2012 BUDGET RESPONSE FORM UNIVERSITY UNITS

Transcription

1 2012 BUDGET RESPONSE FORM UNIVERSITY UNITS Unit: External Affairs Vice Provost or Vice President: Randy Hodgins I. USE OF LAST YEAR S FUNDS. A. Please review Attachment A: FY2011 Investment Funds and Bridge Funds Allocated to Units of the 2012 budget letter (available at and respond to the following: 1. Amount of Provost reinvestment funding provided: _$100,000 Provide a short detailed summary of how you utilized the funding provided to you from the provost s reinvestments. The funds were entirely used toward the midyear budget reduction of $127,178. B. As specifically as possible please answer the following questions: 1. What administrative efficiencies have you achieved as a response to these budget reductions? We have converted UWeek to an online publication called UW Today. We have converted many of our publications to electronic format and assisted other campus offices in their efforts to do the same. We are migrating as many of our public records requests responses to electronic format insofar as the requested information exists in that format. We have cut campus photo services by 50%, relying primarily on photo content from other sources to meet our needs. We have reduced event staff for the President s residence by 50% to reflect that the there is no President in residence at Hillcrest at this time. We are working toward less reliance on central funding for UWTV and we are making progress in that direction as we both cut costs and increase revenues. 2. What has been the overall impact on support and administrative staff levels from the cumulative budget reductions and how did the funding provided in FY11 mitigate reductions to these levels? The funding provided in FY 2011 did not help mitigate reductions to these levels because a midyear reduction needed to be taken just four months into the fiscal year, and the reinvestment funds had been set aside in anticipation of that next budget cut. Overall, budget cuts have placed a larger burden on all staff to try to do more with fewer resources. In some areas the workload is not going to be manageable over the long term without widespread improvements to University systems that would streamline processes. In other areas the ongoing nature of the pressure on staff to continue 2012 Budget Response Form University Units Page 1

2 to produce the same amount of work with less people and no cost of living or merit increases is taking its toll on morale, and eventually, as the private sector job market recovers, we anticipate we will start losing employees. That many continue to feel fortunate to have a job at all is what is holding us together for now. 3. What major compliance and risk issues have arisen in your units and what efforts have you made to mitigate these issues? Have you had to deal with additional compliance or risk exposures that have not been funded in your base budget? The Public Records Office is responsible for the University s compliance with the state s Public Records and Open Public Meetings laws. The office, currently staffed with 3.8 FTE, is barely able to maintain its responsibility to provide records in a timely manner, as prescribed by law. Any diminution of staff or effort in this office would result in a serious compliance liability, so reductions are not feasible there. Additional resources will be needed for this effort should the workload continue to increase at the pace that is experienced presently. While not currently at the level of compliance risk, the following are compliance functions performed in External Affairs that could be put at risk because of budget cuts: The Office of State Relations is responsible for complying with the laws of the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission (PDC) and provides quarterly reports on the activities and costs associated with the lobbying of state elected officials. Reports to the PDC are submitted under the President s signature, and the President is subject to fines from $1700 to $4200 for failing to file complete, accurate and timely reports. Beyond the fines however, is the larger concern of damage to UW reputation and credibility before the public, elected officials and other stakeholders. The responsibility for completing these reports is vested in just one position. The University of Washington must comply with certain accounting principles around its financial affairs as required by both law and regulation. That translates into certain record keeping requirements, separation of duties, ethical standards and fiduciary responsibilities. Particularly as it relates to records and financial matters, the responsibility for adherence is concentrated on just a few positions across the entire office. The loss of any the positions in this area place us at high risk as compliance liability could quickly become a matter of financial risk for the University. Reductions of funding related to these areas of responsibility cannot reasonably be made. II. PROPOSED BUDGET FOR FY12 UNIVERSITY UNITS In preparation for budget conversations, please answer the questions posed below regarding how your unit would deal with a 5% or 10% reduction level to your base. 1. What are your strategic priorities, based on your own strategic plan? Our strategic plan indicates that our top priority is to focus our efforts in support of our mission - to 2012 Budget Response Form University Units Page 2

