Spring Break
Nine teams to look for shared service opportunities
Board of Regents asks for report from faculty and administrators by August
By: Kalee Bumguardner
Issue date: 6/30/09 Section: News
The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents formed nine teams Friday to gather feedback about the initiative and look into ways to implement it.
"The shared services initiative will lead to reduced costs, economies of scale, increased expertise, and expansion of shared resources," Chancellor Mike McKinney said. "We will maintain our commitment to the highest quality educational experience at Texas A&M University while working to keep control of costs for students and families paying the bills."
Frank Ashley, vice chancellor for academic affairs and a former faculty member and administrator at the University, will direct the initiative.
The teams have 60 members from around the System, including at least one faculty member in each team.
Ashley said the team members were selected for knowledge in specialized areas, including business services, federal government relations, human resources, information technology, marketing and communications and research administration.
"To be an honest, I'm not an expert in those areas. All I'm good at is leading the groups," Ashley said. "I'm in academic affairs. That's why it's important for me to be in my role, I've got to look at how it impacts the academics and the students. I'm very, very protective of the impact on the faculty, and the students. That's my No. 1 job. [Shared services] is my No. 2 job."
The teams were asked to have reports completed by mid-August for submission to the Board of Regents at the Sept. 24-25 meeting.
"All we're doing is preparing a report to the board," Ashley said. "We can give this to the board and the board can say, 'we don't agree with any of this.' The bottom line is we're saying we believe that these will be opportunities for us to share services. It's sort of like a presidential search. We make recommendations, but it's ultimately the decision of the board."
The teams will be collecting comments and opinions from everyone willing to give them, Ashley said.
"When I gave the leaders their charge, one of the things that I told them is they had to identify who all the stakeholders were in that specific area, and they had to get input from all of their stakeholders," he said.
The purpose of the shared services initiative is to avoid duplication of duties, and share resources, Ashley said.
"First of all, this isn't any type of merger," he said. "What we're looking at is there are some things that we do at the system and they do at the University and we can share what we do. We do a lot of this already."
Ashley said he is for the initiative. "If you look at the big economy, I think we have to be smarter. I think it's a great idea, to be able to share resources versus each individual group doing their own thing."
Ashley said he wished to dispel the idea that the initiative is a coup by the University System to take over the affairs of the flagship University.
"My life is an Aggie, class of 1984. I love this University," he said. "The last thing I would want to do is to recommend something that would be harmful to this University. I think everyone's trying to paint a picture that we're trying to take something over."
The changes made should be unnoticeable by many at the University, Ashley said.
"When I look at the charge that I gave to the leaders, I said, this should be totally transparent to the faculty and the students. They really shouldn't know anything has changed," he said. "We're trying to increase efficiency, so, if anything, you'll notice that something's a little better."
It is uncertain if the initiative will eliminate a significant number of jobs, Ashley said.
"Hopefully it won't," he said. "One thing we're doing is we want to try to protect people. To be honest with you, I really don't know what's going to come out of this. The initial thing is, oh yeah a lot of people are going to get fired. But I was talking to one person, and they said, 'can we look at some of the process? I think I could save a couple of million dollars if we look at the process.'
"The charge to the group is they need to look at everything. Don't ignore processes, because I think a lot of the processes add costs. Is there duplication? Do they do something at the University that we do at the System, too, and it's not necessary?"
Leo Paterra, president of the Texas A&M Research Foundation and team leader of the research administration task force, said that the committee's goal is that any changes made are seamless and allow the researchers to focus on what is most important - their research.
"The short reporting timeframe does make this a challenging project," Paterra said. "However, the committee is made up of a diverse group which will bring a wide range of ideas to be considered."
"The last thing I would want to do is to recommend something that would be harmful to this University. I think everyone's trying to paint a picture that we're trying to take something over."
- Frank Ashley
vice chancellor for
academic affairs
Board chairman Morris E. Foster said that sharing services is critical "to trim costs in order to keep our flagship University affordable. Rapidly escalating operating budgets and tough economic times have combined to make prompt action necessary if we want to continue to attract the best and the brightest to Texas A&M."
