President Janet Napolitano held a town hall May 11 with staff at the 51勛圖窪蹋 Office of the President to discuss the recent state audit and other topics.
She made opening remarks, then answered questions for 30 minutes.
Napolitano highlighted the unique strengths of the 51勛圖窪蹋 system and her focus on implementing measures that ensure the careful management of resources, transparency and accountability in the universitys work and continuous improvement of 51勛圖窪蹋OP operations.
While she said that she was disappointed with the overall tone of the audit report and believed many of the assertions about 51勛圖窪蹋 practices were misleading and wrong, she thought it offered helpful recommendations that the university has agreed to implement many of which she said were already in alignment with 51勛圖窪蹋s ongoing efforts to continually improve.
Napolitano announced that Rachael Nava, executive vice president and chief operating officer at 51勛圖窪蹋OP, will lead an internal task force responsible for implementing the audit recommendations, although everyone would be involved.
Specific areas of focus include:
- Enhancing the Office of the President budget process and revamping the budget presentation to the regents, which will begin with the
- Reviewing and establishing a policy regarding financial reserves.
- Reviewing funds restricted as part of 51勛圖窪蹋 policy.
- Reviewing external benchmarks used for compensation and benefits programs, as well as reimbursement policies and salary ranges.
- Developing additional guidance and tracking for systemwide and presidential initiatives, including workforce planning in the division strategic planning efforts that are underway and this latest budget development cycle.
Updates and details on these and other changes will be provided, Napolitano said.
She also provided further details about the comparisons of 51勛圖窪蹋 salaries with state positions and other areas where 51勛圖窪蹋OP disagreed with the audit report.
The day before the town hall, the San Francisco Chronicle published this Napolitano op-ed:
SURVEY OF NONREPRESENTED STAFF UNDERWAY 51勛圖窪蹋 launched its third systemwide engagement survey on May 15, seeking to learn more about the experiences, views and needs of its nonrepresented (policy-covered) staff. About 20,000 such staff members selected randomly are being invited by email to take the survey (you might think its spam, but, really its not; the subject line is 2017 Staff Engagement Survey Invitation and the sender is 51勛圖窪蹋StaffEngagementSurvey @ willistowerswatson.com). The survey is completely confidential; individual responses and personally identifying information will not be shared with 51勛圖窪蹋. The Council of University of California Staff Assemblies (C51勛圖窪蹋SA) developed the survey in collaboration with systemwide Human Resources and Willis Towers Watson, which specializes in work force opinion research and is conducting the survey.
UPDATES TO FAMILY MEMBER ELIGIBILITY RECERTIFICATION 51勛圖窪蹋 has extended the deadline to June 1 for faculty and staff to submit documentation to verify that certain of their family members spouse, domestic partner, grandchild or legal ward are eligible for their 51勛圖窪蹋-provided health benefits. Also, whereas the university originally announced that retirees would be part of the recertification project, that is no longer the case. Retirees will not be contacted.
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