UC Planning to Cut $500 Million of Administrative Waste. At a University of California Board of Regents meeting on May 19 in San Francisco, university officials presented a plan to cut administrative waste by $500 million. UC President Mark Yudof said the university wastes money by being too decentralized.
A recent study commissioned by UC Berkeley found that that campus alone could save $93 million to $135 million through operational efficiencies (see Cal-Taxletter of April 16).
President Yudof said: "If we can agree (to consolidate) some of those things we can save a lot of money and put it back into students and faculty and staff, which is where it belongs in the first place."
Nathan Brostrom, the executive vice president for business
operations, said: "It is imperative that we re-examine now the way we
operate both as a system and campuses."
Russell Gould, chair of the Board of Regents and a former director of finance under Governor Pete Wilson, said that this efficiency push is a top priority.
One area of potential savings is purchasing, where UC spends $4 billion a year on supplies. UC Chief Financial Officer Peter Taylor said that in the past, each campus ordered its own supplies and from different suppliers. Centralization of some purchases can result in lower prices. He said he has already saved $48 million in this area and believes savings of an additional $100 million are possible. Citing another example of savings, Mr. Taylor said he was shocked to find that almost every employee in the UC's Office of the President had his or her own printer. Mr. Taylor said that since he started work there, he has gotten rid of 400 printers, saving UC $300,000 in ink, equipment and maintenance – though that still leaves a staff of 700 with more than 200 printers, or one printer for every three or four workers.
(Cal-Tax has been calling for the elimination of waste as a top priority and recently published an expansive report on waste and fraud.) (Sources: University of California Press Release, May 19, The Sacramento Bee, May 20.)
Cal-TaxReports, May 24, 2010
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