Transformation is About More Than Reorganization

September 26, 2008

Dear Colleagues:

This week, President Shelton spoke at the Staff Advisory Council Town Hall on the Transformation Plan, and next week he and I will speak with appointed professionals on Tuesday, September 30 in the Gallagher Theater at 3:30 p.m. We will also be speaking with faculty on Wednesday, October 1 at 8:00 a.m. in the Gallagher Theater. These forums are part of our effort to engage the entire university community in the process of reassessing how we can improve our operations in order to advance our core mission. We have charged all the teams who are developing White Paper Proposals to gain input from staff and appointed professionals, and all Final Proposal teams will be required to include staff and appointed professionals in their deliberations.

Specifics on these requirements and related procedures are included in the Transformation Timeline at:
http://provost.arizona.edu/transformation_timeline

The Timeline includes specifications on the proposals along with details on the ways they will be evaluated and advanced.

Having the perspectives of faculty, staff, appointed professionals, and students is vital to our deliberations. Everyone needs to be involved in how we can improve our work to advance our research, teaching, and service missions.

The University of Arizona Transformation Process will impact academic and support units throughout our community. It is thus essential that we solicit perspectives of all categories of employees and our students to help us plan for the changes to come. Every unit on campus needs to reassess procedures to see where efficiencies can be achieved by streamlining processes and cutting costs. Reorganizations will not help us meet our financial challenges unless every change we make is combined with a reassessment of how we do business in the units involved. This fall, all units need to review personnel assignments and procedures to prepare for the hard choices that are going to have to be made to meet our core obligations in the spring semester.

The consolidations and realignments in the coming months will impact how we balance our responsibilities and obligations. Working together now in a creative and proactive manner will help us ensure that the impact will be as positive as possible. Combining small units into larger units will allow us to improve our effectiveness if the consolidations are based on careful assessments of the work that goes on in those units. We can improve the way we do business by creating more effectively organized units, but reorganization will not lead to increased efficiency unless we attend to the personnel, business, and other operations of the units.

President Shelton and I realize that the financial challenges facing the University are forcing us all to move as quickly as we can to consider our options. We also realize that our decision to make the deliberations as broadly inclusive as possible has increased the work involved. We appreciate your willingness to take up that work. We look forward to reviewing the proposals that are emerging from your thoughts about how we can strengthen our shared commitments.

We invite you to send your comments and suggestions to uatransf@email.arizona.edu.

Meredith Hay