Home < News <  September 10, 2007

A Message from Provost Hume on UC Restructuring Initiatives
September 10, 2007

As you know, President Dynes last month announced his intention to step down as President in June 2008 or upon the appointment of his successor. For the interim period, I have been asked to serve in a chief operating officer capacity to support the President and ensure continuity of operations at the Office of the President during the transition.

For some time now the President, The Regents, the Academic Senate, the administration at the campus and systemwide levels, and other groups have been working on a variety of initiatives to plan for the University of California s future. I believe that together we have identified three key integrated strategic imperatives:

• Strengthen our core to fulfill our vital educational, research, and public service mission;
• Reinvigorate our relationship with the people of California; and
• Set our course for global pre-eminence in research and education in the 21st century.

President Dynes is committed to advancing this agenda during the remainder of his term.

To do these things well, we also must have effective and accountable administrative systems supporting our core academic enterprise. Last month the Chairman of the Board of Regents issued a paper focusing on this issue and calling for improvements in the University's administrative infrastructure. I have now developed a response to Chairman Blum's paper. I invite you to read both the Chairman s paper and my response on the web.

The response lays out a series of action directives that I am issuing to strengthen our administrative processes and systems in support of our academic mission. As you will see, we have a great deal of work to do. But I am confident that, with the continued commitment of people throughout the University of California community, we will achieve success in this endeavor.

The activities described in my response are intended to align with the organizational review and restructuring of administrative operations that was announced last spring and has been undertaken by Monitor Group. Next week, Monitor Group will be issuing a report summarizing its findings to date and suggesting that several key areas of systemwide University operations be prioritized for further review and organizational restructuring. Several work groups, composed largely of campus representatives, are being convened to assist this process.

The Monitor Group report will be discussed at the September meeting of the Board of Regents, and it will be posted to the web next week. Also posted will be the missions and memberships of the work groups that are being convened to assist the next phase of the process. I wanted you to have access to these materials as soon as they become available.

While this is a time of change and self-scrutiny, it also is a time of great opportunity for the University and its service to the state. I hope you ll join me in embracing the opportunities, and I look forward to our continuing to be in touch on these matters.

Sincerely,

Wyatt R. Hume
Provost and Executive Vice President
Academic and Health Affairs