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UC Regent calls for operations overhaul
08/24/07
This Thursday's (8/23/07) LA Times has an article about a "critique of University of California operations" by UC Board of Regents Chairman Richard C. Blum.
He calls the way the UC administration operates "outmoded and dysfunctional" and calls for a "major overhaul."
From the article in the LA Times:
Blum ... said in an interview that the 10-campus UC system should cut back its administrative staff and devote more resources to education.
And,
Among his proposals Wednesday were ... eliminating millions of dollars in unnecessary or duplicative administration.
We have a prime example of "unnecessary or duplicative administration" right here at UCI Housing. Housing is way overstaffed, compared to commercial residential communities, and there is lots of duplication between Verano and Palo Verde. In my opinion, at least 1/2 of Verano and PV personnel could be let go without any significant impact on the (sadly already rather bad) service the offices provide.
Another example of a waste of money and unnecessary administration is the so-called ""co-curricular program component" aka "first-year initiative" that is now run by Bill Zeller, who before that assignment seemed to do his best to run UCI Housing into the ground.
I sincerely hope that Mr. Blum (who is the husband of Senator Dianne Feinstein) is successful in reforming the UC administration and getting rid of the waste that currently permeates the administration. A world-class university deserves a world-class administration, not the third-rate administrators we have right now.
In that context, another quote:
"Cumbersome and enormously expensive layers of bureaucracy have been added over the years, many of which may no longer make sense -- if indeed they ever did," Blum wrote. "Unless the University seriously and accountably commits itself to a new direction, we risk losing the perpetual battle for excellence in many areas."
Oh, and just to be clear: there are some world-class administrators at UCI, e.g., in the network operations (NACS.) I have nothing but praise for them.
But if there's light, there also is a lot of shade. And the UCI Housing administration is unfortunately on the lower end of the scale...
4 comments
Hi Joe,
I’ve enjoyed your blog since I started at UCI last fall… appreciate the efforts you made while you were here. I hope this overhaul really happens, but I have little faith.
I have a great little story about the incredibly competent UCI staff… and I hope it will help those who read and maybe criticize these blogs to better understand our frustrations. I’m currently up late gathering documentation against housing in an attempt to handle the situation I’m currently in…
I’m in a 3 bdr at PV housing, only 2 of us at present. About a month ago my roommate and I received an assignment for a third roommate, but the women failed to ever contact us and we received an email that she had lost her spot on the waiting list. However, PV continued to then forward this girl and my current roommate updates about turning over the old room and mysteriously lost any documentation that I lived in the apartment.
Today at about 5:10 pm I received an incoherent email from PV Offices with some bizarre lecture about moving to graduate school being so stressful and forgetting to contact people and indicating some woman was driving from up North and would contact us???
Anyways, this is the first indication I’ve received about getting another applicant. Confused, I called my current roommate who informed me that this woman who we have never heard about entered our apartment, (while she was taking a nap, to add to her shock), and began moving into the unit. I did not even know her name let alone anything else about her, except that she smokes and we are both quite allergic. PV is conveniently closed for the day and all I hear is Kerri Sherwood will contact us sometime tomrrow.
(But luckily I’ll be in that office right at 8 am to raise hell.)
I’d like to know how this can be legal? I’d go as far to say it is grossly immoral to impose such a situation on anyone, especially when we students have our time and energies so stretched. To say PV has dropped the ball cannot even begin to describe this mess I’m in.
All the best to you and others reading this…
Hi Denise,
Sorry to hear about this.
The best way is to get the PV Residents Council involved (pvrc at uci.edu).
You are not the only one to have these kinds of problems, even a PVRC member had roommate assignment issues.
Denise,
I suggest that you contact Lisa Cornish immediately.
I agree. Lisa Cornish is one of the few competent people in housing.
Unfortunately, way too often she has to stomp out the fires that the incompetence of others in housing start…
