UCLA Chancellor Gene Block has secured funding to restore the opening hours of Night Powell, the extended hours reading room located in the Powell Library Building, as of Monday, November 2. Hours are posted on at the following link:
http://www.library.ucla.edu/about/876.cfm
You can read the Bruin’s editorial about Night Powell online at:http://beta.dailybruin.com/articles/2009/11/5/night-powells-return-triumph/
UCLA Office of the Chancellor
Across campus, faculty, staff and students are experiencing the consequences of an unprecedented reduction in state support to the University of California system. The effects include larger class sizes, reduced library hours, and faculty and staff salary reductions; student fee increases are looming. These are difficult times, and I am deeply grateful for your patience, understanding and dedication as we make the often painful decisions necessary to ensure UCLA’s continued excellence.
The measures we have taken are helping to close a 2009-10 budget shortfall of more than $150 million. But we still must make long-term, structural changes so that our academic programs and campus operations align with new funding realities. While we continue to advocate strongly for state funding, we must face reality and plan for a future that relies less on volatile state support, which is not expected to improve next year.
Currently, we are conducting a thorough review of our academic programs. Led by Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Scott Waugh, working closely with the Academic Senate, the review is intended to streamline majors, reduce unnecessary units and courses, and focus on helping students graduate in a timely manner. Preliminary reports from the deans are due in January. The result will certainly be some shrinkage of UCLA’s academic programs.
At the systemwide level, the Commission on the Future of UC is looking at long-term issues. The commission’s charge is to develop a new vision for the university that affirms its core values of excellence and access while addressing financial challenges from declining state funding.
The issue of student fees is especially emotional. As you know, President Yudof has proposed two fee increases, one effective winter quarter and another effective in fall 2010. The UC Board of Regents is scheduled to act on the proposal at its November meeting at UCLA.
While I don’t like the idea of raising the cost of education, I believe fee increases are necessary to maintain UCLA’s academic quality. Without the additional revenue generated by higher fees, our academic programs would suffer irreparably. It’s important to emphasize that approximately one of every three dollars in new fee increases would go toward financial aid programs to assist the students and families most in need. At UCLA, generating revenue for scholarships and fellowships is our top fundraising priority. The goal of our Bruin Scholars Initiative is to raise $500 million for this purpose by June 2013.
Many of you have expressed frustration, and even anger, about these circumstances, as well as your concern about the future of UCLA. I share your concern; this is a difficult process for all of us. As we work together, it’s important to remember that we all want the same thing—to maintain academic excellence and the access that our mission as a public university requires of us.
I am grateful for the sacrifices you are making to help the campus through this process, and my administration is committed to sharing information as it becomes available and consulting with you during the decision-making process.
As I’ve stated in earlier communications, I firmly believe that UCLA will emerge from this challenging time stronger and of even greater benefit to students and society.
For additional details about the budget challenges we face and the steps we’ve taken, I encourage you to read this new Q&A with Steve Olsen, vice chancellor for budget, finance and capital programs.
Sincerely,
Gene D. Block
Chancellor
NOTE: I particularly encourage each staff member to review the links and the question and answer update provided herein.
Now that the academic year is about to begin, I want to update you on the difficult decisions the UCLA Library is making to implement our 2009-10 budget.
The Library depends on state funding for almost ninety percent of our budget. Our non-salary allocation for 09-10 has been cut by five percent, or $1.8 million. In addition, we must come up with just over $1 million this fiscal year to cover charges for energy, deferred maintenance, increases in fringe benefits costs, and employer contributions to retirement. Thus, the total reduction we must plan for comes to nearly $3 million, or about eight percent of our overall budget. Note that these figures do not reflect the salary reductions mandated by the UC Office of the President, which are being taken centrally.
In making these reductions, our primary concern is to sustain the excellence of the Library’s collections, services, and staff in support of UCLA’s students, faculty, and staff, and we are determined to ensure that the Library emerges from this crisis strong, relevant, and sustainable. The following actions are being taken with those goals in mind.
Collections: I am holding back twenty-five percent of the acquisitions allocation from state funds, for a potential savings of nearly $2 million. The reductions are being applied differentially across collections and disciplines to preserve our ability to provide resources essential for teaching and research and to address the immediate needs of faculty, researchers, and graduate students. We will also attempt to sustain all joint purchases and licenses we are committed to with other UC libraries to retain access to many highly used electronic resources. While this is a significant cut and the first such reduction in the Library’s history, our liaison librarians will work closely with you to respond to your requests for essential items and to acquire them and made them available as quickly as possible.
