As the University of California
regents get down to the hard work of recruiting a new president before Mark G.
Yudof retires in August, they might consider an even bolder move: a dramatic
downsizing of the president's office. The current University of California
Office of the President, or UCOP, is a labyrinthine bureaucracy that takes
money from the 10 campuses where actual teaching and research happen... The 10 UC institutions are already,
for all intents and purposes, autonomous units. We set our own curricula, hire
our own faculty and pay for our own physical plants, and now we also raise our
own money to support our operations. Accordingly, as dwindling state funding is
replaced by private money, the great challenge is to retain a robust sense of
public mission at each UC. One of the most important ways that we can do so is
by focusing on the local communities where we are embedded... Devolving power and transferring
resources from the centralized administration may be a painful pill for the new
UC president. But these steps are key to ensuring that the 10 UC campuses will
be more responsive, accessible and competitive in the new age of public higher
education.
Full op ed at http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-0602-myers-uc-president-20130531,0,1371539.story
I'm sure the folks in Oakland will say they have heard this theme before - and maybe they have:
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