Mark Yudof reached his 100th day as UC President on Sept. 23.

Mark Yudof reached the 100-day milestone of his tenure as UC president by taking a major step forward on one of the first priorities he announced after assuming office in June – the development of an accountability report for the UC system.

Yudof issued a draft report on Sept. 21 that represents the first attempt to comprehensively assess UC's progress in meeting key teaching, research and public service goals. The draft report contains 102 performance measures in a range of high-priority areas such as student access and affordability, faculty and staff diversity, student graduation rates, graduate enrollments, technology transfer to society and level of private donations. The draft report is posted for public review and comment over the next four months with the final updated version to be published in May.

"An accountability framework is critical for transparency, it’s critical for performance measurement of the institution, and it’s important for the personal accountability of the leaders of the institution," Yudof said.

UC has collected and reported much of the data for years, but the accountability initiative represents the first time the information has been pulled together into one report and made widely available to the public. The report will be issued annually, Yudof said, and will get better year by year. Yudof said he recognizes that not all the good work of a university can be measured quantitatively, and he expects to add quality measurements over time.

"Just because you can't measure everything, doesn't mean you shouldn't measure anything," he said.

In addition to launching the accountability initiative, Yudof has spent his first 100 days focusing on a number of projects aimed at bolstering the university's fiscal health, increasing transparency and building a strong leadership team.

"While the first 100 days of any new job are daunting, I believe we are making good progress," Yudof said. "I know I have learned a great deal about the University of California and have a deeper appreciation for the amazing people who work here and the legacy that predates me.  Furthermore, I have an even greater appreciation for the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead."

Restructuring Office of the President. Staffing in the central administrative offices reduced from 1,750 to 1,344, not including direct reports to the Regents and self-supporting enterprises. Further reductions are anticipated, and the president will present Regents with a revised and smaller UCOP budget in November.

Yudof also is working to ensure that the president and Board of Regents are focused on strategy and oversight in productive ways, not overly involved in transactional approvals that are better handled by those closer to the activities involved.

“In an $18 billion enterprise, the CEO simply can’t monitor hundreds of individual transactions each week,” he told the Board of Regents this month.  “A better way to ensure compliance is to continue to require full disclosure, to hold the chancellors accountable for their compensation and other decisions, and to make greater use of random audit and compliance reviews.”

Hiring leadership. Since assuming the UC presidency Yudof has hired Steve Juarez as associate vice president and director for state government relations, Alan Hoffman as senior vice president of external relations and John Stobo as senior vice president for clinical and health services. A search is under way for a new provost to take over from interim Provost Robert Grey and a new assistant vice president of federal government relations in Washington.

Fund distributions to campuses. Yudof also has been focusing on the university’s funding streams and the processes by which funding that comes to the Office of the President is distributed to the campuses.  His review of these issues will continue, with an eye to both achieving greater transparency and ensuring that dollars are made available for campus activities to the greatest extent possible.

At the same time Yudof is focusing on these structural and expenditure issues, he has laid out an agenda of academic and financial challenges. They include:

•    Maintaining UC's competitive position in faculty recruitment and retention

•    Developing a  funding model that replaces or supplements the current model

•    Enhancing research competitiveness and the capacity to compete for outstanding graduate students

•    Ensuring UC's accessibility and affordability to students of all backgrounds and achieving a diversity that reflects the demographics of California

•    Making sure that staff are rewarded and feel valued for the important role they play in the institution

•    Providing support for a health education and clinical care program that meets the growing needs of our state

•    Contributing innovative ideas and resources to address the national K-12 education crisis

•    Working more closely with community college leaders to bolster transfer rates to UC

Yudof said he is placing a priority on developing an effective partnership with the incoming chancellor of the California Community Colleges, current state Sen. Jack Scott.

"This is an area where modest investment can reap large dividends," Yudof said. "We have solid data that transfer students who enter UC in their junior year perform very well relative to students who enter in the freshman year. If we can increase our transfer rates by a few percentage points per year, the cumulative outcome over a 10-year period would be monumental."

In furthering UC's commitment to K-12 education, Yudof is evaluating the university's existing programs aimed at assisting K-12 students to determine which are most effective. He plans to call together a small group of leading education thinkers from around the state and within the university to discuss UC's engagement with K-12 schools and community colleges. 

"Many of the issues we're facing are not unique to the University of California," Yudof said.  "All of public higher education across the country is facing these challenges. But we have a special responsibility as the stewards of the best public university in the world to be leaders in addressing these challenges."