Hours: Though reduced, hours have been set to ensure broad access to collections, services, and research and study spaces and to correspond with instructional schedules and usage patterns. The four largest libraries will be open Monday through Thursday from 7:30 a.m. to 11 p.m., Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., closed on Saturday, and open Sunday from 1 to 6 p.m. Night Powell, the College Library’s extended-hours reading room, will open for tenth and final weeks during the fall quarter. Hours for the Eugene and Maxine Rosenfeld Management Library will remain unchanged from last year. All print reserves will be housed in one of the large libraries in order to remain accessible to all students, and electronic reserves will be available 24/7, as always, as will electronic resources, online reference assistance, and user self-services.
Campus Libraries: To address current reductions and plan for possible future cuts, we have begun to examine how the Library can meet its campus commitments with fewer physical locations. Internal study teams have begun to examine the service and collection issues associated with shifting the collections, services, and staff of the Arts and SEL/Chemistry libraries to one of the large libraries. The process will also include consultation with affected constituencies and discussion of the options.
Staffing: We have not filled vacancies for some time and have limited recruitments to a very few critical positions; that will continue.
I will post updates on major developments, and further information is available on the Library budget Web page at http://www.library.ucla.edu/about/budget.cfm .
I very much appreciate your expression of support for the UCLA Arts Library.
The UCLA Library depends on state funding for almost ninety percent of its budget. The allocation for 2009-10 has been cut by five percent, or $1.8 million. In addition, the Library must come up with just over $1 million this fiscal year to cover charges for energy, deferred maintenance, increases in fringe benefits costs, and employer contributions to retirement. Thus, the total permanent reduction the Library must plan for comes to nearly $3 million, or about eight percent of our overall budget. Note that these figures do not reflect the salary reductions mandated by the UC Office of the President; those reductions are an additional $1,100,000.
The wording in the August 4 announcement on my blog was very specific that “with the current reductions and potential reduction in funding in future years, we must now begin to examine how the Library can meet its campus commitments with fewer physical locations on the UCLA campus. Study teams will be appointed to examine the service and collection issues associated with the closing of the Arts and Chemistry Libraries.” I have not decided, nor did I announce, that the Arts Library would close. In fact, that library remains open and will remain open during this academic year.
I have appointed an internal study team to examine the service and collection issues associated with closing the Arts Library. Once this work is completed, we will begin a consultation process, which will hopefully engage a broad campus discussion of the options. Studying the situation is an action the UCLA Library must take in order to address this unprecedented crisis in the university’s state funding. Regardless of the physical facilities, however, the Library’s primary goal remains to offer collections and services to support all of UCLA’s acclaimed academic programs.
I am working in close collaboration with the deans of the Schools of Arts and Architecture; Theater, Film, and Television; and Humanities with the objective of keeping the Arts Library open in its current location and exploring the appropriate future for the collections and services that it deserves. A donor has stepped forward to assist with funding for the current academic year helping keep the Arts Library open in its present location. I hope that others will join these efforts. This combination of support is very encouraging.
I want to reiterate that our primary concern remains to sustain the excellence of the Library’s collections, services, and staff in support of UCLA’s students, faculty, and staff. However, difficult choices must be made, and there will unavoidably be pain for all UCLA Library users. I hope that you will join us at the UCLA Library in voicing our concerns about the overall impact on our collections, staff, and services to the university.
All Library staff are required to attend one of the information sessions concerning the implementation of the furlough/salary reduction program. These sessions will cover the implementation within the UCLA Library.
In order to manage the one-year furlough/salary reduction plan, the Library Human Resources is coordinating the implementation of new timesheets for all library employees beginning this month – August 2009 – and making some changes to how time reporting will be handled.
The Management Council met on August 26 and heard an overview of the new process and a presentation on the UC Systemwide furlough plan and new timesheets. LHR has developed and two new standardized monthly timesheets for library staff – one for exempt employees and one for non-exempt employees. The new timesheets are available on a new time reporting website on the Library Staff Intranet which is accessible at: http://staff.library.ucla.edu/hr/timereporting.asp Beginning with the August timesheet, ALL library employees will be required to use these timesheets.
To learn how to report time worked and leave (including use of furlough time), ALL library employees, whether or not they will be subject to the furlough program, are required to attend one of the one-hour information sessions on the Furlough Plan & New Timesheets.
In addition to the 4 previously announced dates and times, two sessions have been added in late September. The dates, times and locations for these sessions are:
This is mandatory for all library staff because new timesheets are being introduced, please RSVP to Pat Hawthorne (path@library.ucla.edu) and indicate which session you plan to attend. Additional sessions will be scheduled as needed.
