Northwest Florida State College RN to BSN Nursing Program

the onsite resource room.) Subsequent years should follow a similar pattern of revenues and
expenses. Using the traditional Florida funding mechanisms, when enrollment grows, revenues
should increase proportionate to an increase in student numbers; fixed expenses remain relatively
constant, with variable expenses increasing proportionately. Once a program has been approved
by the Florida State Board of Education, it will continue to receive state support through the
standard legislative appropriation process, as long as enrollments and completions are viable.
Program level involvement in budget development adds to the efficacy of the financial
support. At NWFSC, the college-wide budgeting process is an open, “bottom upward” rather
than “top downward” process. Early each spring term, the associate dean and the program
director in consultation with faculty and staff, review the prior year’s expenditures, evaluate new
and continuing program needs, and then submit a budget request. At the same time, the program
faculty and staff prepare a prioritized equipment and software request. These requests are
submitted through the Office of Instruction to the College Budget Committee. While program
requests for operating funds must comply with institutional budget development guidelines, the
program always has the opportunity to submit “new issues” for consideration. Equipment,
software, and new issues are prioritized at the program level to ensure that the decisions are
made using the wisdom of the subject/program area experts. For the past two years, the
program director has served as an academic representative to the College Budget Committee and
has become familiar with the full budgeting process.
Facilities
All facilities-related activities for the last five years have been specifically tailored not
only to accommodate immediate needs, but also to anticipate future upper and lower division
programming. This foresight is characterized by several factors, including: a) constructing new
facilities to university standards (e.g. the Niceville LRC and Science Technology Buildings), b)
designing specialized program facilities to meet shared, multi-purpose uses (e.g. the collegiate
high school houses high school students by day and college students by night), c) proactive
coordination with city, state, and county offices to ensure infrastructure issues such as power,
water management, and traffic control to anticipate future concerns, and d) partnering with other
public and private entities to leverage and maximize construction funding (e.g. the Arts Center
Northwest Florida State College Self-Study Report for the BSN Program, August 20, 2008 Page 23 of 59