"The shared services initiative will lead to reduced costs, economies of scale, increased expertise, and expansion of shared resources," Chancellor Mike McKinney said. "We will maintain our commitment to the highest quality educational experience at Texas A&M University while working to keep control of costs for students and families paying the bills."
Frank Ashley, vice chancellor for academic affairs and a former faculty member and administrator at the University, will direct the initiative.
The teams have 60 members from around the System, including at least one faculty member in each team.
Ashley said the team members were selected for knowledge in specialized areas, including business services, federal government relations, human resources, information technology, marketing and communications and research administration.
"To be an honest, I'm not an expert in those areas. All I'm good at is leading the groups," Ashley said. "I'm in academic affairs. That's why it's important for me to be in my role, I've got to look at how it impacts the academics and the students. I'm very, very protective of the impact on the faculty, and the students. That's my No. 1 job. [Shared services] is my No. 2 job."
The teams were asked to have reports completed by mid-August for submission to the Board of Regents at the Sept. 24-25 meeting.
"All we're doing is preparing a report to the board," Ashley said. "We can give this to the board and the board can say, 'we don't agree with any of this.' The bottom line is we're saying we believe that these will be opportunities for us to share services. It's sort of like a presidential search. We make recommendations, but it's ultimately the decision of the board."
The teams will be collecting comments and opinions from everyone willing to give them, Ashley said.
"When I gave the leaders their charge, one of the things that I told them is they had to identify who all the stakeholders were in that specific area, and they had to get input from all of their stakeholders," he said.
The purpose of the shared services initiative is to avoid duplication of duties, and share resources, Ashley said.
"First of all, this isn't any type of merger," he said. "What we're looking at is there are some things that we do at the system and they do at the University and we can share what we do. We do a lot of this already."
Ashley said he is for the initiative. "If you look at the big economy, I think we have to be smarter. I think it's a great idea, to be able to share resources versus each individual group doing their own thing."
Ashley said he wished to dispel the idea that the initiative is a coup by the University System to take over the affairs of the flagship University.
"My life is an Aggie, class of 1984. I love this University," he said. "The last thing I would want to do is to recommend something that would be harmful to this University. I think everyone's trying to paint a picture that we're trying to take something over."
The changes made should be unnoticeable by many at the University, Ashley said.
"When I look at the charge that I gave to the leaders, I said, this should be totally transparent to the faculty and the students. They really shouldn't know anything has changed," he said. "We're trying to increase efficiency, so, if anything, you'll notice that something's a little better."
It is uncertain if the initiative will eliminate a significant number of jobs, Ashley said.
"Hopefully it won't," he said. "One thing we're doing is we want to try to protect people. To be honest with you, I really don't know what's going to come out of this. The initial thing is, oh yeah a lot of people are going to get fired. But I was talking to one person, and they said, 'can we look at some of the process? I think I could save a couple of million dollars if we look at the process.'
"The charge to the group is they need to look at everything. Don't ignore processes, because I think a lot of the processes add costs. Is there duplication? Do they do something at the University that we do at the System, too, and it's not necessary?"
Leo Paterra, president of the Texas A&M Research Foundation and team leader of the research administration task force, said that the committee's goal is that any changes made are seamless and allow the researchers to focus on what is most important - their research.
"The short reporting timeframe does make this a challenging project," Paterra said. "However, the committee is made up of a diverse group which will bring a wide range of ideas to be considered."
"The last thing I would want to do is to recommend something that would be harmful to this University. I think everyone's trying to paint a picture that we're trying to take something over."
- Frank Ashley
vice chancellor for
academic affairs
Board chairman Morris E. Foster said that sharing services is critical "to trim costs in order to keep our flagship University affordable. Rapidly escalating operating budgets and tough economic times have combined to make prompt action necessary if we want to continue to attract the best and the brightest to Texas A&M."
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