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Wednesday, March 11, 2015

And the winner is...

In past blogs, we have noted things that students do that cause problems for UC in its current budget negotiations (such as the flag incident at Irvine). However, there are also self-inflicted administrative wounds that put UC in the running for the fiasco awards, such as the sad tale of UCPath, the yet-to-arrive computer payroll system. We have previously blogged on that matter, too. Just to illustrate the ongoing PR damage from that fiasco, consider the item below from the San Diego Union-Tribune:

Here we go again: The University of California system has added its name to the long list of state agencies that have had costly debacles when upgrading computers. And UC’s debacle is one of the worst. University leaders in 2009 adopted a four-year, $170 million plan to create one central payroll for all UC campuses, medical centers and offices. According to a Sacramento Bee report, the project is far from done and is $50 million over budget. Rather incredibly, the office of UC President Janet Napolitano won’t even provide a forecast of when the project will be complete or what its final cost will be... Napolitano’s and UC’s handling of this fiasco goes a long way toward confirming the suspicions of Gov. Jerry Brown and many state lawmakers that UC’s finances and management are a mess. It also suggests that the real reason UC has resisted fiscal scrutiny isn’t because of opposition to micromanagement. It’s because UC officials have so much to hide...


Whose fault is it? No one seems to want to say. But we know what isn't happening (or rolling) at Oakland headquarters:

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