Budget Communications

Glossary of Terms

General Operating Budget 

• The General Operating Budget, or G.O. Budget – The G.O. Budget is funded from two primary sources, state appropriation and tuition revenue, approximately $172 million in the FY22 Budget when combined. Other terms on the SIUE campus routinely used are the “state budget” or “ledger 2 budget.” The primary use of the G.O. Budget funding is to pay for the cost of instruction, along with the necessary support to facilitate instruction. 
• State appropriation funds – General Revenue Funds that come from Illinois tax revenue dollars.
• Income Fund – Income Fund revenue primarily comes from tuition revenue, but also includes certain fee revenue required by state law to be deposited into the Income Fund. Those fees include course specific fees, certain program fees, application fees, and graduation fees.

Total Budget

• In addition to the General Operating Budget, the Total SIUE Budget of approximately $307 million contains four additional major fund groups (i.e., sources of funding).  The accounts in these other four fund groups have routinely been called the “non-state budget” accounts or “local budget” accounts on the SIUE campus.
• Grants & Contracts – Grants and contracts include funds received from government entities, private foundations or corporations for the support of various research projects, instructional and training programs, public service activities, student financial aid, and other programs. The specific uses of these funds are restricted by contractual agreements with the sponsoring agency. Generally, revenues will equal expenditures over the life of the grant or contract. 
• Indirect Cost Recovery – Indirect cost funds are recovered as overhead allowances on grants and contracts.  
• Revenue Bond Operations – Revenue Bond enterprises have facilities which have been financed by the sale of revenue bonds and are funded primarily from student fees, operating charges, and sales and services of various activities and include such facilities as residence halls, student centers, and student recreation centers. At SIUE, the Revenue Bond units include University Housing, Morris University Center, Student Success Center, Student Fitness Center, and Parking and Traffic. 
• Self-Supporting Activities – Self-Supporting Activities, routinely referred to as “ledger 4 accounts” on the SIUE campus, include a wide range of operations that are not supported by the G.O. Budget. Revenue is generally derived through student fees or sales of services. Examples at SIUE include the Dental Clinic, the campus Bookstore, textbook services, and athletics. 

Net Tuition Revenue 

Net tuition revenue is the amount remaining after subtracting tuition waivers, scholarship awards or tuition-sharing from gross tuition revenue. 

• Tuition Waivers – A type of financial aid that exempts students from paying a portion, or all, of tuition and fee charges (i.e., forgone revenue).   
  • Examples include full or partial tuition waivers for Graduate Assistants, Illinois Veterans Grant recipients, Meridian scholars, Student Athletes, Employee tuition waivers, and Children of Employees waivers. 
• Scholarship Awards – Institutional scholarship aid funding provided to students to help pay for their education.  
• Tuition revenue sharing agreements –
  • Internal: 
    • These are agreements in which tuition revenue is allocated directly to academic departments (e.g., Differential tuition, Winter Session, new online graduate programs, etc.). 
    • Since the tuition revenue is allocated directly to those academic departments, it is therefore not available to fund (i.e., cover the cost of) general and negotiated salary increases and new university initiatives/priorities. 
  • External: 
    • Online enabler Academic Partnerships (50% of total tuition and fees collected for specific programs. 
    • International agent compensation for recruiting international students. 

Website content will be updated as new questions and ideas become available (or as we find more precise, clear language based on feedback). We hope this proves a helpful resource in building a collective understanding of SIUE’s budget circumstance. As we go forward together, additional questions may be submitted to budgetquestions@siue.edu.