Schools and Colleges and Research Units are budgeted with a significant component based on activity. Although the distribution of revenue and costs are handled identically for both schools and research units, those items associated with students, of course, result in no revenue or cost flow to the research units. Under the budget model, they receive as revenue tuition and registration fees that are attributed to them, less a deduction for centrally budgeted graduate and undergraduate financial aid; indirect costs recovered on sponsored research (ICR); admissions fees collected from their applicants; a number of other miscellaneous sources of direct revenue; and interest calculated on their general fund balances. They are assessed the direct costs of facilities and pay general and research taxes and a university participation tax. These components, taken together with specific support from the Provost, make up the General Fund budget to the unit.

University Academic Units include museums and libraries (including the University Library) that are not part of schools, colleges or other units. They also include the Officer Education Programs, the Media Union and the Nichols Arboretum. Generally, University Academic Units (UAUs) are institutions that do not grant degrees but that have academic missions that cut across the various schools and colleges and serve to produce and enhance the University’s shared public culture. UAUs’ principal revenue sources are allocations from the Provost, although they have some direct income from such sources as user charges, library fines and sales of acquired materials and they may also have research grants and contracts.

Auxiliary Units are units whose primary sources of revenue involve sales of services. They are quite disparate, including the Hospital, Housing, and the University Press. In general, auxiliary units receive no direct funding from the General Fund. Rather, they provide an overhead reimbursement to central administration for the types of institutional support provided to them that they cannot be directly charged.

Central Service Units include everything else — from the President’s Office through Department of Public Safety and the Center for Education of Women. Many central service units also charge other units directly for some of their services. A general fund budget comprises their main revenue source in the general fund.