Employees who have questions about the furlough program should contact Pat Hawthorne via email (path@library.ucla.edu) or via phone (310-825-4562).
As you are aware, the University of California Board of Regents approved a one-year furlough/salary reduction plan in July for UC employees to achieve savings systemwide. The UCLA Library is expected to save $1,129,000 from the furlough/salary reduction plan which will run from September 1, 2009 to August 31, 2010. The savings from the furlough program is only one aspect of the library’s cuts. The UCLA Library must also cut $1,011,051 from its budget to pay for energy costs, deferred maintenance, and to cover benefits costs and employer contributions to the retirement program which are slated to begin in April 2010. In addition, the Library must make a 5 percent cut which represents $1,830,201. These three amounts together represent a total budgetary reduction of $3,970,252 from the UCLA Library budget.
Library Human Resources and Library Business Services staff are working collaboratively to facilitate the implementation of the furlough program and to track the savings the UCLA Library will realize from the program. It is important to note that the program is subject to collective bargaining for library employees who are represented by AFT, AFSCME, CUE, and UPTE.
The UC System and UCLA’s Campus Human Resources have been providing additional information on the specifics of the program to Library Administration and Library Human Resources (LHR). LHR is developing an internal implementation plan to facilitate management of the program and to communicate policies and procedures to employees and to answer questions and address concerns of employees. Some aspects of the program will be managed at the system and campus levels. Other aspects of the program such as tracking of usage of furlough days by employees will be done locally by LHR.
In order to manage this program, LHR will be making changes to some internal procedures and will communicate additional details over the next few weeks. In addition, information sessions for Management Council and for library employees will be offered beginning in August.
In terms of internal procedural changes, here are some specifics:
As we prepare to implement this program, we are aware that many staff members have questions and concerns and that there are multiple issues that will emerge during the next year. This is an evolving program and we will address questions, issues, and concerns as they are brought to our attention.
LHR will offer a series of one-hour informational sessions on the furlough program beginning in late August.
The first information session will be offered to the Management Council at the August Management Council Meeting on Wednesday, August 26, from 10 a.m. to Noon in the Library Conference Center—Presentation Room.
The same presentation will then be offered to all staff in a series of information sessions that will be offered during August and September. The dates, times and locations for these sessions are:·
If you would like to attend one of these sessions, please RSVP to Pat Hawthorne (path@library.ucla.edu) and indicate which session you plan to attend. Additional sessions will be scheduled as needed.
Pat Hawthorne, Director of Library Human Resources, and the Deputy University Librarian (Susan Parker) or Supervisory Associate University Librarians (Judy Consales, Sharon Farb, Kevin Mulroy, and Sarah Watstein) are also available to do this presentation at departmental meetings and to answer questions related to the furlough program. If you would like to have this presentation made at a departmental staff meeting, please contact Pat to make arrangements.
Employees who have questions about the furlough program should contact Pat Hawthorne via email (path@library.ucla.edu) or via phone (310-825-4562).
As I have mentioned in previous postings, the UCLA Library must reduce its operating budget by $1,830,021 in addition to the other reductions required for various other campus charges. These reductions are in addition to the planned furlough/salary savings.
Building on the foundation of our strategic plan, our primary commitment is to sustain the excellence of the Library, its staff, collections, and services. This commitment will be challenged during these next months and perhaps years as the resources made available to us will continue to shrink. It is important to remember that this will be a permanent reduction in our resource base. So we will be smaller.
As you all know, we have not filled vacancies for some time and have limited recruitments to a very few critical positions. That focus will continue into this budget year. We are recruiting for a Director of Special Collections as that position is critical to our plans to bring all of our special collections together in order to retain their strength and value to UCLA and the broader community.
Further budget reductions fall into the following categories:
Reduction in Acquisition of New Materials for the Collection: I have directed a hold-back of twenty-five percent of the Library’s acquisitions budget (from State Funds). This will impact all units and all aspects of our collection. We will attempt to sustain all of the joint purchase we are committed to through the California Digital Library. While this is a significant cut (the first such reduction in the Library’s history), we will make every effort to respond to high priority needs of faculty and programs for resources necessary to sustain UCLA’s research, teaching, and public service. Liaisons are encouraged to work with faculty to ensure that critical items are acquired in support of degree programs and critical research.
