UCLA

The following is a summary of actions that UCLA has taken and is in the process of taking to respond to the current and anticipated budget reductions facing the campus from 2008-09 to 2011-12.

Academic Innovation
• Initiated rigorous minimum progress and unit requirements to decrease time-to-degree and to limit the number of units a student accumulates by graduation.
• Improved student counseling and academic support units.
• The result of the above is that UCLA’s six-year undergraduate graduation rate is 89 percent with the average time-to-degree being 12.2 quarters.
• Currently 75 percent of UCLA’s undergraduates enroll in summer session courses.
• Academic units are increasing summer courses to ameliorate the impact on course offerings resulting from budget cuts. Summer 2009 currently shows a 12 percent increase in courses.
• Improving enrollment management with respect to the distribution of students within the College and the availability of courses.

Administrative Innovation
• Made significant investment in IT solutions for administrative processes that have reduced transactional counts. Enabled relatively flat staffing to accommodate 50 percent increase in transactions.
• Initiated Strategic Sourcing coupled with web based vendor catalogues to maximize use of contracts. Achieved 85 percent usage of contracts. Estimated savings of $5 million.
• Examining ways to take advantages of least cost purchasing where hospital or campus may have better deals.
• Established travel office that can issue state fares resulting in significant savings to the traveler’s department.
• Providing administrative services to many of the UC campuses, including OP and UC Merced, at cost effective rates to create savings across the University.
• Schools and College divisions have consolidated departmental administrative units, e.g. a College division of 15 departments has three administrative units.

IT Consolidations
• Invested $4 million in central data center that has resulted in a reduction of 20 local centers.
• Consolidated Enterprise Messaging services resulting in a current reduction of 38 local units at a projected savings of $1.6 million annually. Currently working with an additional 29 groups to use the central services with additional potential savings of $1.3 million.

Energy Conservation
• Since 2000, implemented various energy conservation projects that have resulted in a projected reduction of energy consumption of 27 percent.
• Currently implementing $23 million project to replace HVAC pumps in 25 buildings, and install occupancy sensors throughout the campus. Estimated savings of $5 million annually for four-year repay on investment.
• Considering expansion of HVAC reductions on holidays.

Budget Cut Actions
• Deans have been instructed to dramatically reduce faculty hiring, and every hire must be approved by the EVC/Provost.
• Managers have been instructed to:
-- Reduce staff hiring with the expectation that the campus maintains its level of open positions on general funds; currently 354 FTE.
-- Reduce travel and where inter-campus administrative meetings are necessary pursue the use of video or phone conferencing.
-- Reduce expenditures on entertainment, renovations, consulting services and equipment. 
• Encourage the use of START.
• Implemented three taskforces to examine ways to maintain UCLA’s excellence in the face of significant unfunded cost increases and budget reductions.

Academic Taskforce
Examining the impact of the following issues:
• Reducing UCLA’s academic programs by 10 percent.
• Change teaching options for language courses.
• Increasing enrollment in summer session.
• Increasing alternatively schedule degree programs.
• Increasing non-resident enrollment.
• Implementing academic hiring freeze.
• Increase teaching by ladder faculty.
• Implement sunsets for ORUs, centers and institutes.

Cost Savings and Efficiencies Taskforce
Examining the following issues:
• Expand use of Strategic Sourcing Contracts.
• Consolidation of leases and possible resultant building purchases.
• Consolidation of campus and hospital business operations.
• Development of remote work centers.
• Further Data Center consolidation.
• Consolidate IT help desks.
• Increase diversity of network switching vendors to improve pricing.

Revenue Generation Taskforce
Examining the following issues:
• Advertising revenues.
• Implementation of convenience fee for electronic payments.
• Student Technology Fee.
• Improve licensing of UCLA logo and icons, and increase sponsorship of UCLA events.
• Identify means to reduce gap between approved and actual F&A rates.
• Increase concurrent enrollment through Extension. Liberalize policies for filming on campus.
• Sponsor student service fee referendum.
• Increase undergraduate application fee.
• Development of courses for working professionals, e.g. patent agent course.
• Implement faculty compensation plan for general campus.
• Revise policies controlling distribution of endowment earnings for faculty chairs.

UC Merced

UC Merced is in a very different developmental phase as compared to the other UC campuses. The campus is growing and trying to maintain momentum in order to develop and continue to build first-rate academic programs that will retain excellent faculty who draw the best students. While the campus recognizes the need to take action and implement measures that will promote cost containment wherever possible, many of these can only be viewed as short-term actions. We will continue to actively pursue viable cost reduction/containment measures and seek long-term strategies and actions.

Resource Management
The campus issued a hiring freeze which has helped build salary savings. The savings will be swept  centrally. A 25 percent reduction to all Supplies and Expense dollars associated with FTE was also implemented.

Total Savings for 2008-09: $1.7 million. Percent of Operating Budget: 2.04 percent. 

