Division of Humanities and Fine Arts

Administrative Support Reconfiguration

Overview and Frequently Asked Questions

A New Model for Administrative Support

After months of study and consultation, the Division of Humanities and Fine Arts is instituting a model of building-
based administrative clusters to serve groups of departments in South Hall, Phelps, HSSB, and the Arts Building. (Two
other possible models—departmental mergers and centralized service units outside of departments and buildings—were
considered and rejected.) These Administrative Support Centers will allow us to reduce staff FTE and support budgets
while providing a more equitable division of resources, greater efficiency, and a higher level of service through more
specialized expertise. The general scope and responsibilities of some current positions will remain unchanged. Other
positions will be redefined in a reconfigured staff structure that will redistribute workload (rather than increase
workload) in order to have a viable staff infrastructure to support our academic programs. Our aim is to reduce staff and
support budgets in a responsible way so we can provide adequate and equitable administrative support and protect our
instructional budgets. Although this reconfiguration will not eliminate the need to reduce our Temporary Sub0 budget, it
will reduce significantly the amount that we cut from faculty FTE, lecturers, and graduate student instructors.

The Plan: Administrative Support Centers

What departments will be included?

There will be reconfigured staff organizations for arts and humanities departments in the Arts Building, HSSB, South
Hall, and Phelps Hall. Not included in these clusters are the Media Arts and Technology Program, the Department of
Music, the Department of Theater and Dance, the Department of Film and Media Studies, and the Interdisciplinary
Humanities Center. A review of staff and support levels for these programs is taking place independently. The
University Art Museum is included in the Arts Building cluster. No departments outside of the Division of Humanities
and Fine Arts will be included.

Will there be a hierarchy of departments in each cluster?

No. There will be no “flagship departments” in the clusters. Large and small departments will be supported by the staff
according to their workload and programmatic needs.

How will these units be structured?

Each of the four building-based units will serve a cluster of individual departments. Each Center will be headed by an
Administrative Support Center Director, working with an Academic Services Manager and a Student Services Manager,
as well as auxiliary positions.

The portfolio of the Academic Services area will include Academic Personnel, financial services, departmental
administrative support, and academic clerical support. The portfolio of the Student Services area will include
undergraduate and graduate academic advisors and related support for undergraduate and graduate programs. Some
staff will work across departments in specific areas; some will be members of the administrative cluster but will focus
on specific majors or programs.

Department Chairs will receive support from the Administrative Support Center Director as well as other Managers and
staff. Each Chair in the cluster will have access to a staff member who will serve in an Assistant to the Chair capacity,
in addition to receiving support from the Administrative Support Center Director and other Managers. One Chair from
each building will be designated Coordinating Chair on a rotating basis in order to work with the Administrative
Support Center Director on common staff and financial issues; each Chair will be responsible for overseeing his or her
own faculty and programs. The Coordinating Chair will chair a committee of all of the Chairs and Managers in the
cluster.
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Although a blueprint for the structure of the Academic Support Centers has been outlined, with an expected allocation
and distribution of staff, the process of designing the specific arrangements and positions for each building-based center
will be carried out by the Support Center Manager teams and the relevant Chairs, in consultation with staff and faculty.
Within the overall plan and allocation of resources, we are leaving flexibility for chairs and staff to take into account the
specific circumstances of each cluster and building.

Where will the staff be located, and how will students and others locate and identify departments?

The plan is designed to be building-based in order to maintain accessibility and provide a local presence for staff. We
have not worked out in advance all of the arrangements because we want the individual Chairs and staff to consider the
options available in particular buildings. We need to take into account the optimal working conditions for staff as well
as the expectations of faculty and students. Administrative Centers will contain groups of staff working in similar areas,
grouped according to Student Services and Academic Services, accessible to all departments. We expect that Chairs will
maintain a presence both in their departmental areas and in some proximity to the administrative clusters.

How will individual departments be identified and located?

