In an effort to shed light on what he called inefficient and outdated University of California administrative processes, UC Board of Regents Chairman Richard Blum drafted a letter to his fellow regents Tuesday outlining specific strategies to address and remedy what he called a dysfunctional and outmoded UC bureaucracy.
Blum’s letter encouraged several changes in the UC administration such as decreasing bureaucracy, raising faculty and staff salaries, and creating a scholarship fund for students burdened by increasing college fees.
In response, UC Provost and Chief Operating Officer Wyatt Rory Hume released a statement committing to making the types of changes Blum advocated.
Some students have expressed concerns that some of the goals in the letter may not be for students’ best interests.
The letter, titled “We Need to Be Strategically Dynamic,” cited two basic problems in the way the UC operates.
First, Blum cited a lack of cohesion in broad scale planning by administrators that has resulted in a failure to address critical issues head on.
Second, Blum noted that while including a broad range of people in administrative processes is a cornerstone of the university’s administration, it has led to confusion as to who is in charge and can diffuse responsibility for action too much.
Blum wrote that this has led to a lack of initiative and an overgrown administration that fails to accomplish its goals in an efficient and timely way.
In order to fix the existing UC administration, Blum wrote that administrators need to become “strategically dynamic,” by setting clear long term goals and trimming down infrastructure to ensure a “lean, nimble and results-oriented,” administration.
His letter cited specific areas in which the UC can focus on trimming down cumbersome bureaucracy ““ such as eliminating overlapping administrative positions and making better use of private contractors for construction projects ““ that would save the UC millions each year.
Blum encouraged raising staff and faculty salaries to be more competitive with other universities and suggested the creation of a scholarship fund of up to $1 billion to fill gaps in funding for students not currently provided by Pell and Cal Grants.
Justin Hotter, external vice president for the Undergraduate Students Association Council, said he is concerned that the creation of a new scholarship fund will not counteract increasing college fees for students.
Because there may be subjective criteria as to who will be responsible for distributing scholarship funds and the criteria they will use, Hotter said he believes the fund will not help a broad enough range of students.
“All students pay (fees) and it’s important to decrease (fees) for all students, not just a select few,” he said.
Instead, Hotter said he would like to see the funds saved by Blum’s proposal maintaining or lowering student fees across the board.
Though Hotter said he was critical of the proposed scholarship fund, D’artagnan Scorza, a student regent designate for the Board of Regents, said the scholarship fund would not be designed to lower fees overall, but rather to compensate for existing problems in financial aid.
Scorza said many students, even those receiving financial aid such, are unable to pay their expected contribution and Blum’s proposed scholarship fund would be designed to help make up this difference.
Blum’s letter to the regents was met with enthusiasm by Hume who said he is committed to making changes that will improve the quality of the UC system, in a statement on his Web site Tuesday.
Brad Hayward, spokesman for the UC Office of the President, said Hume will be compiling an action plan to address Blum’s criticisms of the existing administration.
“We share the view that these issues are an important part of what we need to be doing to serve the university in the best way possible. Provost Hume will be detailing his response and the action steps we intend on taking,” he said.
Scorza said he believes the timing of Blum’s statement is linked to President Dynes’ recent decision to step down as UC president and is a way to show that the UC still has strong leadership at the regental level and “is not going to fall apart because the president is stepping down,” he said.
Scorza said he does not believe that Blum’s statement is a criticism of President Dynes’ tenure, but an examination of a problem that has long existed.
“I can say that it’s a huge need; (the administration) needs to look at the way it does business,” he said.