Rhea Turteltaub was recently appointed UCLA’s vice chancellor of external affairs, though she took on the role on an interim basis in July 2006. In an interview with the Daily Bruin’s Julia Erlandson, she discussed the future of UCLA external affairs, which includes private funding and alumni relations. Read on for a Q&A.
Daily Bruin: Can you give me an overview of what the vice chancellor of external affairs does?
Rhea Turteltaub: In its broadest possible terms ““ and our mission statement really is the guiding sort of launching-off point for everything we do ““ our job in external affairs is to build enduring relationships with external audiences in support and advocacy of UCLA. … That’s our alumni relations, our government and community relations, our university communications, our development enterprise, and then all of the services that support that work, including … the two supporting organizations, the UCLA Foundation and the UCLA Alumni Association.
DB: What exactly is the UCLA Foundation?
RT: The UCLA Foundation is the separate 501(c)(3) organization that allows us to accept private resources as a public institution. And typically all public universities have foundations through which they can channel those private funds. … It works very closely in concert with the university.
DB: On a day-to-day basis what’s your life as a vice chancellor like?
RT: This morning I spent time with our development team. The development/relations activity is really two sides of the same coin. There’s the friendraising and the fundraising. And these days, at this institution, those two things are really, really important. The more state funding declines, the more we need to rely on private resources. It’s what keeps the excellence of UCLA possible.
So that was this morning, interrupted by conversations ““ two conversations, actually ““ thinking about the role of development in the college and how we could structure our organization in such a way as to ensure greater resources coming to the college.
I had (another) conversation about a sponsored research agreement, so a day spent talking about private resources and the tools we need to generate them. Everything that we have in external affairs across the campus ““ alumni relations, development, communications ““ are all existing in the individual (schools).
So we provide a lot of best practice and services to all those areas, and we’ll be doing longer-term strategic planning for the campus. We will build a fundraising program and a friendraising program and a communications program and a legislative advocacy program all around (the chancellor’s) strategic initiatives.
DB: So each school has its own sort of mini external affairs team?
RT: Yes, but it all reports to their dean, and to us at the same time. So we have about 250 fundraisers across the campus. There’s at least one in every school, and in some cases there’s even more. The college and medicine are much bigger. Our work collectively is to promote and support UCLA through the partnerships we develop, whether it’s with elected officials, alumni, parents, lots of friends of the university. We reside in a pretty nice community, and lots of people call UCLA their own, even if they didn’t have a degree here from the university. So our job is to engender that kind of support from all of those different audiences.
DB: External affairs and outside fundraising seems to be a theme that you see at schools across the country now ““ so many schools are launching big fundraising projects. Why do you think that is? Why is that happening now?
RT: It’s been happening for the last 20 years in public institutions. There has been a real precipitous decline in state support. Somewhere on the order of 13 percent of (UCLA’s) budget comes from the state. And it wasn’t that long ago that it was about 20 percent. And it’s been a steady decline. And so how do you keep an institution as strong and robust as UCLA moving forward when you’re actually seeing a real decline in public funding? You’ve got to replenish it with something. But then the kind of money that we raise isn’t the money to turn on the lights and to keep the buildings cool or warm.
We’re raising money for students ““ lots of scholarship money, lots of graduate fellowships, endowed chairs for faculty, facilities all over the campus. … We have some resources. Our goal is to then go to private donors and ask them to step in and actually propel a program forward.
There are lots of areas in the research enterprise where seed funding from a private donor launches a research program to the point where it can be taken, for example, to a federal agency for a much bigger grant. Private donors actually can jump-start other kinds of public funding.
Ultimately we’re going to count on (students), who eventually become alumni, to support this institution as well. In a lot of ways, the role of alumni, parents and friends at this institution is going to function and behave the way private universities function. Our chancellor, I think, is very good at saying that we’ll always remain public in our DNA, but the two can exist compatibly.
We have a responsibility as a public institution to serve the people of this state. We want to make sure that we have access and excellence side by side. We have to admit all those students who are qualified to attend, irrespective of their ability to pay, and so we want to be able to have the resources to bring the finest people, whether they’re undergraduates, graduate students or faculty, to work in this environment.
DB: What has proved really effective in getting people to donate and getting people excited about bringing in private funding?
RT: I always like to say the university is sort of one-stop shopping for philanthropists. If there’s something that really interests someone, whether it’s the environment or child welfare, or the arts, or athletics, whatever it is, this institution has something for everyone, and it’s our job to really tap into the passion of the donors.
There are different stages of life where people think about their academic experience or think about the institution in their community that has meaning for them. Our job is to be a part of that entire spectrum. And to be able to touch people when they have nothing to give, but they have a desire to be affiliated with the institution ““ young alumni, for example.
We want people to contribute back to the family in ways that are much more than dollars (such as career networking or political advocacy). All that relationship-building really accrues to the greater good of the university.
The role of advancement is to tap into the time, treasure and talent of whatever constituency you define as being yours. That’s really our mantra. We’ll take it in all forms, we just want lots of it. The university needs it.
DB: Where do you see external affairs going from here? Do you want to make any changes or expand?
RT: What happens next? Creating a culture of philanthropy on this campus that is really infused into the sensibilities of our students, of our faculty, of our staff. We want today’s students to value and appreciate UCLA in a way that’s different than the way people entered this campus 20 and 30 years ago.
Our work in external affairs is to help deepen that sense of service and courtesy and welcome and bonding to the UCLA family. And that starts really early on. Our work has to go deeper than just the external community. We need to work internally.
I feel very strongly about the need for everybody within the internal family to understand and appreciate how valuable the external family can be to our work and the advancement of the university.
We have work to do in communicating with our faculty about the roles they play in the lives of their students today and in the lives of their alumni later.
DB: What could faculty be doing to further that goal?
RT: We need to work in a more concerted effort hand in hand with the faculty. You know, there was a time when (advancement) was the work of the professionals, and the chancellor and his senior administration.
In the last campaign we conducted, the role of the deans became ever more prominent. The role of the department chair revealed itself in a much greater way toward the end of our campaign, and frankly it devolves down to the role of the faculty. Faculty are in the classroom with you every day. They know who you are, what your potential is. You know their feelings about the institution ““ it does rub off on you.
Our work with the faculty is to help them really appreciate just how influential they can be and just how helpful they can be in the work that we need to do to advance the institution through private support.
DB: Do you have a sense that external affairs work has changed over time, especially at public institutions?
RT: I think public institutions have just gotten a lot more savvy about the work that they need to do. It’s much more integrated between the communications, the alumni relations work ““ it’s not just a fundraising enterprise.
All of these parts of external affairs really play a key role in how we succeed. Problems are solved across boundaries, and these silos that once existed in external affairs are actually melding. (That) is part of the maturation of public university advancement.