SHARON - Problems in the Commonwealth campus system's budgeting process have led its vice provost and dean - who was approved Saturday by the University's Board of Trustees - to develop a new financial structure.

Richard Grubb, who acted as dean of the system, said he has been working on a restructuring of the branch campus budgeting process for about a year-and-a-half to align it with University policy.

Previously, the budgets of Commonwealth campuses were set without clear plans for where the money would be spent, Grubb said.

Before, if a Commonwealth campus needed to plow snow and there were no funds left in its physical plant budget, the money might be taken from academic support funds, Grubb explained. But that action would cause academic support expenditures to look artificially high and physical plant would continue to be underfunded, he said.

The budgets failed to work as effective management tools for Commonwealth campus executive officers, Grubb said.

"It's my hope and my expectation that it will result in more predictable and stable funding," said Carolyn Prager, executive officer of the Shenango campus. "That's the ultimate goal."

The restructuring will also put funds for all credit classes into the instruction and research budgets of Commonwealth campuses, Grubb said. Previously, funds for night courses were instead put into the budget for continuing education, he said.

Often the same students were in the classes and it was needlessly confusing to decide which courses were part of continuing education, he added. A separate portion of the budget will provide for non-credit continuing education courses, Grubb said.

Eventually the funds should be more equitably distributed among the 17 Commonwealth campuses, Grubb said. He added he hopes to establish more faculty and executive officer involvement in the budgeting process.

Over $100 million goes into the commonwealth system each year, said University President Bryce Jordan. But the money is well spent because it does much to improve the University and the entire state, he said.

About one-third of University students attend Commonwealth campuses for at least two years. Most campuses provide two-year associate degree programs and the Behrend and Capitol campuses offer four-year baccalaureate programs as well.

"The emphasis of the Commonwealth campuses is to extend the baccalaureate degree opportunity to more students and to be responsive to other educational needs in the community," Grubb said. Continuing education is an especially important mission for campuses in economically depressed areas, such as the Shenango Valley, he said.

As senior vice president and dean of the system, Grubb will be responsible for the Commonwealth campuses, Penn State Great Valley and the Division of Media and Learning Resources.

Grubb was senior vice president for administration at the University from 1979 to 1985 and returned to the University in the same capacity in 1987.

From 1985 to 1987 he served as Pennsylvania secretary of agriculture under former Gov. Richard Thornburgh.