Dove

A team tasked with reorganizing administrative work on campus is taking the faculty perspective into account.

They're talking with more than 120 faculty members from across campus to get a sense of the support services they need. Participants in more than 20 meetings will include faculty members and department chairs, as well as administrative managers and representatives from each college. The talks are taking place through April.

"While we're reviewing functional administrative areas and going through budget reductions, we want to make sure we continue to meet the critical needs of the faculty and understand them," said Cathy Dove, manager of the Initiatives Coordination Office (ICO) team analyzing how to more efficiently organize managerial and administrative work. The team's administrative sponsor is Mary Opperman, Cornell's vice president for human resources; its academic sponsor is G. Peter Lepage, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

Faculty members don't usually think about administrative help in silos - nor should they, said Dove, associate dean of administration in the College of Engineering. "The fact that a professor needs to hire a graduate student is part finance, part human resources, part getting the right systems in place. They're thinking, 'I'm writing a grant; I need to hire a graduate student.'"

The team has hired Dick Shafer, Ph.D. '97, a director at TruePoint, a consulting firm and educational center, and a former associate dean for corporate relations at the Johnson School, to meet with Dove and each college's academic associate dean, chief administrative officer and department chairs. He's also facilitating focus groups with faculty, asking such questions as:

Upcoming Reimagining Cornell events:

• Initiatives Coordination Office (ICO) public discussion, May 10, 4:30-5:30 p.m., B45 Warren Hall, hosted by Provost Kent Fuchs and Paul Streeter, associate vice president for planning and budget and ICO director.

• ICO brown-bag lunch, May 21, 12:15-1:15 p.m., Robison Hall of Fame Room, Friends Hall, Schoellkopf Memorial Hall, hosted by Fuchs and Streeter.

For more information, visit Reimagining Cornell http://www.cornell.edu/reimagining.

They are also being asked to consider their needs in general administration plus specific areas such as research support, communications, student services, finance and budgeting, human resources, facilities, information technology, and development and alumni affairs.

After analyzing the data, the team will identify common needs by early May and share the analysis with the colleges and the other ICO teams. The teams will use the outcomes to help guide their review and redesign of work in areas from facilities to human resources and finance.

President David Skorton and Provost Kent Fuchs created the ICO in December 2009 to help realize at least $90 million in annual administrative savings by 2015.

Understanding the faculty's administrative needs is an important part of that work, Dove said. "The colleges are here to support faculty and students. We really need to be disciplined, articulate and clear about what that means, and not just take it for granted that we've embedded those needs in our designs."