3 expand and strengthen awareness, understanding, appreciation and support of the University of Washington. As we face yet another reduction of between 5% and 10% (on top of previous cumulative reductions of more than 20%) our emphasis will likely focus on service to external constituencies which will invariably mean fewer resources available to serve campus units. A copy of our draft Strategy Map is attached. 2. What administrative efficiencies do you propose to help mitigate these budget reductions? Please briefly describe your current process improvement, organizational development and improvement initiatives, including the timeline for achieving your goals. The Office of External Affairs is mainly comprised of programs that provide service and outreach. It adheres to the administrative processes the UW requires of it and has very few internal administrative processes of its own, as more than 80% of our positions are not purely administrative in nature. To achieve additional efficiencies we will look to share some support positions between individual units more than we already are doing. We are always looking for ways to cut costs and maximize efficiencies but in reality our operational costs are, in fact, already very low at just 14% of our total GOF and DOF funding. What we are focused on now is discovering new and better ways to leverage our collective capabilities across the entire organization. For example, we have initiated a weekly external communications meeting involving a cross-section of EA staff with experience in a variety of media who meet to tap into their collective talents and brainstorm new and better ways of quickly partnering to tackle emerging messaging challenges and opportunities. 3. Please describe the metrics you will use to measure success (for example, cycle time reduction, customer satisfaction, cost savings, etc.). If available, provide benchmarking information. External Affairs has just completed a strategy plan that includes our mission, vision, values, goals and objectives. We expect to develop metrics to align with our objectives very soon and will provide an updated version of this budget document as soon as we have completed that step. 4. What will be the impact on your campus service mission? Our mission is to expand and strengthen awareness, understanding, appreciation and support of the University of Washington. The more staff members we have actively engaged in this pursuit, the better we can accomplish it. Budget reductions of between 5% and 10% will mean that we will need to eliminate between 4 and 6 positions and funding. GOF and DOF funds pay for about 50 positions in External Affairs, most of those positions are in two units News and Information and UW Marketing. Both of these units are engaged in our mission. News and Information provides a portal of entry for journalists interested in what is happening at UW, and it provides news releases and stories about UW that are picked up by outside media and ultimately become one important way we connect with the public and the world. Marketing engages in specific projects to enhance the reputation of UW and the perceptions people hold of it and to try to keep tabs on those perceptions using public opinion polls and research. Marketing is also responsible for the UW s official web page and its content and ongoing development. It also provides tool kits; training and support campus units use to identify with UW our trademarks, letterheads, color schemes and other standards we have adopted as our identity. Because these units are the largest, budget reductions always hit them the hardest. A reduction in the services they provide will mean continued reductions to their ability to provide services and enhance the University s overall vision. The attached document reflects our recent completion of a strategy map outlining our priorities and how we plan to harness our resources toward our goals and 2012 Budget Response Form University Units Page 3

4 objectives. We are going to do everything we can to retain our financial resources so we can keep people working on behalf of these efforts that support, enhance, and build appreciation for the University of Washington. To help us save jobs, reductions of 5% to 10% will entail cutting our lobbying contracts. That will result in less UW representation when decisions are being made that are likely to impact the ability of the UW to achieve its annual federal and state legislative goals. Our special project funds will be eliminated which will mean that we will not be able to put together special events and media projects to engage the public and private sectors, unless the requestors can come up with the money to pay for it. Examples of these types of projects include Paws on Science, Husky Promise awareness campaign, Husky Central, as well as our ability to maintain our memberships in various regional and community organizations which is one of the key ways we build partnerships. Our contractual efforts aimed at discovering new and better ways to boost our reputation, as well as keeping track of how well we are doing that will be reduced significantly. Unfortunately, one of the only ways we have of knowing whether we are successful in our mission is to conduct some of this field work, so without that, our mission is at risk. 5. What will be the overall impact on support and administrative staff levels? A reduction of up to 10% will mean the elimination of at least 5 additional positions in this organization on top of the 4 FTE positions which have been eliminated since These previous eliminations do not include cutting out the funding for student intern positions everywhere except for in the Visitors Center, where we rely on them, and cutting out the funding for overtime hours in our Public Records office, where the workload continues to increase, We will also eliminate our federal contract lobbying efforts and cut our state contracts in half which will impact the staff in those offices, who are already struggling to keep up with busy legislative calendars.. At this time, we are not including details on proposed position eliminations in this document. As previously stated, less than 20% of our staff are dedicated to traditional roles of administration and support.. It is important to note that the administration and support workload has increased because of reductions that other units have made. We expect this to continue to be the case as other administrative units continue to take budget reductions for example the decentralization of the cell phone payment process and the transfer of that workload to a half-time position in our department was highly impactful on that position, and for many months the regular workload fell behind. Ultimately, we will also experience the transition of a new administrative workload as the finance, payroll, and administrative functions for UWTV transition from UWIT to External Affairs equivalent to 1.0 FTE without the accompanying funds for that work. Where we have lost positions in our marketing unit, staff members have been stretched to try to make up for the lack of enough positions to do the required work. It has rarely been the case that the elimination of a position has also resulted in the elimination of the work. 6. What major compliance and risk issues (financial, operational, strategic) will arise in your units and what efforts will you make to mitigate these issues? We will always strive to find a way to continue to be compliant. Noncompliance is not a viable option particularly where it is likely to result in fines, lawsuits and negative publicity for the University. Consequently, what is likely to suffer is our ongoing ability to build and strengthen relationships with 2012 Budget Response Form University Units Page 4

