March 2004
This newsletter is available on the web at www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/newsletter/issue12.html.
Dear UC Colleague:
As you may know, I have spent a good part of my first few months on the job visiting the campuses and their surrounding communities, and I can't tell you how much I have enjoyed these visits. They have been a great opportunity to meet people and to get a first-hand look at some of the exciting work going on across the University. I want to thank everyone who has worked so hard to organize these events, and I also want to thank those who have come out to meet me and share their thoughts. We have more visits scheduled for this academic year, and I intend to continue them on an ongoing basis.
In addition, I expect to stay in touch with the UC faculty and staff at least once a month, in one of two ways. Approximately every other month, I will be sending you this electronic newsletter, by which I will provide updates about the state budget situation and other systemwide news. (As I know that not all University employees have access to a computer, I am asking supervisors and managers to print out and post hard copies where needed.)
During other months of the year, I will be posting on my web page a video letter to the UC community. The first one is at www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/video/. To accommodate different configurations of computer workstations around the University, these video letters will be available in a variety of formats.
As always, you can get in touch with me through Dynes' Desk (the link is below). While I can't respond to every email I receive, I do read all of them, and I will continue to respond to a few emails addressing issues of broad interest in each issue of “Our University.” My thanks to everyone who has taken the time to write in thus far.
Finally, I know the budget situation is on everyone's minds. Our state's elected officials have made no major budget decisions since the governor's budget proposal came out in January, but I and many others in the University community have been working very hard to convey in Sacramento just how important the University of California is to the future of our state. I really believe that the economy and social fabric of California are directly tied to the contributions of the UC system, and I think more and more people are coming to agree.
Thank you for your contributions to this incredible enterprise called the University of California. Your work is greatly appreciated. We'll be in touch.
Sincerely,
Robert C. Dynes
President
Leadership changes
UC Santa Cruz Chancellor M.R.C. Greenwood becomes UC provost and senior vice president for academic affairs on April 1. She replaces C. Judson King, who is retiring but will continue to serve UC as director of the Center for Studies in Higher Education at UC Berkeley. More details on Greenwood's appointment, including video clips from her press conference, are available at www.ucop.edu/news/archives/2004/feb23.htm.
Martin M. Chemers, provost and executive vice chancellor at UCSC, will serve as acting chancellor following Greenwood's departure. President Dynes hopes to have a permanent replacement for Greenwood in place by this fall, following a national search.
The University also is currently conducting searches for the chancellor of UC San Diego, replacing Dynes; chancellor of UC Berkeley, replacing Robert M. Berdahl; and director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, replacing Charles V. Shank.New element in admissions process
The governor's 2004-05 budget proposes that UC cut freshman enrollment in fall 2004 by 10 percent and redirect these students to California community colleges for the first two years of their college education. In response, UC has created a new Guaranteed Transfer Option (GTO), which offers eligible students a guaranteed seat at a specific UC campus as a junior, provided they complete an approved transfer program at a California community college.
GTO is similar in many ways to the Dual Admissions Program launched last year to offer an alternate admission path to top-ranked high school graduates who were not quite ready to attend UC as freshmen. Regrettably, the governor's proposed budget eliminates funding for DAP, and UC has discontinued that program for the foreseeable future. Students who are admitted through DAP for fall 2004 will be folded into GTO and offered the same academic support and services to help ensure their successful transfer from community college to UC. To learn more about GTO, visit www.universityofcalifornia.edu/gto.
Analysis of UC admissions by ethnicity
At their March meeting, the UC Regents reviewed the results of an analysis looking at how otherwise similar students of different races and ethnicities were treated in the UC admissions process both before and after the implementation of Proposition 209.The major conclusions of the analysis were: (1) Since Proposition 209, differences in the admission rates of similar students of different races and ethnicities have been reduced dramatically. (2) There remain small, presently unexplained differences on some campuses and some unexplained patterns across campuses. These differences are being analyzed further to determine whether they are real or a product of the limited nature of the statistical model. (3) African American and Chicano/Latino students remain underrepresented at UC, compared to both their representation in the California high school graduating class and to students of other races and ethnicities at the University.
