Dear campus colleagues,
We write to provide you with important news concerning CSS and an update on the campus’s comprehensive strategic planning and analysis initiative we announced in February.
After evaluating immediate steps we can take to simplify administrative processes while continuing to improve services, we are pleased to announce that effective July 1, units will no longer pay a 2% assessment for the services CSS provides. This assessment has produced unintended consequences for our departments and schools. As such, we will redesign the CSS funding model.
Second, we are firmly committed to ensuring that CSS staff in faculty-facing roles are located on or near campus to make it faster and easier for everyone to coordinate and consult with them. In partnership with CSS Chief Operating Officer Peggy Huston we will co-locate key staff services such as research administration and human resources support with the goal of providing more fully integrated services to better meet the needs of campus faculty and staff.
When we first announced the campus’s strategic planning and analysis process earlier this year we shared that we will evaluate our workforce in relationship to our changing needs and resources. As such, we are currently evaluating administrative services across all areas of the campus with the target of improving efficiency, reducing costs, and better supporting faculty teaching and research.
Initial analysis shows that campus-wide, Berkeley has seen an increase in staff in recent years. We’ve also found that every year, more than 1,600 employees voluntarily leave Berkeley for various reasons. A key goal of our administrative restructuring efforts includes leveraging this attrition to return to previous staffing levels as we develop the best structure for our university. Part of this will entail a new mechanism for the monitoring and control of staffing levels – mirroring the discipline we have long applied to hiring of faculty.
Our early efforts on the administrative realignment initiative have focused on laying the groundwork and compiling data for analysis and discussion. As part of this work, we recently developed a tool that will allow us to further examine where headcount growth has occurred as well as identify which titles have seen increases. We have also been working to scope the overarching initiative, which will include projects on: research administration; human resources; information technology; and CSS.
As we launch the active phase of the project, faculty involvement will be critical to ensure the success of the work. In addition to faculty involvement in the governance of the strategic initiatives, we will appoint joint faculty and staff leads to the administrative realignment initiative and the CSS project. Selection of faculty leadership for these efforts will be coordinated through the Academic Senate. We will also need faculty and staff participation on the steering committees and work groups that are formed to address specific service areas.
We are committed to making strategic changes that improve our administrative structure and better support our academic mission. We will continue to update you as this initiative evolves and appreciate your partnership throughout this process.
Sincerely,
Nicholas Dirks, Chancellor
Claude Steele, EVCP