Reduction in Service Hours: The Library has resisted reducing library hours during all previous budget reductions, but now must face this reality. With the desire to provide an equity of access to all of our users, effective Fall quarter, the Biomedical Library, College Library, Science and Engineering Library in Boelter Hall, and the Research Library will be open Monday through Thursday from 7:30 am to 11:00 pm, Friday from 7:30 am to 6:00 pm; closed on Saturday and open Sunday 1:00 to 6:00 pm. Most other library units under the University Librarian will be open from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm Monday through Friday. The Library will sustain 24/7 access to licensed and electronic resources and a full suite of web services and continue to strengthen and enhance this access. In addition to our licensed resources, faculty and students will have access to electronic reserves and reference provided through our consortial agreements.
Reduction in the Number of Service Outlets (branches) on the Campus: With the current reductions and potential reduction in funding in future years, we must now begin to examine how the Library can meet its campus commitments with fewer physical locations on the UCLA campus. Study teams will be appointed to examine the service and collection issues associated with closing the Arts and Chemistry libraries.
Exploration of a Fee for Interlibrary Loan: With the Library’s shrinking acquisitions budgets, it has less material to lend to other libraries, from which we derive lending fees. Our budget to borrow material on behalf of faculty and students is no longer covered by these lending fees. With the reduced acquisitions budget, we expect an increase in borrowing requests. If we do not address this challenge, savings from acquisitions reductions will be lost by our having to support more borrowing requests. During the fall term we will examine the implications of this situation.
Reduction in operating expense, travel, and other general expense: All units saw reductions in these amounts during the 2008-09 budget year; these will continue into this year and will likely be permanent going forward.
As planning progresses in each of these areas of reduction, I will keep you informed. Your questions, comments, and suggestions are most welcome.
As we enter this next period of the Library’s history, we are facing tremendous challenge. It will take us all to make sure that the Library that will emerge in the future is strong, relevant, and sustainable at UCLA. We are in this together and I know I can count on each of you to do your part.
During a recent meeting with the LAUC Executive Board, I was asked how librarians and staff can have more input to the decision making process in the library. I was able to share with the Executive Board that there are numerous opportunities for involvement–most specifically in the development of unit level work plans. These derive directly in support of the Library’s strategic plan and inform all managers and myself about the desired directions for each unit in the Library. As a large organization, we are challenged with communication and involvement. In building these mechanisms, we were concerned that all staff have the opportunity to provide their views and input. This starts at the unit and departmental level. I very much appreciate the work that goes into these efforts.
It was clear in our discussion that librarians and staff do not know where to gain access to the various work plans. In order to provide such access we are creating a site for you to do just that. The 2009-10 work plans are posted and there are links to campus-level planning documents and recommendations as well. Annual reports from the units will posted here as they are received.
To access the site from the library domain please use http://libteams/uclalibrary/default.aspx, you will not have to authenticate yourself to access the site.
To access the site from outside the library domain please use http://libteams.library.ucla.edu/uclalibrary/default.aspx you will have to authenticate yourself using your library domain/network login and password (login sample e.g. ad\lesliem).
If you have any problems, please contact Leslie McMichael at lesliem@library.ucla.edu – 310.206.9774.
I will continue to post updates and information on the University Librarian’s blog and inform you when these updates are posted.
As always, I very much appreciate your input and suggestions.�
UCLA
PLEASE POST
To the Campus Community:
RE: Winter Holiday Closure Plan for 2009 - 2010
As you know, the University of California Board of Regents has adopted a furlough plan, to be effective starting September 1, 2009, in response to the University’s budgetary needs. The systemwide plan provides that starting with September earnings, eligible employees will begin to accrue furlough days as paid days off in accordance with their reduced annual compensation. The furlough schedule is available at:
http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/budget/documents/yudof_furlough_proposal.pdf
As in previous years, UCLA plans to observe a Winter Holiday Closure during the 2009 – 2010 holiday season. This annual closure has allowed UCLA to achieve significant energy savings and continues to be a highly effective approach to power conservation for a specific period of time. The campus is scheduled to close for 16 days between Saturday, December 19, 2009 and Sunday, January 3, 2010, and will reopen on Monday, January 4, 2010. This period includes several University paid holidays (December 24, 25 and 31, and January 1st). However, six days (December 21, 22, 23, 28, 29, and 30, 2009) are not paid holidays and employees are encouraged to use them as furlough days to cover the time off. Staff employees and those academic employees who accrue vacation may use furlough days in combination with vacation time, earned compensatory time off, or leave without pay for these days.
We anticipate that additional closure periods may be added later in calendar year 2010, thereby allowing employees to apply their available earned furlough days.
