UB officials call the proposed RAM "a move in the right direction," specifically citing the retention of campus revenues by the campuses as a "critical" component.

The proposal, detailed in a preliminary report prepared by the RAM Committee and available on the Web at http://www.sysadm. suny.edu/finman/finance.htm, also supports funding instruction, research and public-service initiatives separately; distributing support according to specific instructional and disciplinary groups, and establishing performance-based funding for campuses.

The report was formally submitted to Brian T. Stenson, vice chancellor for finance and business, in October. Since then, a series of briefings have been held with the campus presidents, academic and administrative vice presidents, the SUNY Faculty Senate and Board of Trustees, and legislative and Division of the Budget staff.

Stenson said that comments from the various constituencies will be considered by system office staff and the RAM Committee, composed of representatives from the campuses and system administration, when developing a revised report to be considered by the Board of Trustees this spring.

Implementation is expected to begin as early as July.

According to Stenson, a new RAM is being developed because the previous allocation method - known as the Benchmark - was too complex, unpredictable and did not delineate between the campus missions of research, teaching and public service. "The campuses were looking for something simpler and easier to predict and understand," he said.

The new methodology provides for distribution of state tax support to the campuses based on three major categories:

-- Enrollment-related support, in which funding is based on discipline groupings and levels of instruction, with separate factors for health-science professionals. The plan calls for "12-cell" categories of enrollment, down from the 40-cell matrix used in the Benchmark.

The report urges that campuses be actively involved in setting their enrollment targets and for modest fluctuations in achieving those targets. To promote "predictability in the allocation method," the committee recommends that a three-year rolling average of FTE enrollments be used in determining the state-support allocations "to cushion increasing and declining enrollment trends."

-- Mission-related support, which includes core support-the administrative and institutional costs required to support the educational activity of the campus; program-related adjustments, such as training ships at the Maritime College and forest properties at the College of Environmental Science and Forestry; organized research and related costs for campuses that have designated programs or institutes that engage in state-funded organized research; sponsored-program support, and support for public-service programs.

-- Performance funding. A Performance Indicators Task Force has been formed to make recommendations regarding performance indicators and reporting.

While the committee recommends differential tuition be adopted and the concept is "essential if the benefits of the proposed RAM are to be fully realized," major components of the model can move forward without it, noted David M. DeMarco, assistant vice chancellor for finance and business. While SUNY must receive legislative approval to institute differential tuition, it has the authority to allow the campuses to retain the tuition and fees they collect, he added.

Senior Vice President Robert J. Wagner praised the proposal allowing campuses to retain revenue, calling it "a huge and important change" in the way SUNY allocates support to the campuses. The system currently pools all revenue generated on the campuses.

Terry Gates, associate professor of music and chair of the Faculty Senate Budget Priorities Committee, concurred, citing the proposal as one that would be particularly beneficial to UB.

Gates also commended the RAM committee for developing the proposal with substantial faculty input, but warned that simplifying the allocation process too much would hurt UB.

"It's to our advantage to make it (the RAM process) as complex as our institution is," he said.

Wagner noted that two components of the proposal that are critical to UB are incomplete: How the model will identify appropriate state tax support for organized research and how it will identify support for public service.

However, he said that the mission-related component - which recognizes that "the range of programs in the system isn't reflected in the algorithms that drive the instructional component and need to be reflected in the allocations" to campuses - allows the RAM to work.

The new RAM would be phased in over a period of time, the report states. To avoid major disruptions in allocations, the committee recommends a "collar" be established so that no campus gains or loses more than a specified percentage - for example, 2 or 3 percent of state support - in any one year due to the RAM.