Each common administrative office will have prominent signs identifying the individual programs. Each building will
have a ground-floor directory. In South Hall, for example, there will be a suite of offices with prominent signage
indicating: Department of English, Department of Linguistics, English as a Second Language Program, Department of
Philosophy, Writing Program. A Student Services suite will display the names of the departments and the names of the
individual departmental advisors. Departments will continue to have their own websites, which will identify the staff
that faculty, students, prospective students, and the public might need to contact about departmental programs.

Departments will retain some individual, common space for specific departmental facilities, such as laboratories or
department-based centers, that are unaffected by this plan, as well as particular seminar rooms or other departmental
spaces. It is hoped that some new shared spaces will become available for conference rooms and collaborative activities.

Will every staff position in a department included in these clusters be shared?

No. Most technical or specialized staff currently outside of the designated administrative support areas will continue to
work solely for their individual departments or programs, even if they are included in the clusters. Some current
positions will be largely unchanged in their programmatic assignments and responsibilities.

Will there be any staff dedicated to and identified with specific programs?

Yes. It is important for some staff to be identified with specific academic programs and to know the faculty, students,
requirements, curriculum, and cultures of specific programs. For example, each undergraduate and graduate program
needs a dedicated academic advisor. Some programs require a full-time advisor; some do not. If an advisor were shared
by two small programs, students in each of those programs still would know him or her as their program’s advisor.

A larger and more efficient staff organization should make certain staff, such as Undergraduate or Graduate Advisors,
more available for substantive and programmatic involvement and more contact with students. For example, if the
shared clerical staff in a cluster are responsible for organizing graduate admissions files, or if the shared financial staff
are responsible for processing certain graduate student financial forms, the Graduate Adviser will have more time to
spend on programmatic and student interactions. Advisors assigned to work with specific programs will benefit from
increased collaboration with other Advisors.

We recognize that undergraduate majors and especially graduate students in specific programs need a sense of
community and continuity and that Undergraduate and Graduate Advisors are central to this sense of community.
Advisors know not only program requirements and curriculum but also individual students, and they help students
navigate the mazes of departmental and university requirements, regulations, and bureaucracies. Nothing in the new
administrative configuration will change the key role of these staff members. We hope, however, that their jobs will be
improved by more contact with colleagues, common systems improved by a sharing of “best practices,” and more time
to focus on the specialized aspects of their jobs.

Which staff are most likely to be working across programs?

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In addition to Managers, who will oversee relevant staff in their respective areas, there are staff who carry out
responsibilities that are not specific to particular academic programs, such as financial or payroll transactions, clerical
work, etc. Such staff can easily work across a few departments.

Will staff have to keep track of three or four different and inconsistent sets of departmental practices for
accounting, major forms, Academic Personnel records, etc.?

No. Managers and staff, in consultation with faculty and Chairs, working in each cluster and working across clusters,
will share best practices and develop common procedures and protocols. Reasonable flexibility will be used in
responding to the needs of different programs and disciplines; different building clusters will design arrangements that
work best for their geographical and disciplinary landscapes. However, the goal of the cluster approach is to develop
common practices and procedures that will support faculty and students equitably and efficiently. We hope that some
common forms (reimbursement forms, major sheets, Bio-Bib’s, book orders, etc.) can be standardized and made
available and filed in electronic form.

Will this reconfiguration add to individual staff workloads, like an assembly-line speed-up?

No. The point of a reconfiguration (and the advantage of this approach over departmental mergers or increased sharing
of individual staff) is that positions will be designed to redistribute and rationalize workload in an equitable and realistic
manner. No one with a full-time position will be asked to increase his or her workload above 100%. Some
responsibilities might be redistributed to create more efficient structures or to make better use of the skills and expertise
of individuals. This administrative support reconfiguration is designed to avoid the sort of increases in workload that
typically result from reductions in the workforce.

