Project Classification Guide

UMES is required to report project expenditures to the state based on the below classifications.  Please help us to properly classify your project by selecting the one area that best represents the overall purpose of the project:

InstructionAcademic SupportOperation and Maintenance Plant
ResearchStudent ServicesAuxiliary Enterprises
Public ServiceInstitutional SupportScholarships and Fellowships

INSTRUCTION PROGRAM 01

The instruction category includes expenditures for all activities that are part of an institution’s instruction program. Expenditures for credit and noncredit courses; academic and technical instruction; remedial and tutorial instruction; and regular, special, and extension sessions should be included.

This category excludes expenditures for academic instruction when the primary assignment is administration-for example, academic deans. However, expenditures for department chairpersons and administrators for whom instruction is an important role are included.

The instruction category includes the following subcategories:

  • General Academic Instruction Element 01 This subcategory includes expenditures for formally organized and/or separately budgeted instructional activities that are carried out during the academic year.   Remedial instruction is also included in this subcategory.
  • Special Session Instruction Element 02 This subcategory includes expenditures for formally organized and/or separately budgeted instructional activities that are carried out during a summer session, interim session, or other period not common with the institution’s regular term. This subcategory classifies expenditures made solely as a result of conducting a special session (such as faculty salaries associated with the special session). These activities will be self-supported.

RESEARCH PROGRAM 02

The research category includes all expenditures for activities specifically organized to produce research, whether “commissioned by an agency external to the institution or separately budgeted by an organizational unit within the institution.  Subject to these conditions, the category includes expenditures for individual and/or project research as well as that of institutes and research centers. This category does not include all sponsored programs nor is it necessarily limited to sponsored research, since internally supported research programs, if separately budgeted, might be included in this category under the circumstances described. Expenditures for departmental research that are separately budgeted for research are included in this category. However, the research category does not include expenditures for departmental research that are not separately budgeted. Such expenditures are included in the instructional category.

The research category includes the following subcategories:

  • Institutes and Research Centers Element 01 This subcategory includes expenditures for research activities that are part of a formal research organization created to manage a number of research efforts. While this subcategory includes agricultural experiment stations, it does not include federally funded research and development centers, which, for public institutions, should continue to be classified as independent operations.
  • Individual and Project Research Element 02 This subcategory includes expenditures for research activities that are managed within academic departments. Such activities may have been undertaken as the result of a research contract or grant or through a specific allocation of the institution’s general resources.

PUBLIC SERVICE PROGRAM 03

The public service category includes expenditures for activities established primarily to provide non-instructional services beneficial to individuals and groups external to the institution. These activities include community service programs (excluding instructional activities) and cooperative extension services. The public service category includes the following subcategories:

  • Community Service Element 01 This subcategory includes expenditures for activities organized and carried out to provide general community services, excluding instructional activities. Community service activities make available to the public various resources and special capabilities that exist within the institution. Examples include conferences and institutes, general advisory services and reference bureaus, radio and television, consulting, and similar non0-instructional service particular to sectors of the community.

ACADEMIC SUPPORT PROGRAM 04

The academic support category includes expenditures incurred to provide support services for the institution’s primary missions: instruction, research, and public service. It includes the retention, preservation, and display of educational materials, for example, libraries; the provision of services that directly assist the academic functions of the institution, media such as audio-visual services and technology such as computing support; academic administration (including academic deans but not department chairpersons) and personnel development providing administration support and management direction to the three primary missions (instruction, research, public service).

This category includes the following subcategories:

  • Libraries Element 01 This subcategory includes expenditures for organized activities that directly support the operation of a formally catalogued library.
  • Academic Computing Support Element 02 This subcategory includes expenditures for formally organized and/or budgeted activities that provide computing support to the three primary programs of instruction, research, and public service. Excluded from this category is administrative data processing, which is classified as institutional support.
  • Academic Administration Program 03 This subcategory includes expenditures for activities specifically designed and carried out to provide administrative and management support to the academic programs.  It includes the expenditures of academic deans, but it does not include the expenditures of department chairpersons (which are included in the appropriate primary function categories).  Expenditures associated with the office of the chief academic officer of the institution are not included in this subcategory, but should be classified as institutional support.
  • Other Academic Support Program 04 This subcategory includes expenditures for organized activities that provide support services to the three primary programs of instruction, research; and public service, but are not appropriately classified in the previous subcategories.

STUDENT SERVICE PROGRAM 05,  ELEMENT 01

The student services category includes expenditures incurred for offices of Admissions, Registrar, Enrollment Management,  Counseling and Career Services (excluding informal academic counseling by the faculty), Financial Aid, and Student Health (if not operated as an essentially self-supporting activity) and other activities with the primary purpose of contributing to students’ emotional and physical well-being and intellectual, cultural, and social development outside the context of the formal instruction program. It may include expenditures for student activities, cultural events, student organizations.

INSTITUTIONAL SUPPORT PROGRAM 06

The institutional support category includes expenditures for central executive-level activities concerned with management and long-range planning for the entire institution, such as the governing board, planning and programming, and legal services; fiscal operations, administrative data processing; human resources; logistical activities that provide procurement, storerooms, safety, security, and transportation services to the institution; support services to faculty and staff that are not operated as auxiliary enterprises; and activities concerned with community and alumni relations, including development and fund raising. To the extent that fringe benefits are not assigned to other functional categories, those benefits would be charged to institutional support.

The institutional support category includes the following subcategories:

  • Institutional Administration  Element 01 This subcategory includes expenditures for all central, executive-level activities concerned with management and long-range planning for the entire institution (as distinct from planning and management for anyone program within the institution). All officers with institution wide responsibilities are included, such as the president, chief academic officer, chief business officer, chief student affairs officer, and chief development officer.
  • Administrative Computing Support Element 02 This subcategory includes expenditures for computer services that provide support for institution wide administrative functions.

OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE OF PLANT 07

Operation and Maintenance of Plant includes expenditures for the operation and maintenance of the Physical Plant, such as building and maintenance, custodial services, utilities, landscape and grounds maintenance and major repairs and renovations. 

AUXILIARY SERVICES PROGRAM 08

An Auxiliary Enterprise is an entity that exists to furnish goods or services primarily to students, faculty, or staff, and that charges a fee directly related to, although not necessarily equal to, the cost of the goods or services. The distinguishing characteristic of auxiliary enterprises is that they are managed as essentially self-supporting activities. Examples are: resident halls, dining services, copy center, vending, laundry and intercollegiate athletics.

  • Auxiliary Enterprises  Element 01 
  • Intercollegiate Athletics Element 02

SCHOLARSHIPS AND FELLOWSHIPS 17

Scholarships and Fellowships include expenditures made in the form of outright grants to students selected by the institution.  If the institution is given custody of funds to eventually be distributed to students and the institution is not allowed to select the recipient, it is not an expense of the institution and should be reported in the agency funds group.

  • Scholarships Element 01 Includes grants and remission of fees to undergraduate students.
  • Other Scholarships and Fellowships Element 02 Includes grants and remission of fees to graduate students.
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