Please note the following:
· For employees participating in the furlough plan, furlough days to cover the 6 days of unpaid time during the Winter Holiday Closure may be used in advance of accrual, as is also the case with vacation leave during the campus closure.
· For those employees not participating in the furlough plan, either accrued vacation, compensatory time off, or leave without pay may be used for the unpaid days during the Winter Holiday Closure, as in previous years.
For represented employees, the requirements of the Higher Education Employer-Employee Relations Act (HEERA) will be observed.
During the planned break period, the UCLA Health System and essential-service facilities will continue to remain open. Deans, Vice Chancellors or Organization Heads to whom this responsibility has been delegated will need to determine if any facilities under their management will need to remain fully or partially open during the closure and arrange for appropriate staffing. These approval decisions need to be submitted to Facilities Management, with a copy to the Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost.
In early December the Office of the Administrative Vice Chancellor will provide detailed information regarding campus services available and the status of buildings during the expanded 2009-2010 Winter Holiday. Energy-saving tips, pre-closure questions, and closure emergency contact numbers will be available on Facilities Management’s website.
Any questions or comments regarding human resource policy or furlough questions related to the 2009-2010 Winter Holiday campus closure may be forwarded to Campus Human Resources at chr@chr.ucla.edu or Health System Human Resources at hrreception@mednet.ucla.edu.
Sincerely,
| Lubbe Levin Associate Vice Chancellor Campus Human Resources |
Mark A. Speare Senior Associate Director Patient Affairs, Human Resources and Marketing |
UCLA Office of the Chancellor
As I write this, the California state budget has finally been passed, but it makes no change in our fiscal situation or our plans to address the shortfall.
I’m sure many of you have questions about the implementation of the salary reduction/furlough plan submitted by UC President Mark Yudof and approved by the Regents at their July meeting. I am pleased, as I know you are, that President Yudof followed many of the recommendations we submitted to him, including, for example, preference for furloughs, protection of employee benefits, graduated salary cuts, and flexibility for the campuses with medical centers to develop alternative plans in order to avoid unnecessary disruption of health care operations. Those alternative plans are currently under review, and health system employees will be kept informed.
For the rest of the campus, implementation details for the salary reduction/furlough plan are still under development, but I want to tell you about the decisions that have been made. The plan will take effect on September 1, 2009, at which time eligible employees will begin to accrue furlough days as paid time off that is intended to be used during the 12 months of the furlough plan. Please understand that for those employees included in the plan, paychecks, reflecting the cut, will be the same amount for each of the 12 months, starting with September earnings, regardless of when employees use their furlough days.
Under separate cover, you will soon receive notification about UCLA’s plan to extend this year’s Winter Holiday Closure. We will encourage employees to use furlough days as part of this plan, which will provide an extended period of time off during the holiday season. It also will help the campus accrue more energy savings than our previous, shorter closures. However, during all break periods, the UCLA Hospital System and certain essential-service and research facilities may be designated by deans and vice chancellors to remain open.
Beyond campus closure periods, each school and organization will develop plans for how it will implement remaining furlough days for those who accrue them. This approach will allow units to tailor the process to meet their business needs while also providing the flexibility to meet employee needs. I know you still have many questions related to the furlough process. Campus Human Resources is working with departments throughout the campus to provide additional information regarding the furlough plan, and the UC Office of the President will issue additional Q-&-A materials that will help provide answers. Each school and organization will communicate its process for implementing furlough days to its staff and faculty.
For represented employees, the salary reduction/furlough plan is subject to requirements of the Higher Education Employer-Employee Relations Act (HEERA).
I also want to share with you the information that I presented to the UC Regents last week regarding the status of our budget cuts and their impact on UCLA. Please see: http://www.today.ucla.edu/portal/ut/block-describes-impact-of-painful-96270.aspx.
As further decisions about the budget are made, we will communicate them to the campus. I have asked Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Scott Waugh to consult with vice chancellors and deans and provide me with recommendations for achieving a targeted reduction in chancellor’s commitments by September 1, 2009. In addition, a task force is being formed to recommend other targeted cuts; it will report to EVC/P Waugh by October 1, 2009.
I want you to know that I am fully aware that although the cuts will affect all of us, they will be harder on some than others. I am enormously grateful for your dedication and support. UCLA remains an amazing institution. On so many counts—including excellence of students, faculty, and staff; amount of research funding; and honors and distinctions earned across campus—UCLA is extraordinary. I do believe that we will emerge from the current difficulties poised to continue our progress as one of the world’s greatest research universities.
Sincerely,
Gene D. Block
Chancellor
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