Proposal #70
Proposal Title: Nice but not Necessary
Anticipated Savings/Revenue: $250K+
Units affected: Various units across the University
Impacted Degrees/Courses: None
Brief Description of Proposal:
We now have a staff member serving as an Academic Honors and Fellowships Adviser. She seems to be doing a good job, devoting more time and effort to her assignment than faculty members who in prior years had received .20 assigned time/semester for assisting students in obtaining scholarships and fellowships. Assume that this staff member is earning $50K in salary plus $18K in benefits. The faculty receiving .20 assigned time/semester cost the University a little over $8K. The difference is $60K.
How many other staff members are carrying out tasks that are beneficial but not necessary?
How many staff in OIP, e.g., do we need to focus on exchange programs and attending to the needs of international students?
How many staff do we need in the Registrar’s Office to review student transcripts, assisting in making decisions re which of relatively few applicants for admission we won’t accept?
In many areas of the University, there needs to be close scrutiny not just of job descriptions but also of what staff are in fact doing, how important in the grand scheme of things the tasks they carry out are, how many staff are needed to carry out the tasks reasonably well, etc. Once one steps outside the territory of departments and colleges, there are probably few members of UPAC who have a clear or deep understanding of how other units of the institution actually function, and/or how important most of the functions in these units actually are.
That is to say, in considering grand scheme of things, we need to carefully sort out our priorities with extreme care, preserving what is essential and making do in certain areas, whether in the short term or over the long term.
Note: Proposals are posted as submitted, without
editing other than to remove the submitter's contact information.
