Are you a UO staff or faculty member who's interested in:
- Enhancing skills in strategic thinking, proactive risk management, and decision-making around budget and finance issues?
- Gaining experience in diagnosing and consulting on real life issues facing higher education?
- Having opportunities to network with colleagues and subject matter experts in financial stewardship?
If so, please consider participating in the annual Financial Stewardship Institute.
"Institute participants showcase their capstone projects," Workplace, March 20, 2025.
Program Overview
The Financial Stewardship Institute is an engaging professional development program with unique workshops related to why we do what we do and what we do when it comes to stewarding the finances of the University of Oregon.
The cohort is comprised of UO employees from across the university with varying levels of experience in higher education, business practices, and budget planning. All faculty and staff are eligible to participate.
The program is a five month commitment, and to optimize the learning experience, enrollment is limited to 25 participants.
2025-2026 Program Schedule
- Session 1: University of Oregon Financial Overview; Essentials of University Budget Planning - Tuesday, October 7, 2025
- Session 2: University Accounting; Payables, Receivables and Collections - Tuesday, October 21, 2025
- Session 3: Contracting; Fundamentals of Sponsored Projects Administration - Tuesday, November 4, 2025
- Session 4: Financial Reporting and Analysis; Export Control Management; Small Group Project Assignments - Tuesday, November 18, 2025
- Session 5: Safety and Risk Services; Human Resources and Payroll - Tuesday, December 2, 2025
- Session 6: Small Group Project Check-in with FSI Design Team - Tuesday, January 6, 2026
- Session 7: Internal Controls and Fraud Awareness; Records Management and Information Security - Tuesday, January 20, 2026
- Session 8: Financial Stewardship Institute Capstone: FSI small group project teams will present their recommendations to the FSI design team and project sponsors. - Tuesday, February 17, 2026
Nomination Process
Nominations for the 2025-26 cohort are due September 15, 2025.
Registration for this program is facilitated through a nomination process to provide representation from many departments across campus with different levels of experience. Participants can nominate themselves or be nominated by another. All participants must have supervisor support to participate.
Nominees will be notified of their status one week prior to the launch of the Institute.
To Self-Nominate
- Discuss your interest with your supervisor.
- Complete and submit the nomination form.
- Questions on nomination form:
- How will participating in the FSI benefit your professional development and your department?
- How many years of experience do you have in financial stewardship in higher education?
- How many years of experience do you have in business practices (accounting, purchasing and contracting, records management, financial reporting)?
- How many years of experience do you have in budget planning?
Once you have completed the nomination form, your supervisor will be automatically notified via email for their approval.
To Nominate Another
Submit the nomination form to nominate someone for the FSI. Nominees will be notified that they need to complete the self-nomination process to be considered for the cohort.
Small Group Projects Proposals
An essential element of the FSI involves the application of financial stewardship principles taught in the workshops to real issues at the UO. To provide this experience to FSI participants we have them lead consulting projects for UO departments.
Proposing is easy: Simply provide a project title, a contact person/sponsor, a 1-2 paragraph problem statement/description, and a brief charge/goal for the FSI project team.
The deadline for submitting a proposal to the 2024-25 Institute was November 30, 2024.
Proposals for 2025-26 will be accepted starting in fall 2025.
Guidelines for identifying a project to submit
Focus of the project
- The project must focus on an issue with the potential to have a financial impact on the overall UO budget.
- The project should involve a complex issue that would benefit from the advice of a consulting team and require strategic thinking to be resolved.
- Participants in the FSI will serve as consultants, focusing on applying principles of financial stewardship (e.g., related to accounting, payables, receivables, and collections, contracting, sponsored projects, risk services, internal controls and fraud prevention, financial reporting and analysis, records management, HR and payroll) to your project.
Role of the sponsoring department
- Submit a project.
- Identify and electronically submit a project for FSI participants using the online form.
- Work with the FSI small group.
- If your proposal is selected, meet with your FSI project team to provide an overview of the project and answer any questions. Be available to answer questions from your FSI project team members as they analyze the issues and prepare their recommendations.
- Attend capstone presentation.
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Examples of Prior Projects
- Enterprise workflow management systems for shared services.
- Assessment of annual, academic year, and daily or overnight stays on the Portland campus.
- Email and retention management analysis.
- Feasibility of campus-wide translation and interpretation services.
- Analysis of graduate student external fellowships and training grants.
- Classroom furniture diversion program.
- Leveraging SharePoint to better manage the university’s records.
Questions
If you have any questions about the nomination process, or sponsoring an FSI consulting project, please contact Mia Larson, Learning & Development Operations Specialist, at mlarson6@uoregon.edu.