Speaking to the UC Commission on the Future
Public Comments to the University of California Commission on the Future
meeting in Oakland, CA, November 12, 2009
by Charles Schwartz
Having sat through two of your public Commission meetings, the most interesting thing I have heard was the presentation at the beginning [today] by Mr. Baldassare [Mark Baldassare, President of the Public Policy Institute of California], who connects to the world of the people of California. And his most interesting comment was his response to a question from Mr. Pulaski. I hope I am quoting him correctly. Baldassare described the people as having mixed views about higher education and the University. He said: what the people want from higher education is efficiency, responsiveness and accountability.
Now I know the President’s Office uses those words a lot. They have a program for accountability. I have looked at a lot of the stuff that they have put out there. And I judge it to be primarily a public relations job; and I think most people see it as that. And therefore it fails to provide the people with what they say they want.
Let me give you a few examples. A familiar cliché: student fees go up; and the educational services that we provide to the students go down. Standard excuse: It’s Sacramento’s fault. No, that doesn’t wash. We take in a billion and a half dollars this year and two billion dollars next year of Educational Fees. How are you spending those monies? Nobody can find out.
There is a lively controversy between Professor Meister and Vice President Taylor. There is no transparency there. It is a PR game. You can’t win friends that way!
Another example, from my own research: The fantastic growth rate of administrative bureaucracy throughout this university. It’s been ignored, ignored, ignored for a long time. Well, maybe there will be some progress made on that now.
I think it would have been a wonderful thing if there were a Working Group appointed whose job was to bring forward specific critiques aimed at the top administrative structure, and that would include the Board of Regents, the President and the Chancellors and that whole non-academic activity; how is it funded; where is the money going; what’s going on?
Now, of course, since you are the people who created this structure, it wasn’t likely that you would appoint such a working group. But there is an idea.
Thank you.
Chris Newfield said,
November 22, 2009 @ 3:58 am
Charlie – this is a good comment. There is a long history in the corporate world of attempts to move towards “open book management” and to improve struggling organizations around shared budgetary information and a massive increase in informed financial suggestions coming from frontline workers – staff, teaching and research faculty. UCOF will not have the independence needed to study the problem and make suggestions. Why not a multicampus, self-organized Transparency Working Group that would pool expertise, do research, and make concrete recommendations?
admin said,
November 22, 2009 @ 8:02 am
Chris;
I agree on the need for such a “Peoples’ Commission”, since it is clear that the Commission created by the Regents is constrained to preserve so much of the management status quo. The challenge is to not just create and collect good analyses and proposals but to find the constituency that will push effectively for the needed changes. Any suggestions on how we might do this?
– Charlie
Milan Moravec said,
November 27, 2009 @ 5:53 pm
$3 Million Reckless Spending by UCB Chancellor Birgeneau approved by UC President Yudof
UC President Yudof has a UCB Chancellor that should do the high paidwork he is paid for instead of hiring an East Coast consulting firm to fulfill his responsibilities. ‘World class’ smart executives like Chancellor Birgeneau need to do the analysis, hard work and make the difficult decisions of their executive job!
Where do consulting firms like Bain ($3,000,000 consultants) get their recommendations?
From interviewing the senior management that hired them and will be approving their monthly consultant fees and expense reports. Remember the nationally known auditing firm who said the right things and submitted recommendations that senior management wanted to hear and fooled government oversight agencies and the public? Consultants never bite the hand that feeds them
Mr. Birgeneau’s executive officer performance management responsibilities include “inspiring innovation and leading change.” This involves “defining outcomes, energizing others at all levels and ensuring continuing commitment.” Instead of demonstrating his leadership capacity by fulfill his executive accountabilities, Mr. Birgeneau outsourced them. Doesn’t he engage University of California and University of California Berkeley (UCB) people at all levels to help examine the budget and recommend the necessary $150 million trims? Hasn’t he talked to Cornell and the University of North Carolina – which also hired Bain — about best practices and recommendations that might apply to UCB cuts?
No wonder the faculty and staff are angry and suspicious. Three million dollars is a high price for Californians to pay when a knowledgeable ‘world-class’ Chancellor is not doing his job.
Save $3,000,000 for teaching our students and request that the UC President motivate Birgeneau to fulfill his executive work accountabilities!