5 stakeholders, get our messages embedded in a variety of media, and be as successful as we have been in the past in of our legislative efforts. Our strategic plan will be useful in helping us focus our energies and actions as we downsize further but the loss of nearly one-third of our funding in the past 3 years will be felt in all corners of the office. Ultimately, as an institution, our best mitigation tool is to gain more control of our financial resources and we will be doing all that we can toward successfully achieving that goal in the 2011 legislative session. This document was prepared by: Kathryn Daughhetee Contact information: Kathryn4@uw.edu HOW & WHEN TO SUBMIT Submit all materials electronically (Word, PDF or Excel) to: Deadline: February 1, 2011 Amy Floit, Director of Budget Operations afloit@u.washington.edu QUESTIONS the budget base: metrics: organizational effectiveness: this form: Amy Floit afloit@uw.edu Carol Diem diem@uw.edu Ruth Johnston ruthj@uw.edu Marisa Nickle mnickle@uw.edu ESSENTIAL RESOURCES Provost s 2012 budget letter with Attachment A: FY2011 Investment Funds and Bridge Funds Allocated to Units & Attachment B:FY2012 Budget Reduction Draft Organizational Effectiveness Initiative process improvement, organizational development and improvement resources w-bgt-process.htm Budget Response Form University Units Page 5

6 STRATEGIC PLAN (DRAFT MAP): EXTERNAL AFFAIRS MISSION The Office of External Affairs expands and strengthens awareness, understanding, appreciation and support of the University of Washington. VISION External Affairs is recognized in the state, nation and world as the voice of the University providing proactive, strategic and timely communications. Flexibility Excellence Innovation Diversity VALUES Collaboration Integrity Service GOAL 1: Shape perceptions and strengthen reputation STAKEHOLDERS GOAL 2: Grow commitment 1.1 Communicate in a way that people connect emotionally to core values and mission of UW 2.1 Inspire demonstrable action in support of the UW 2.2 Implement strategies in support of UW s GOAL 3: Communicate strategically and broadly OPERATIONS GOAL 4: Build and maintain relationships 3.1 Create high-quality content for targeted distribution 3.2 All schools, colleges and associated units are on message and reflect brand consistency 3.3 Effectively make use of all current and future communications mediums 3.4 Enable units to effectively communicate through tools, guidance, expertise and advice LEARNING & GROWTH GOAL 5: Develop leaders, thinkers and doers 5.1 Find creative ways to recruit and retain top performers 5.2 Create a collaborative work environment 5.3 Enhance leadership effectiveness 5.4 Develop individuals to their full potential 4.1 All internal and external interactions are opportunities to be ambassadors of UW 4.2 Nurture new relationships to identify people and organizations to achieve mutually beneficial goals GOAL 6: Manage resources to support strategic priorities 6.1 Use a team-based, collaborative approach to manage resources 6.2 Engage in regular strategic planning, and monitor performance outcomes RESOURCES GOAL 7: Develop new funding sources and partnerships 7.1 Lead integrated team to explore sponsorships, advertising and other revenuegenerating opportunities