Enhancing Effectiveness and Efficiency at UC Santa Cruz
Prepared: July 2025
Task Force Background
The Process Improvement Task Force was charged with identifying opportunities at a tactical level to improve existing processes at UC Santa Cruz. The committee focused specifically on enhancing effectiveness and efficiency, removing obstacles in operations, eliminating waste, lowering expenditures, encouraging new ideas, and improving employee productivity and satisfaction.
The Task Force was co-chaired by Aisha Jackson, Vice Chancellor of Information Technology, and Paul Koch, Professor of Earth & Planetary Sciences, with committee staff support provided by Mallory DeBartolo from the Office of Information Technology.
The committee brought together diverse expertise from across campus, including John Bono from the University Library, Amy Bruinooge from the Humanities Division, Angela Cline from Student Affairs & Success, Csilla Csaplár from the Office of Research, and Gregg Edgar from Finance, Operations & Administration. Academic representation included Jeremy Hourigan from Earth & Planetary Sciences serving as the Academic Senate representative, while operational expertise came from staff including Kalin McGraw from the Registrar’s Office, Michelle Montemayor from Graduate Studies, Hudson Smith and Liz Trask from Information Technology Services, Mary Watkins as Experience Design Manager, and Elani Zissimopoulos from Undergraduate Education.
This cross-functional composition ensured that the Task Force could evaluate process improvements from multiple perspectives and understand the interconnected nature of campus operations.
Process and Evaluation Framework
The Task Force developed a systematic approach to evaluate and prioritize the numerous process improvement ideas submitted through the “Your Ideas Matter” survey and committee member contributions. The committee’s methodology evolved through deliberation and refinement over several months of meetings.
Development of Systematic Review Process
Beginning in late 2024, the Task Force reviewed 26 process improvement ideas submitted through the “Your Ideas Matter” survey and committee member contributions. The committee developed specific evaluation criteria focusing on impact potential, implementation effort, cost effectiveness, scope of impact across campus units, and alignment with the university’s mission and strategic priorities. Using this framework, committee members conducted individual assessments of each submission and categorized them into thematic groups such as financial systems, research administration, space management, and academic processes.
Priority Setting Through Committee Deliberation
Through systematic discussion of each idea during monthly meetings from November 2024 through March 2025, the Task Force engaged in detailed analysis of the merits and challenges of each proposal. The committee examined whether initiatives were already underway elsewhere on campus, assessed the potential for standardization versus centralization, and considered the interconnected nature of campus processes.
Working Group Formation
Once priority areas were identified, the Task Force formed specialized working groups to develop detailed proposals for the most promising initiatives. These working groups researched their assigned topics and drafted comprehensive narratives that outlined the situation, proposed solutions, challenges, and potential benefits for each priority area.
Campus Leadership Review and Final Prioritization
After completing their analysis, the Task Force presented their top five priority areas to the Chancellor’s Cabinet and Senate Executive Committee. These campus leadership bodies conducted their own prioritization process, ultimately selecting the top four initiatives to advance. This collaborative approach helped to ensure that the final recommendations had strong institutional support and aligned with broader campus strategic priorities.
Top Four Priority Areas
The Chancellor’s Cabinet and Senate Executive Committee made the decision to focus initial efforts on four priorities: developing a comprehensive financial system, streamlining the academic personnel process, and implementing PPDO budget controls.
Streamline and Automate Processes that support Financial Management of Academic Employees
The campus must identify and implement a management solution that standardizes, streamlines, and automates administrative processes related to appointment of academic personnel, enhances financial oversight, and aligns with UCSC’s mission of education, research, and outreach.
This initiative requires a fundamental shift in how financial and administrative functions operate—moving toward a model that is connected, responsive, durable, and agile. By reducing complexity and inefficiencies in current systems, we can refocus valuable staff time on strategic priorities and mission-critical activities.
Streamlining
the Academic Personnel Process for Senate Faculty
The current faculty personnel review process requires substantial time investment from multiple entities including departments, deans, the Committee on Academic Personnel, the Academic Personnel Office, the Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, and the Campus Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor, causing delays in hiring and increase in faculty workload.
The Task Force proposed evaluating ways to streamline this process while remaining compliant with Academic Personnel Manual requirements, establishing clear content and length guidelines, and exploring technology to assist with standardization.
Auditing,
Benchmarking, and Implementing Budget Controls for PPDO
PPDO currently faces perceptions of costly and prohibitive services, driven by over-reliance as the sole provider, accumulated deferred maintenance challenges and complex rules applied to a small available pool of contractors.
The proposed solution involves conducting a comprehensive budget audit, performing comparative analysis with other UC campuses and market rates, engaging stakeholders through listening sessions, and implementing streamlined SOW, estimate and quality control processes and aligning PPDO goals with campus-wide goals.
Optimizing
Space Resources
UCSC lacks a holistic strategic approach to space management, leading to fragmented decision-making and inefficient resource allocation.
The proposed solution develops a formalized framework for space planning anchored in shared principles and data-driven decision-making, including: shared space management principles informed by CPEC standards; data-driven space projection tools for departments to estimate needs based on strategic growth plans; utilization incentives and standards to encourage shared use; a comprehensive annual space assessment process modeled after budget planning; integration with Strategic and Capital Planning; and a transparent pathway for space requests.
By focusing efforts on fewer initiatives, campus leadership ensures adequate attention and resources for successful implementation rather than spreading efforts too thin across multiple projects.
Next Steps
Ed Reiskin, Vice Chancellor for Finance, Operations, and Administration, will be scoping and advancing the financial system and PPDO initiatives.
Paul Koch, Campus Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor, will be leading the Academic Personnel Process improvements.
The University Space Committee will advance the Optimizing Space Resources initiative.
Additionally, members of the Task Force will be engaged in the working groups to advance the initiatives outlined above.