The analysis is posted here and a statement from President Dynes is here.
Competition for national laboratory contracts
UC is continuing to prepare as if it will compete for the contracts to continue managing the Department of Energy (DOE) laboratories at Berkeley, Livermore, and Los Alamos, though the Board of Regents will make the final decision after more is known about the terms of each competition.
The competition for the Berkeley Lab contract is expected to take place later this year, as the current contract extension expires January 31, 2005. DOE has announced its intention to compete the Los Alamos contract in time for its expiration September 30, 2005. While DOE has announced its intent to compete the Livermore contract, a competition schedule has not yet been issued. The Livermore contract expires September 30, 2005.
Over the next several weeks, the UC Academic Senate will be conducting a series of town halls around the UC system to help inform faculty and other members of the University community about the laboratory contracts and competitions. The Senate also will conduct an electronic poll of UC faculty on the subject in May. More information is available in the latest edition of the Senate Source publication at www.universityofcalifornia.edu/senate/news/source/source2_3.pdf.
Making the case
President Dynes and other UC representatives have been working in Sacramento to make the case for strong state investment in the University as an important key to California's future.
“The University of California has always been an institution focused on helping the people of California achieve their hopes and dreams. We remain focused on that objective today; it is the heart and soul of what we do,” President Dynes told the state Senate's budget subcommittee on education on March 8. “But let me say this, and say it clearly: We are on the edge right now. A great public research university – in fact, the world's best public research university – cannot be sustained if it is made to absorb dramatic budget cuts year after year, with no end in sight.”
(The rest of Dynes' testimony is available at www.universityofcalifornia.edu/president/speeches/030804overview.pdf . A summary of the governor's budget proposals for UC is at www.ucop.edu/news/archives/2004/jan09a.htm.)
Another way the University is working to get the UC message heard in Sacramento is through a new, systemwide electronic advocacy campaign, designed to give all the members of the UC community the opportunity to help UC in its fight for adequate state support. For more information on this effort, please visit www.ucforcalifornia.org. (Note: Faculty and staff participation in this effort is entirely voluntary, is not expected as part of your University duties, and will not be considered as part of any performance evaluation. Additional information for faculty and staff will be available on the above web site shortly.)Regents discuss salaries, fees, other budget issues
At the March 17 meeting of the Board of Regents, UC officials told the Regents that faculty and staff salaries at UC continue to be a significant concern. Faculty salaries next year are expected to be more than 10 percent below the average of UC's comparison institutions, and the University has a similar problem with respect to staff salaries. While the 2004-05 budget may not bring substantial relief, competitive compensation needs to remain a top budget priority for the University as the budget situation improves, several UC administrators and Regents said.
Also at the meeting, the Regents reviewed a variety of student fee proposals aimed at reducing a 40 percent fee increase for academic graduate students proposed in the governor's budget. No action was taken; the Regents are expected to vote on student fee levels for the 2004-05 year later this spring, potentially at their May meeting, though the exact timing will depend upon the progress of state budget negotiations. Details on the fee options are at www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/budget/fee_options.html
A letter from President Dynes to students and parents regarding the fee situation is available at www.universityofcalifornia.edu/president/speeches/031604feeletter.pdf . In addition, a UC web site called “You Can, We Can Help,” has been updated with new profiles of UC students and how they make college affordable. The web site is available at www.universityofcalifornia.edu/admissions/youcan/.
Background budget materials provided to the Regents are available at www.universityofcalifornia.edu/regents/regmeet/mar04/502.pdf, and additional handouts are posted at www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/budget/0304handouts.pdf.
Election results and next steps
In other budget-related news, Propositions 55, 57, and 58 on the March 2 ballot all were approved by California voters, preventing the budget situation from becoming worse for UC. See President Dynes' statement on the election outcome at www.ucop.edu/news/archives/2004/mar03.htm.
