Dear Colleagues,
I write with updates on ongoing campus efforts to reduce the bureaucratic burden. First, I want to express my deep gratitude to the Reducing Bureaucratic Burden Task Force for its hard work in assessing the bureaucratic landscape, in identifying critical areas that people are finding challenging, and in helping us think about the best paths forward for achieving solutions.
Second, I want to thank those of you who took the time to respond to the task force’s survey last fall. The task force reviewed all 800+ responses, met with a variety of stakeholders, and put together its final report
Reducing the bureaucratic burden is not about finger pointing. It is, instead, a call to all of us to work in partnership both to rethink those processes that are no longer meeting our needs and to empower people to be creative problem solvers who facilitate conducting our business in an efficient and collegial manner consistent with our ethos of mutual respect and teamwork. In that vein, I am pleased by—and wish to thank—the many campus units engaging in this work, who are prioritizing the streamlining and simplification of processes. Berkeley’s excellence derives from our constant drive to improve.
Last month, I shared my insights on reducing the bureaucratic burden at the Campus Conversation, in addition to discussing my other priorities. We have also shared a number of efforts across campus on the reducing bureaucracy website. We will continue to update the website with additional efforts as they arise.
We are very much interested in learning about your efforts. Please continue to share your unit’s process improvement efforts with us by submitting this short form. You are also welcome to share your ideas and suggestions for how we can continue to streamline and reduce bureaucracy by emailing my office at EVCP@berkeley.edu or directly connecting with functional experts.
Sincerely,
Benjamin E. Hermalin
Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost
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