Dear Colleagues,
With the 10th anniversary of Founders Day just around the corner, I want to take a few moments to provide you with an update on various matters. But first, allow me to say a few words about Founders Day. This is the name given to the historic campus groundbreaking in October 2002 and the investiture of UC Merced’s first chancellor, Carol Tomlinson-Keasey.
For those of us who weren’t here in those early days, imagine the campus with no buildings and only a small group of faculty and administrative staff. Imagine the thrill of seeing the first building—the Kolligian Library and its Lantern—rise up from the earth and the first class of pioneering students arrive on campus. In 10 short years, the campus has grown from a shovel in the ground to a vibrant setting for nearly 6,000 students.
Between then and now, UC Merced attracted talented faculty who created the academic curriculum and established research programs that are producing new knowledge and yielding discoveries with the potential to improve the world and fuel new industries. During this same time period, industrious staff put together the vast support infrastructure needed to deliver the university’s academic, research and service missions. And the students created organizations and traditions that will endure to become part of the fabric of student life at the 10th campus of the great University of California.
Everyone who has been a part of the development of UC Merced should take great pride in these accomplishments!
Symbolically, the 10th anniversary of Founders Day also marks an important transition for UC Merced—the transition from a start-up campus to a more mature research university. The next 10 years will be an equally exciting period for our campus as we focus on growing our graduate programs and research enterprise, improving our processes, refining our support systems, attracting support from industry partners and private philanthropy, and creating a competitive niche for UC Merced within the universe of state, national and international research universities.
In this campus update, I want to share the results from a recent faculty/administration communications survey and information on the upcoming new funding-request process.
Faculty/Administration Communications Survey
The faculty/administration communications survey administered this summer was created to delve more deeply into communication challenges between faculty and administration.
An earlier communications survey indicated concerns in this area but lacked the specificity needed to create an action plan based on findings. Nearly 200 people took the time to participate in this latest survey – a response rate of more than 62 percent – and provided thoughtful answers and insightful feedback that will facilitate improved communications over time.
I want to share some of the overarching themes that emerged in the survey findings and touch on some actions that I will take based on the themes and findings.
First, people in all functions want to receive clearer, timelier information about the campus’s strategic priorities and the allocation of budgets and resources necessary to accomplish those priorities. This concern exists at the campus-wide level and also within the schools to varying degrees. The flow of information within and across the schools, which do not have structured internal communication programs or channels, needs attention.
Second, there is a need to create greater understanding of how work in one area of the university affects other areas. For example, some faculty members feel their needs for timely support aren’t well understood by staff or acted upon appropriately. In turn, some staff members feel they aren’t kept abreast of faculty decisions or actions that affect their jobs. Better communication is needed to ensure these working relationships are more productive.
Third, people at all levels want to be consulted more openly about decisions that affect their work and their ability to help their unit, school or division succeed in its goals and mission.
In addition, people want to have more opportunities to express their views and ideas for growing and improving programs in research, academics, student support, administration and the overall well-being of the campus community. Open forums, such as town-hall meetings and informal group discussions, seem to be the preferred method for this kind of give-and-take.
Fourth, the survey results clearly highlight the critical role of managers and supervisors in effective organizational communication.
Campus leadership is responsible for high-level communication on issues related to the campus-wide mission, strategic direction, overall planning and budgeting, growth objectives and other broad issues. But managers and supervisors also play a vital role in making sure faculty and staff members are provided with information that helps them understand matters that impact their work or simply connects them to what is happening in the broader campus community.
For employees to be fully engaged and productive, they need consistent communications from deans, directors and supervisors, who should be the first and most trusted sources of information.
While it is a tall order to respond to all of these findings simultaneously, several actions will be implemented during this academic year.
First, we will provide more opportunities for faculty and staff to engage in information and perspective sharing in informal settings. By January, I hope to announce a Campus Leadership Forum as a means for enhanced engagement between faculty, staff and senior administrators, organized around topics of broad interest and concern to the campus community.
Second, we will establish a Communications Council consisting of individuals with official responsibilities for communications within divisions and schools as a means of sharing information, promoting best practices, responding to common communications challenges, and creating communication strategies when important messages need to reach and be heard by a large number of university employees.
Third, we are exploring communication training modules and perhaps even certificate programs for managers and supervisors.
As we make progress on these efforts, we will keep you informed through Panorama, the bi-weekly news publication for faculty and staff.
Budget News and UC Merced’s Funding-Request Process for FY 2013-14
With the fate of Proposition 30 still uncertain, the campus will need to wait until after the November election—and perhaps well into the legislative session—to get a clearer picture of new funding prospects for the upcoming fiscal year.
We know that if Prop. 30 fails, trigger cuts will go into effect for the University of California, and that will likely result in mid-year tuition increases and additional cost-cutting measures.
If the initiative passes, UC will have an opportunity over the longer term to regain fiscal stability, although short-term fiscal challenges will remain.
Despite this fiscal uncertainty, the campus will move forward on its internal funding-request process in order to create a list of funding priorities pending available resources.
I’ve been consulting with my leadership team as well as the Academic Senate and Staff Assembly leadership regarding the process that should be used for soliciting new funding requests, and by mid-November or early December, I will be prepared to share final details with the campus community in an open forum.
We are working toward a process that is increasingly data-informed, strategic, consultative and transparent. Campus constituencies have also expressed a strong preference for an “all funds” budget call—that is, for consolidating the disparate funding-request processes that have been in effect until now.
Schools, for example, will benefit from the review and consideration of comprehensive funding-request proposals that include new faculty FTE, instructional budget support, staff support, start-up funding, operating budget needs, equipment replacement or enhancements, etc.
In the past, the new faculty FTE process has been disconnected from the processes for considering funding proposals for staff to support the new faculty FTE, start-up funds for competitive recruitment, laboratory space and equipment needs, etc.
Campus constituencies have also expressed a strong desire for information that helps members of the campus community gain a better understanding of historical budget decisions and how various funds have been allocated and used across the campus.
I look forward to future conversations with you on these topics.
In the meantime, let me again thank you for all you do for this fast-rising campus and urge you to join me in the Founders Day celebration later this week.
Sincerely,
Dorothy Leland
Chancellor
