Our Present: The New Economic Framework
After three years of preparation and a full year of parallel testing, Stony Brook University shifted from a 69-year-old incremental budget model to the New Economic Framework (NEF) — an incentive-based approach to resource allocation. Where the old model carried forward each year's budget with small, incremental adjustments, the NEF ties funding directly to activity and performance, giving units across campus greater ownership over their financial future.
The NEF was shaped by a steering committee drawn from across the academic and research
enterprise, with a clear goal: build a transparent, predictable framework that connects
revenue generation and innovation directly to the University's strategic vision.
Why we made this shift?
Like any institution committed to its mission, Stony Brook recognizes that the next
seven decades call for a new foundation. The all-funds, incremental model that carried
the University through decades of growth helped stabilize its finances, fund strategic
priorities, and bring more consistency to budget processes — but it also revealed
real limits. Under an incremental approach, it can be hard to align spending with
evolving priorities, hard to give units true ownership over their resources, and hard
to build the kind of transparency and accountability a university of Stony Brook's
scale and ambition needs.
The NEF was designed to move past those limits — not by carrying forward each year's budget with incremental adjustments, but by giving academic and administrative units greater financial transparency, flexibility, responsibility, and accountability. It empowers units to make resource decisions that directly reflect their own priorities and performance, while keeping the University's overall financial health and mission at the center.
What is the New Economic Framework?
The New Economic Framework (NEF) is Stony Brook University's new approach to budgeting — replacing a decades-old incremental model with one built on activity, transparency, and shared accountability. Rather than carrying forward the same funding levels year after year with small adjustments, the NEF ties resources directly to the activity each unit generates, giving academic and administrative leaders greater ownership over their own financial priorities.
At its core, the NEF organizes the University into three types of units:
- Revenue Units — the University's schools and colleges, which generate revenue and are accountable for their own financial performance
- Auxiliary Units — self-supporting operations like Parking and Transportation
- Service Units — administrative and support areas that provide essential services across campus
Each unit type operates under a consistent, transparent structure for how resources are allocated, tracked, and reported — creating a clearer picture of how funding connects to the University's mission and strategic priorities.
Governance
The NEF is guided by a governance structure designed to keep decision-making transparent, collaborative, and accountable at every level.
Strategic Budget Executive Team (SBET)
Chaired by the University President, SBET holds ultimate authority over budget approvals,
resource distributions, and strategic investments across the University.
| Name | Title |
| Andrea Goldsmith | President, Stony Brook University |
| Carl Lejuez | Executive Vice President and Provost |
| Jed Shivers | Senior Vice President for Finance & Administration |
| Braden Hosch | Interim Chief Deputy to the President, Vice President for Educational & Institutional Effectiveness |
| Wendy Pearson | Vice President for Strategic Initiatives and Executive Director of Stony Brook Southampton |
| Additional Support |
Other SBU senior leaders attend SBET meetings Support staff include Elizenda Mondesir, Cathy Ribando and the BFP&A team |
Senior Executive Team (SET)
A leadership committee that reviews and approves hiring and spending requisitions
that are subject to requisition guidelines.
| Name | Title |
| Jed Shivers | Senior Vice President for Finance & Administration |
| Braden Hosh | Vice President for Educational & Institutional Effectiveness |
| Elizenda Mondesir | Interim Senior Associate Vice President for Budget & Financial Planning |
| Jennifer Donnelly | Vice President of Human Resource Services |
| Maria Ficken | Associate Vice President for Academic Budget and Financial Planning |
| John Riley | Associate Vice President, Health Sciences; Vice Dean, Administration and Finance Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University |
| Melissa Hogarty | Assistant Vice President for Business, Finance & Administration |
| Additional Support | VP Area Delegates as needed |
Budget Planning Committee (BPC)
A group of senior budget officers who lead the NEF's implementation, support education
and training efforts, and conduct periodic reviews of the model itself.
| Name | Title |
| Elizenda Mondesir, Chair | Interim Senior Associate Vice President for Budget & Financial Planning |
| John Riley | Associate Vice President, Health Sciences; Vice Dean, Administration and Finance Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University |
| Maria Ficken | Associate Vice President for Academic Budget and Financial Planning |
| Melissa Hogarty | Assistant Vice President for Business, Office of Administration & Finance |
| Martin Tessler | Senior Director of Financial Operations for President's Office | Division of Information Technology | Government & Community Relations |
| Rachel Ingrassia | Director of Finance and Management for College of Engineering and Applied Sciences |
| Ming Huang | Assistant Dean for Budget, College of Arts and Sciences |
| Additional Support | Support staff include Cathy Ribando and the BFP&A team |
Service Unit Advisory Committee
Works with service units to evaluate performance and develop Service Level Agreements
that set clear expectations between service units and the areas they support.