Some positions, such as the Administrative Support Center Director positions, will have new responsibilities. However,
those Managers will be able to delegate certain responsibilities that they currently have. They will not be asked to do
their current jobs and take on additional responsibilities. A current Department Business Officer who becomes an
Administrative Support Center Director will not continue to be the Department Business Officer and the Administrative
Support Center Director. He or she will have a new position; the old position will no longer exist. The managerial team
will be responsible to all the departments in the cluster. This is the purpose of reconfiguration. Some current positions
will continue, albeit in a different context; some will be redesigned, with responsibilities redistributed, according to
workload and programmatic needs.

Will this reorganization violate any contractual agreements or Human Resources policies?

No. We are consulting closely with Human Resources. We understand that there are restrictions on re-allocating
responsibilities from represented employees to employees outside of that bargaining unit. Changes will be consistent
with contracts and policies.

Will departmental budgets be merged?

Some common administrative and support budgets will be centralized. Temporary Sub0 instructional funds, including
TA FTE, lecturer salaries, visiting professor salaries, etc. will not be merged. Each department will retain its own
separate instructional budget. This administrative reconfiguration will not have an impact on block grant, central
fellowships, or other funding that is specific to individual degree programs. Endowments, fellowships, grants,
philanthropic gifts, or special accounts that are specific to departmental programs will remain autonomous.
Departmental centers and dedicated facilities will remain under departmental control. The Administrative Support
Center plan is designed to address staff support in designated areas, common administrative functions, and the day-to-
day operations of departments.

Will departments included in the clusters get “credit” and suffer fewer cuts to their Temporary Sub0 budgets?

Yes and no. All of our departments and programs will benefit if we can reduce the cuts that we take in our instructional
budgets. However, the point of approaching problems and solutions from a Divisional rather than a departmental level
is to better leverage resources and be more efficient by taking a common approach. No department is guaranteed any
specific credit. This plan reduces but does not eliminate the need for cuts to instructional budgets.

How will Chairs interact with the Administrative Support Center Director and other Managers?
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Chairs will continue to have unmediated access to experienced Managers. Although the Administrative Support Center
Director will retain some responsibilities that currently belong to departmental managers, some responsibilities
currently assigned to traditional department managers will be assumed by the other members of the Academic Support
Center managerial team. For example, we do not expect that one person alone will be responsible for overseeing four
curricular plans simultaneously. Chairs will have access to a staff member responsible for providing the sort of support
associated with an Assistant to the Chair. Protocols and arrangements will need to be designed with clarity and care and
then further developed as Chairs and the managerial teams work together.

What are the benefits to departments?

The first benefit is to avoid devastating cuts to their instructional budgets and further reductions in the number of ladder
faculty in the Division. An additional benefit is to avoid the dysfunctional level of staff support that would result from
further staff and support budget cuts in our current administrative structure. In more positive terms, we believe that this
plan will provide a more equitable, efficient, and in many cases a higher level of support for departments. Looking at
economies and priorities on a Divisional level also will make it more possible for us to leverage resources and provide
support in areas in which we currently are deficient, such as grant administration and development, as well as website,
IT, and technical support. As new resources become available, we will be able to deploy them to create such positions to
serve more effectively the greatest number of programs, faculty, and students.

Will there be disadvantages as well as advantages?

Yes. Any change has potential disadvantages as well as advantages. There will be some changes in departmental culture
and in the habits of individual faculty and staff. Departments currently have different levels of support and different
faculty expectations; there might need to be adjustments as clusters adopt best practices and set priorities for services
and support. Similar staffing models have been utilized successfully at other universities. In some universities, even
where there are separate departmental staffs, many faculty have offices in buildings spread all over campus. A
traditional departmental administrative office is not the only way to preserve a strong departmental culture or sense of
community; the traditional department office did not guarantee a strong departmental culture or sense of community.
We want to work with faculty and staff to find ways to preserve departmental culture and identity in a new environment.

What are the advantages to staff?

