By Donna Hemmila

President Mark Yudof has launched a new systemwide accountability initiative designed to track UC's performance in student success, faculty diversity, research outcomes and other key areas.

"In the wake of the Enron scandal, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the subprime mortgage lending meltdown, Americans are demanding more accountability from their private as well as their public institutions," Yudof told UC Regents as he introduced his accountability framework at their July 17 meeting.

A comprehensive collection of performance measurement data will increase the university's credibility and build public trust, Yudof said, in addition to providing a valuable resource for long-range planning and policy decisions.

Yudof expects to deliver the first annual accountability report to UC Regents in September with subreports on targeted areas delivered throughout the year.

"This is designed to say how this institution serves its students and all its constituents," Yudof said, adding that any student, parent, lawmaker or California taxpayer should be able to go to the university's systemwide Web site and find out how specific university programs are performing and how UC stacks up against comparable U.S. universities.

"UC needs to be a leader in this and not a follower," Yudof told regents.

Other large public university systems such as the State University of New York and the University of Texas, where Yudof served as chancellor, have launched accountability initiatives. While at the Texas system, Yudof was recognized as a national leader in higher education accountability and before taking over as UC president on June 16, he cited accountability as one of his top priorities.

"We are very excited to be going down this path," said Joanne Kozberg, chair of the Regents’ long-range planning committee where Yudof introduced the accountability initiative.

The responsibility for measuring accountability and producing the reports will rest with a new unit in the Office of the President under the direction of Dan Greenstein, a vice provost in the Division of Academic Affairs.

"I'm not saying there's no accountability in the University of California," Yudof said. "But it's chaotic. It's not organized, and it's not repetitive in the way I want it to be. But this is not some new bureaucratic requirement. The data is basically there."

Yudof said he realizes some important work of the university can't be measured and reduced to statistics.

"I believe the value of the 55,000 students who leave UC campuses each year with new degrees and unlimited potential is probably greater than the market capitalization of Google," he said. "But that would be difficult to quantify."

But because UC can't measure everything, he said, doesn't mean it should measure nothing. The first report won't be perfect, he told regents, but every year it will be refined.

Donna Hemmila is editor of Our University.