UPDATE WITH LIST
Space Management Committee
Provides oversight of campus space data and develops recommendations for how space
is allocated across the University.
Together, these groups create a system of checks and balances — ensuring that budget decisions are made with broad input, shared information, and alignment with the University's strategic goals.
UPDATE WITH LIST
Committee on Academic Planning and Resource Allocation (CAPRA)
Works in partnership with the BPC to review budgetary procedures and priorities for
planning and resource allocation in the Presidential, Provostial, and Vice-Presidential
areas.
How Is This Different From Before?
| The Legacy Model (Incremental Budgeting) | The New Economic Framework (NEF) | |
| How funding is determined | Resources built up over years of small, incremental adjustments — not always tied to current priorities | Revenue is distributed based on real activity (e.g., credit hours), directly tied to what each unit generates |
| Who controls resource decisions | Central budget decisions made largely top-down | Deans and unit leaders have direct access to their own revenue levers and strategic planning |
| How service costs are shared | Administrative and overhead costs were distributed with less transparency | Service costs are distributed using clear, agreed-upon usage metrics tied to actual benefit received |
| Accountability for performance | Limited connection between a unit's budget and its financial performance | Units are directly accountable for their financial stability and strategic alignment |
| Requesting additional funding | Units presented formal funding requests to senior leadership annually | Revenue units grow their own resources; a shared strategic pool funds new institutional priorities |
| Overall philosophy | Prioritized consistency and simplicity | Prioritizes entrepreneurship, efficiency, and alignment with strategic goals |
The New Economic Framework: What You Need to Know
One of the most significant shifts under the NEF is agency. Leaders of revenue-generating and auxiliary units — deans, department heads, and unit leaders — now have direct access to the levers that drive their own funding. Rather than waiting on a centrally determined allocation, these leaders can make intentional, strategic choices about how to grow and invest in their own units, guided by their own multi-year financial plans.
Revenue is distributed using real activity data — like credit hours — so that dollars flow to the areas actually generating them. Each unit's leadership also has flexibility to decide how much of that activity-based formula they want to extend further into their own departments as an incentive structure.
The NEF doesn't change Stony Brook's organizational chart — deans, VPs, and departments remain the same. Instead, every unit is now classified by function:
- Revenue Units (the University's 11 schools and colleges) generate revenue, cover their own direct costs, and are directly accountable for their financial performance.
- Auxiliary Units (like Parking and Transportation) generate fee-for-service revenue and operate similarly to revenue units in terms of accountability.
- Service Units (administrative and support areas) provide essential services to the University, operate on an approved budget, and are measured on service quality and performance.
To make sure no unit is left behind during the transition, the NEF includes a participation fee — a shared contribution assessed on unrestricted revenue across the academic and research enterprise. This fee funds two pools:
- Subvention Pool (13%) — provides support to revenue units that would otherwise operate at a loss, helping ease the transition to the new model.
- Strategic Pool (2%) — provides one-time, seed funding for new strategic initiatives that need a year or two of runway before they generate their own revenue.
In this first year, both pools are being used together to help stabilize units transitioning into the new formula-based system. Beginning in FY28, the strategic pool will be available to fund new institutional priorities.
The NEF also introduces Service Level Agreements (SLAs) between service units (like IT, Facilities, or HR) and the units they support. Each SLA spells out exactly what services are being provided, what's expected of both sides, and how success will be measured through Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
This creates a two-way accountability structure: revenue units know exactly what they're paying for through their share of shared service costs, and service units have a clear, transparent framework for delivering — and improving — the support they provide.
Budget planning under the NEF is anchored to President Goldsmith's "ABC" pillars for the University's future:
- Accelerating Stony Brook's excellence in research, education, healthcare, and community service
- Building new facilities and expanding the University's footprint — from research space on campus to projects like the New York Climate Exchange and the new Southampton Hospital
- Catalyzing innovation and economic growth through partnerships with Brookhaven National Laboratory, the Research & Development Park, and industry collaborators — from Manhattan to Montauk