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A message to UCOP employees from Provost Hume and Executive Vice President Lapp
March 11, 2008

Colleagues:

As I review the 2008-09 UCOP budget proposal we are preparing to present to the Regents, I am reminded again of how much I have asked of many of you over the last few months. Thanks to your efforts, we will bring to the March meeting of the Regents a proposal for a leaner, more focused Office of the President. We will help meet the challenges of the state budget by decreasing expenditure. We will also show that we are best able to design and create our future form, to match our function.

As we chart that future, three things have become exceedingly clear to me:

1. The university's future success depends on its ability to act as one system, operating in ways that are as cross-disciplinary, innovative and collaborative as possible to sustain our competitive advantage as the world's leading public research university.
2. The Office of the President has vital and distinct work to do in catalyzing that collaboration and in fighting for the support our institution deserves. We must organize ourselves to emphasize and focus on that work.
3. The employees of the Office of the President care deeply about this university and are committed to making often difficult changes in order to achieve more on its behalf. You need the leadership and support to help you succeed. 

As I focus my own efforts on carrying these messages to Regents and to legislators, I have asked Executive Vice President Katie Lapp to lead the day-to-day transformation efforts for the Office of the President. To this end, she and a group of leaders from throughout UCOP are working on a number of initiatives across the office to clarify the missions, core work and organizational structures of all of our units. Future updates on this topic will come from Katie and her more detailed overview of our progress and activities follows this note.

Our work continues. We are striving to act quickly so that we can move beyond the uncertainty of restructuring and on to the very bright future which lies ahead. I look forward to discussing this with you in person at two town hall sessions Katie and I will be hosting this Friday, March 14. Specific times and locations will be announced shortly.

Until then, thank you again for your dedication and great work.

Rory

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

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Colleagues:

This week, we are finalizing the 2008-09 UCOP appropriations request for presentation to Regents at their March meeting, with final approval expected in May. As many of you know, Rory and I have met extensively with department leaders for in-depth discussions of their budget submissions.

Every department has made significant reductions – most, I'm happy to say, without the need for layoffs. This is thanks in part to natural attrition, the vacancy controls instituted last fall, and the Voluntary Separation Program. About 250 employees have elected to participate in the VSP; it is unclear how many of these will translate into actual departures. I will be reviewing the potential impact of these and other vacancies with each department to determine where we may need to backfill to maintain our ability to perform critical functions.

Where there will be layoffs, those department heads are working with Human Resources to ensure that affected employees are notified as soon as possible and can connect with the support services available to help them plan accordingly. HR has also updated its definitions of UCOP's layoff units to reflect our current organizational structure, so the few areas that are making these difficult decisions can do so with accurate guidelines in place.

What is clear from these budget reductions and the impact it is having on all of us is that we cannot continue to get smaller and try to perform the same amount of work in the same way we always have. That reality is moving our restructuring efforts ahead urgently on two fronts: The first is to right-size central administration operations at UCOP; the second is to improve their effectiveness.

Working groups consisting of department leaders and staff closest to the daily work are already heading specific initiatives, including:

• Department-by-department reviews to identify both low-priority activities that could be eliminated and high-priority functions requiring additional investment;
• Pursuing new business models for core systemwide activities. These models include “service centers,” which are dedicated management units whose overarching mission is to provide high-quality services in the most cost-effective manner possible; and
• Consolidation of fragmented functions into single UCOP-wide units that are organized and staffed to broadly serve the organization in ways that reduce redundancy and achieve efficiencies.

The consolidation of desktop support services, for example, is already under way. New staff positions have been posted for internal recruitment, and departments will begin to be phased into the centralized service model in April. Three other areas – OP budget, institutional data analysis and reporting, and communications – have been identified as the next priority areas.

By May, Rory will be able to present to Regents a new organizational structure for the Office of the President, including for its senior administration. By July, the first of the consolidated units will be operating, with additional department reorganizations being completed through the fall.

I have convened a core planning team to share ideas and evaluate the recommendations from the various working groups as their efforts progress. Each of these groups is actively seeking input to help redefine our structure, and I encourage you to participate at every opportunity. The leadership we show now will provide the direction and credibility for the leadership we need to provide to the UC system in the future.

The next few months will be critical as we make difficult choices about what we continue to do here at UCOP. But I'm certain that through this process we will create an organization that is less sprawling, less top-heavy and more rationally organized by the nature of the work to be done. Our units will be appropriately sized for their redefined workload and structured to encourage innovation, cross training, professional growth and mutual support.

I look forward to seeing you at one of our town halls this Friday, where we hope to address your questions and thoughts in more detail. If you would like to submit specific questions in advance of the town hall, please use the feedback form at our future planning website, www.universityofcalifornia.edu/future.

Sincerely,

Katie

Katherine N. Lapp
Executive Vice President, Business Operations