Wednesday, February 18, 1998
Administration reallocates positions
RESTRUCTURING: New duties in academic plans given to vice
chancellor
By Mason Stockstill
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Responsibility for all of UCLA’s academics has now been
consolidated into fewer administrative hands.
With restructuring at the highest level, the executive vice
chancellor will take over the academic planning duties previously
held by the vice chancellor for academic planning and budget, which
will become an entirely financial position.
"The title was changed with the idea that academic planning is
the responsibility of the executive vice chancellor, working
closely with the chancellor," Chancellor Albert Carnesale said.
According to Ted Mitchell, the former vice chancellor of
academic planning and budget, the new position will be "very
different" from the previous position.
"The new position is far more concerned with day-to-day issues
of finance and less directly involved in issues of academic
budgeting," he said.
Mitchell is now the vice chancellor of external affairs, a
position that he held last year in addition to vice chancellor of
academic planning and budget.
The position of vice chancellor of academic planning and budget
was abolished when Mitchell recommended to then-Chancellor Charles
Young that a new position be created, effectively dividing academic
and financial strategy.
"I felt that the campus was best served by creating a new
position," Mitchell said.
Mitchell said that since the executive vice chancellor was
already the head of academic planning, having another vice
chancellor doing the same thing was not necessary.
"It didn’t really make sense to have a vice chancellor charged
with academic budgeting reporting to the executive vice chancellor
in charge of academics," he said.
After consulting with Mitchell, Young decided that the
responsibilities of academic planning were better left to the
chancellor and executive vice chancellor. The new vice chancellor
for budget and finance will be the equivalent of a company’s
CFO.
The position of executive vice chancellor is also waiting to be
filled, since Charles Kennel, who has held the position since 1996,
will be leaving in the spring to head the Scripps institute of
Oceanography at UCSD.
Carnesale said that he would be inclined to consider someone
with a non-academic background for the vice chancellorship of
budget and finance.
"I would expect the vice chancellor for budget and finance to be
a professional in this area, rather than an academic," he said.
The chancellor also mentioned that he would not be averse to
choosing someone from the private sector to take the helm of budget
and finance.
"I would like them to be somebody who has some private sector
experience," he said.
Carnesale was quick to point out that while private sector
experience in the area of budget and finance would be a plus, it is
necessary to choose someone who can work well in the unique
environment of a large public university such as UCLA.
"It is important that they be able to function in the university
environment, which is substantially more collegial than it is in
the private sector," he said.