projections from Enrolment Services and turns these numbers into dollar amounts. The Ancillary Services directors also provide a forecast. After these revenue forecasts are put together, President’s Cabinet considers how the resources may be spent.

“Every year, without exception, the requests [for funds] exceed the available resources,” said Poulsen. “It becomes a process of prioritizing at the Cabinet table.” Each year, the Cabinet invests in certain areas, depending on “what [they] believe needs to be done.”

The finance department is also looking to the future to determine what practices the university should follow now.

“We need to look at the life-cycle costs of our decisions,” said Poulsen. He referred to the portables as a short-term solution that is actually more expensive long-term then building facilities. “We’re now trying to think of how we can get rid of those portables, because they’re not a good investment decision.”

To ensure the integrity of the financial practices of TWU, each year the Board of Governors appoints an external audit firm to annually review all the accounts of the university and to provide its opinion on the integrity of the transactions. In addition, an audit committee of the Board meets with the external auditors to review these financial transactions.

Poulsen believes that the financial administration is accountable to the students as well.

“We’re here to serve you, to help you be all that God wants you to be,” he explained. “All of expenditures are ultimately accountable through that lens of serving our customers, which are the students.”