At one time, state and federal sources provided a large percentage of funding for many public and private institutions of higher education. However, this has changed so that even many public institutions receive only small percentages of funding from government sources. As these funding sources change, institutions must reconsider their programs, their models, and their priorities. A full budget at a large institution could be hundreds of pages in length and require a large, dedicated team of professionals to develop. To analyze a full budget is beyond the scope of this course, but it is typically part of the responsibilities for anyone in a leadership position. While you review budget documents, look for information about specific funding priorities.To prepare: Consider the relationship between funding and priorities. Then, do the following: Select an institution and research any publicly available documentation on its fiscal year budgets. Check with the Walden Library for resources. To complete: Write a 4- to 5-page paper in which you analyze how the budget impacts competing priorities. Explain how you would decide these issues, and include the following: A brief description of the institution you have selected and the size and scope of its budget A description of at least two funding priorities at the institution and, as best as you can determine, the rationale for such priorities An analysis of the budget to identify at least two potential competing priorities that might result from the budget plan A description of any public comments from legislators, the public, or other stakeholders A proposal for how you would resolve competing priorities An explanation of how you would reach out to stakeholders who have expressed public concerns Your paper should be written in a scholarly manner using APA formatting. Provide URL links to information about the institution you selected and its budget. Be sure to review the Learning Resources before completing this activity. Click the weekly resources link to access the resources. Five references are required for this assignment.

Your Name Course and SectionProfessor’s Name July 28, 2024 Introduction 1UC Berkeley is recognized as one of the most famous and reputable public universities that focuses on research with a high-quality education. Budgeting as a resource management instrument poses a problem that is rather challenging because it involves making decisions in an environment where competing demands need to be met within the institution’s budget. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to understand the link between funding and priorities at UC Berkeley and demonstrate how financial resources are provided for key strategic areas and the issues that may occur because of that. Further, it comes with ways of solving conflicting priorities and also the recommended ways of engaging the stakeholders. Brief of UC Berkeley and Their Budget Located in Berkeley, California, UC Berkeley is one of the oldest as well as one of the best public universities in the United States. Over 40,000 students and operating over 350-degree programs require the university to have a rather large annual budget. Based on UC Berkeley’s Budget Office, for the fiscal year 2023-2024, the University of California Berkeley had a total budget of over $3 billion procured from the state, students, research grants, donations, and other sources of income such as auxiliary enterprises. Funding Priorities at UC Berkeley UC Berkeley which is among the top academic institutions in the United States has allocated adequate funds to cater for research facilities due to the numerous research activities conducted in the university, thus focusing their funds on research. This funding is quite vital to maintain the status, attract more qualified faculty and students, as well as encourage innovations. Research funding can be in the form of grants to individual faculty projects, laboratory funding as well as funding for research centers as shown by the National Science Foundation of America (2022). As for the above priority, the goal is to maintain UC Berkeley’s status and contribution to existing science and knowledge. Another major concern of funding needed for a college or university includes student services that include areas such as mental health, career services, housing, and other co-curricular activities. The reason for prioritizing this element is to develop the opportunities for the students to have a beneficial experience in the universities, increase the retention rate, and provide the students with the conditions that would help them to succeed in their activity (Association of American Universities, 2022). Funding of student services helps offset costs likely to be incurred by students in course delivery, and their welfare in general. Funding and priorities of UC Berkeley are to some extent similar to funding and priorities in the case of most institutions – there is a distribution between the different essential fields. Although research and student services are important, they are choices, and actually the two components tend to fight for, wanted by funding. * Research vs. Student Services: More money might be devoted to the financing of the research projects and centers which could mean lesser funds for students. This means that there would be insufficient personnel in counseling departments or inadequate funding for students’ activities and entertainment, thus a negative impact on the students (Bok, 2013). On the other hand, providing more funding to student services may mean less funding to research which may affect the research profile of the university. * Infrastructure vs. Faculty Salaries: In this case, there is another possible conflict concerning the sources of funds between infrastructural development and faculty remuneration. Due to the above reasons, UC Berkeley has to continue to...