This approach will allow for cross-training, and it will provide staff with colleagues, support, and back-up in particular
areas. Many staff, especially in small programs, are pulled between many different responsibilities and competing
demands. Increased specialization will allow staff to develop skills and expertise in specific areas. Although some staff
enjoy working across many different areas, others might thrive if given an opportunity to pursue certain areas of
strength. Sharing knowledge and best practices across departments and clusters will allow staff to develop better
support models. We hope to design a collaborative and congenial environment that will allow for versatile and
interesting positions. This structure also will allow for more opportunities for professional advancement and
development for individual staff. We currently lose staff to other Divisions when they seek advancement. Restructuring
will avoid a situation in which inevitable budget cuts will reduce support and increase workload for those staff
remaining in departments.

What are the advantages for faculty?

Budget cuts over the years have reduced administrative support for faculty, who (in an age of electronic
communication) increasingly are expected to provide their own clerical and administrative support. Further reductions
in individual departmental staff would make it difficult for departments to operate and they would shift additional
workload to faculty. Support for faculty currently is not distributed equally or uniformly across the Division. This plan
is designed to reduce the budget without further reducing administrative support for faculty. It is designed to provide a
better and more equitable level of support.

What are the advantages to students?

Student advisors will be able to spend more of their time interacting with students and supporting degree programs.
Further reductions in individual departmental staff would make it difficult for departments to operate and would
decrease student services. Although students might seem to benefit little from this reorganization, if it allows us to avoid
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devastating reductions to our instructional budgets through reductions in lecturer, TA, and faculty appoints, they will
benefit a great deal.

How many staff layoffs will there be?

Layoffs are occurring across the campus, the state, and the nation. We plan to take advantage of current staff vacancies
caused by retirements, including current Manager vacancies, as well as some expected retirements and separations, to
keep the number of required layoffs low. The exact number will depend on a variety of factors as we match staff
resources with expected workload needs in reconfigured units. Neither represented nor non-represented units are being
singled out. Decisions as to which particular individuals will be laid off will be made at the Divisional level, not at the
departmental level. Any decisions about layoffs will be made in consultation with Human Resources and in accordance
with all contractual and UCSB regulations. Although efforts will be made to match positions and assignments according
to experience, expertise, and qualifications, in some cases questions of seniority will come into play. All contractual
obligations and Human Resources policies will be respected.

When will these changes take place?

The transition to the new system will require further planning and phased implementation. The logistics will not be
easy, and there will be a transitional period. Staff will retain their current departmental responsibilities until July.
Although the formal changeover will take place on July 1st, when we must return permanent funds to the Executive Vice
Chancellor, both the next three months (April, May and June) and the subsequent three months (July, August, and
September) will be transitional periods. We expect that any space relocation and reconfiguration will take place over the
summer, so as to minimize disruption to departmental programs.

Is this a merger of departments, faculty, graduate programs, or undergraduate programs?

No. Each department will retain its autonomous identity, faculty, and degree programs.

Is this a prelude to downsizing or a merger of departments, faculty, graduate programs, or undergraduate

programs?

No. This arrangement could facilitate interdisciplinary and interdepartmental collaborations, but it is designed entirely
to provide adequate and practical staff support to our existing departments and programs.

Conclusion

We believe that this plan has many benefits and that it has some advantages that would be compelling even if there were
not a budget crisis. We acknowledge that it will involve some changes in how departments operate and in departmental
cultures. However, we believe that this plan is preferable to any of the alternatives, which include merging departments
and programs, discontinuing departments and programs, and making even more devastating cuts to faculty, Teaching
Assistant, and staff FTE.

We believe that a creative and constructive approach to this crisis based on a new design for the way that we provide
staff and administrative support can maintain our individual programs, provide a more equitable distribution of
resources, and better support our faculty and staff in a working environment that will be beneficial for staff, faculty, and
students. As new resources become available, we will be able to create new positions to serve the largest number of
faculty and students, following programmatic priorities.

There are both risks and opportunities in creating new structures and taking new approaches, but we are confident that
our Chairs and Managers can develop a new model that, in time, will come to feel as natural as the one to which we are
currently accustomed.
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{March 30, 2010}