The next steps in the budget process are continued legislative hearings, followed by the May Revision in mid-May, in which the governor traditionally updates state revenue forecasts and expenditure proposals. A final state budget is usually adopted in early summer.
Dynes' Desk is a way for anyone to email a comment, idea, or suggestion to President Dynes. While he is not able to respond personally in most instances, President Dynes does read each email submitted. In each edition of “Our University,” he will respond to a couple of Dynes' Desk emails addressing issues of broad interest to the UC community.
To submit an email to Dynes' Desk, visit www.universityofcalifornia.edu/president/desk.html. Below are President Dynes' responses to a couple of recent submissions.
Email: Will the University consider offering faculty and/or staff a voluntary early retirement incentive program (i.e., a VERIP) in the near future?
Bob Dynes: The short answer is "no." I know many faculty and staff are eager for some form of early retirement incentive program under the UC retirement plan, but it just doesn't make sense for the University right now, or even in the next several years, for a number of reasons:
- UC has been growing and, even considering the state budget constraints, we believe we will need to retain the majority of our faculty and staff to support the core academic mission. We're already facing major challenges and costs in recruiting faculty.
- Offering a VERIP, even if only to targeted groups, would represent a significant cost to the UC Retirement Plan (UCRP), and we must be very careful about how much we burden the plan. A recent actuarial analysis found that the likelihood of having to resume contributions to UCRP within the next five years has increased substantially. Funding a VERIP would cause employer and employee contributions to the University's retirement program to begin sooner than would be the case without a VERIP. We are particularly concerned about doing anything that could cause contributions to resume during a time when the state is not providing adequate funding for faculty and staff salary increases.
Email: President Dynes, as a student I'm concerned about the budget cuts. I'm a member of MESA, one of the programs that may be cut, and I ask that you do any and everything in your power to avoid the elimination of any of the UC outreach programs. I need them as well as many other students. Thank you for your time and concern.
Bob Dynes: Thank YOU for writing. Many people writing to Dynes' Desk share your concern, and I do as well. I sometimes think our outreach programs are misnamed, because “outreach” does not convey what the programs really do – which is work in partnership with K-12 schools to improve the academic performance and college eligibility of public-school students across the state. It's an important job, and it's an important investment for the state. The governor's budget for 2004-05 proposes the elimination of remaining state funding for these programs, given the severity of the state's budget crisis. I believe we need to find a solution that preserves the programs, and I am going to continue working with the Schwarzenegger Administration and the Legislature in hopes of achieving such a solution.
Email: While I know we need more money from the state, I'm also wondering if the University is doing anything to increase organizational efficiency in order to maximize resources during these tight financial times.
Bob Dynes: Absolutely. I believe we must do our best to manage the University in the most efficient, productive way, and the current budget challenges only highlight that need. One prime example is the New Business Architecture initiative that was introduced in 2000. This is a systemwide initiative aimed at increasing efficiency and reducing costs through increased utilization of technology, greater systemwide collaboration, implementation of best business practices, and better use of our purchasing power as a large institutional consumer. Here is a summary of the initiative's five key focus areas and their overall objectives:
- Enabling Technology: Invest in technology to replace manual, paper-based work processes
- People: Establish UC as a competitive employer and provide staff the tools to improve productivity
- Policies and Processes: Redesign processes to improve our efficiency and effectiveness
- Organizational Performance and Controls: Incorporate metrics to improve performance and manage risk
- Financial Systems and Reporting: Improve integration of and access to financial data
More information about the New Business Architecture, including examples of efficiencies and savings that the initiative has produced, can be found at www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/budget/nbareport.pdf. I encourage you to take a look.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON:
BUDGET NEWS
www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/budget
EMPLOYEE BENEFITS
http://atyourservice.ucop.edu/
UNION NEGOTIATIONS
http://atyourservice.ucop.edu/employees/policies/labor_relations/index.html
UC NEWS
www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news
UC SYSTEM
www.universityofcalifornia.edu