Can you add a bus map to the stops, or mark them better?
This is in the works! Some routes are still undergoing review, and a vendor search is in progress.

What about timetables, so we know the frequency of the buses on each route?
Timetables will also be posted at bus stops.

Parking is too expensive.
This is a common complaint, but statistics show that rates for employee parking at UAB are considerably lower than our peers.

How do the waiting lists work? It seems that newer employees often get to jump the queue, even when higher-ranking employees have been on the list for a specific building.
Under normal circumstances, employees are pulled from the wait list based on their date of request (i.e. oldest request gets highest priority). However, there are occasions where exceptions are made for various reasons. The exceptions can only be approved by Andre' Davis, the Director of Parking and Transportation Services.

To help, we've created a brief overview of RCM that should explain the main changes and impact for regular staff members.

What is RCM?
RCM stands for Responsibility Center Management. It is a more transparent, decentralized budget model that better enables academic and administrative units to plan, prepare and support university activities by giving each unit control over the income it generates and the expenses it incurs.

The advantages of RCM are that it encourages revenue generation and cost-effectiveness, promotes entrepreneurial thinking, aligns authority with accountability, improves responsiveness to change, enhances the ability to plan and increases revenue transparency.

What does that mean?
It should simplify accounting and make financial planning more straightforward. It should also encourage more strategic thinking and effective use of funds.

Why do we need it?
For many years UAB's financial model has been complicated. A position might be partially funded by 2-3 different departments, schools never know exactly how much of the money they generate they will receive, and general services can't be billed directly and are built into other charges.

For instance, no-one is charged for wi-fi but it's necessary for the campus to function. It's not free to provide high speed internet access to over 20,000 people, so the cost for wi-fi was built in to other services from IT, but that makes it hard to establish actual cost to provide and support a service, while artificially inflating other costs.

What will change?
If you're not already dealing directly with revenue/finances for your department, you probably will not notice any changes.

Units will have greater operational authority, allowing them to prioritize their academic missions in support of the UAB strategic plan.

Instead of tuition being paid to central administration and then a portion being dispersed to the units, each unit will retain its own tuition revenue and instead pay a portion back to the Provost to support general operations (e.g. Student Affairs, Enrollment Operations and other non-revenue-generating areas). Units will also be responsible for their own expenses.

Who was involved in the planning?
Three committees were established to look at all the aspects of RCM.

• Executive Budget Committee
• Budget Advisory Committee
• Budget Allocation Committee

Where can I find out more?
Check out the RCM website.