University Budgets, Accounts and Reports
The series University Budgets, Accounts and Reports, consists of three subseries: Annual University Budget (official copy); Miscellaneous Unit Budgets (mainly University Hospital); and Project (Trust Fund) Budget.
The University of Michigan has historically created not one but two university budgets. The document generally referred to as "the budget" and which records most expected university expenses is, in fact, the plan under which general fund money is allocated. The primary sources of general fund income are state taxes and appropriations, as well as tuition and other fees. The "other" budget has been known as either the "Trust Fund" or "Project" Budget. It reports the appropriations of restricted funds. Originally the most common source of restricted funds was various bequests made to the university by individuals to support specific activities or services, such as student loans or research. Thus the accounts were collectively referred to as "Trust Fund Budgets." After World War II the increasing flow of restricted funds from other sources, such as federal funding for construction and research, made the old title obsolete, and the accounts were renamed "Project Budgets."
Preparation of an Annual University Budget (official copy), appears to have begun in 1909/1910 (an earlier typed budget from 1908/1909 has been listed with this series for convenience). Bound in an oversize format, this document detailed for each unit all employees, each employee's salary history over the previous five years, the requested salary for each employee, and a non-itemized figure for each of the other expenses found in the unit's budget, such as equipment or travel. Each unit's budget was signed by an authorizing official, usually the department chair or dean of the school. Space was allowed so that the authorizing official could, if desired, include a justification for budgetary increase requests. Originally, many authorizing officials did include justification for increased expenses, particularly for higher salaries, but as time passed explanations became rarer. In the last official copy of the university budget, prepared in 1946/1947, explanation had virtually disappeared.
The physical awkwardness of the official copy of the budget and the need for multiple copies undoubtedly led university officials in 1919/1920 to print copies of most of the budget. Between 1919/1920 and 1947/1948 this bound record was divided into two parts. Part I, "Summary of the Budget," gave a quick overview of university general fund spending. Part II, "Salary Budget," detailed the largest item in the general fund budget. The Salary Budget omitted, however, all non-salary expenses and the optional explanation of changes.
In 1948/1949 the printed budget was modified. The "Salary Budget" was retitled "Detailed Budget" and its scope was broadened. Non-salary items previously excluded, such as "Current Expense and Equipment" and "Travel" were reported, as well as a few general fund accounts which earlier had not been detailed. A growing concern over the privacy of individual salary figures, led to a major revision in the budget's format in 1956/1957. The Summary/Budget, for convenience long published as a separate document, became the only published document. In place of the Detailed Budget a new publication, called Department Payroll and Accounts, appeared. This document, which had only a limited distribution, included the salary information formerly printed in section II. This salary information also appears in the pages of the Michigan Dailywhich, relying upon legislation enacted in October 1979, defining state employees' salaries as public records, has annually published the salaries of faculty and professional and administrative employees of the university.
In 1957/1958, although the Summary Budget continued to be published, a more complete publication, Proposed Budget and Supplementary Schedules was begun. It included the information found in the general fund budget, as well as information about project budgets. This new publication, referred to informally as "the grey book" because of its cover, became the basic budgetary reference tool. In 1965/1966 the volume's title was changed to Budget and Supplementary Schedules. In 1967/1968 it became known by the simple title, Budgets. In 1973/74 the grey book was divided into four volumes, one subtitled "All Campus," the other three giving the budget for each of the university's three major centers, Ann Arbor, Dearborn, and Flint.
Compared with the complexity of the publications reflecting the university's annual general fund budget, the subseries Trust Fund Budgets, is simple. It began in 1948/1949 with an oversize volume whose format resembled the official copy of the university budget. In 1950/1951 the Trust Fund Budget's format was reorganized to resemble that of the second section of the printed annual budget, the "Salary Budget." As time passed the number of project budgets became large, leading to the binding of multi-volume sets. In 1962/1963 a two volume set was produced. By 1967/1968 twelve volumes were needed to hold all of the budgets. After that year, however, the bulk was reduced and in 1973/1974 the practice of actually binding the budgets together was abandoned.
In addition to this basic publication of Trust Fund/Project Budgets, the vice president's office also prepared, under various titles, Selected Project Budgets. The reason for these publications was that the budgets of major university units, such as the Institute for Social Research, were difficult to find among the many project budgets. The selected project budget publications made these major units' budgets more accessible.
Auxiliary Activities, contained the records of units which were substantially self-supporting. A few departmental payroll and account volumes exist for these units, but most of the subseries is made up of annual budgets from the residence halls and University Hospital. The budgets of these two units were probably retained because they are the university's largest auxiliary activities. The hospital, for example, usually accounts for twenty to twenty-five percent of the university's total income and expenses. They are similar in form to the printed annual budget's Detailed Section. The hospital budget contains primarily salary information and also a few general financial tables. It seems to have been modeled on the older official copy of the university budget.
Reports are the traditional annual accounting which is expected of a major financial institution. Originally prepared for the Regents' scrutiny, today the reports are the basic documents through which the university makes itself accountable for the receipt and expenditure of funds. Two types are generated: Financial (originally Treasurer's) and Investment. The Financial Report, and its predecessor Treasurer's Report, has been issued annually since 1883. It is published in two parts. The first offers a cursory overview of all university income and expenses regardless of the source. The second presents tables detailing income and expenses at the unit level. Because the Financial Report includes both general fund and project income and details both summary salary and non-salary expenses, it is the single most comprehensive document available regarding university finances.
The Investment Report is a highly specialized document which annually details where the university has placed the funds available to it. Begun in 1928 the Investment Report historically listed the portfolio holdings of each university account. In the mid-1960s the basic structure of the document was changed. Individual accounts were no longer listed. Instead, the university's investment portfolio was reported on as a whole, although the practice of citing each investment instrument by name was retained. The new format made it clear how university funds as a whole were invested, but made it impossible to determine where the funds of a particular account were placed.
The published annual budget; departmental payrolls and accounts; project budgets; auxiliary activities; reports; and state budget documents are described and located within the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer publications record group. A separate finding aid has been prepared for these documents.