Faculty Recruitment
Faculty recruitment has been slowed significantly. The EVC/Provost worked closely with the Deans on  projected numbers of hires for the next two years. 

Total Savings for 2008-09: $468,000. Percent of Operating Budget 0.56 percent. 

Energy Savings
UC Merced has a commitment to sustainability. All of the buildings on campus are LEED status. The  commitment has resulted in energy costs that are determined to be approximately 50 percent less than  comparable space elsewhere. In addition, we have pursued additional energy efficient actions and  behaviors.

Total Savings for 2008-09: $1 million. Percent of Operating Budget: 1.20 percent. 

Cost Avoidance
UC Merced was negotiating with the City of Merced for new administrative space downtown. These  negotiations have been cancelled. Despite the additional strain for space, the campus will find creative  ways to utilize existing space. 

Total Savings for 2008-09: $1,4 million. Percent of Operating Budget: 1.68 percent. 

Delay of Major Purchases
Facilities Administration and Information Technology have delayed major purchases for the remainder  of this year. 

Total Savings for 2008-09: $250,000. Percent of Operating Budget: 0.30 percent. 

Other Campus Efforts
A committee has been formed to solicit efficiency ideas from campus employees. Suggestions continue
to be received and are explored for potential savings. Also, several units are reviewing maintenance and
service contracts to determine if these can be cancelled. There is potential for on-going savings. Savings will be quantified as viable ideas are implemented and savings calculated.

Total savings anticipated for the above measures: $4,818 million. Percent of Operating Budget: 5.78 percent. 

UC Riverside

The following describes the variety of approaches UC Riverside is employing in response to
budget constraints of 2008-09 and beyond.

Guiding Principles:
• Minimal impact on the quality of the academic enterprise and student learning experience.
• Strategic cuts, made more ‘vertically’ rather than ‘horizontally.’
• Redirection of resource to maximize ROI.
• Achieving administrative efficiencies without compromising health and safety functions or high risk operations.
• Identification of new sources of revenue.
• Transparency throughout the budget and planning process.

Budget Scenarios
The overall impact of projected budget reductions and unfunded expenditures are currently estimated at $28 million for 2009-10, or slightly less than 10 percent of UCR’s state general fund budget. Administrative and academic units are developing three planning scenarios for permanent budget reductions: 6.5 percent, 10 percent, 15 percent.

Curtailment of Faculty Hiring
• Reduced faculty recruitment by 50 percent, to approximately 24 positions; deans may elect to stop additional recruitments as part of budget scenarios.
• Holding back an additional 27.5 centrally held faculty FTE.
• Placing the eminent scholars faculty hiring program on hiatus.

Staffing Reductions
• Placed a "soft" freeze on hiring; only mission critical positions to be filled.
• Approval authority for recruitment elevated to dean, vice chancellor, vice provost level.
• Only 36 of 136 open staff positions currently being recruited.
• Implemented START program, encouraging staff participation.

Enrollment Management
• Decreased recruiting events.
• Increased use of technology to reach and recruit students.
• Opened Transfer Resource Center to aid transfer students.
• Streamlined financial aid processing via new information system and streamlined dissemination of information about aid.
• Have international recruitment plan in place at undergrad level.
• Strengthened college preparation program pipeline (TRiO, Puente, etc.)
• Have implemented 100 percent automated admissions processing – paperless environment.

Program Review
• Launched an academic strategic action plan that will provide a framework for decision-making.
• Conducting a wide review of information about our academic programs (including NRC data on our doctoral programs, funded research, academic program reviews, and other data).

Business Practices
• Took steps to reduce travel expenditures by 50 percent or more.
• Placed restrictions on entertainment, equipment purchases, and hiring consultants.
• Implemented new administrative cost recovery methodology, which charges auxiliary and self-support units for administrative services.

Information Technology
• Created cyber-partnerships with the city of Riverside providing fiber connections. Projected cost avoidance: $200,000 annually.
• Contracted for high quality data center space/services at steep discounts. Projected cost avoidance: $400,000 annually.
• Automating academic business processes. Projected cost avoidance: $900,000 annually.

Energy savings and sustainability goals
• Procured and negotiated a contract for recycling that will enable UCR to achieve its recycling objectives (announcement imminent).
• Continued in partnership with City of Riverside to buy electricity at rates that have allowed accumulated savings of $56 million (when compared to standard rates) over the past 12 years.
• Initiated discussions with City of Riverside about alternatives for procuring “green power” in the future.

Administrative Efficiencies
• Established an electronic file management system for academic reviews; this model is now being requested by other campuses.
• Redesigned the Administrative Cost Recovery process so that it assures appropriate cost recovery from auxiliaries through a much simpler methodology than before resulting in an immediate increase in income to the university;
• Procured a new project management system for Design & Construction. Acquired a commercial project management software product that will enable better tracking and documentation of major and minor capital projects.