UNC to streamline administration, services

Spurred by a report released this summer, University officials will spend the year working to reduce bureaucracy, eliminate redundant functions and reverse a trend of expanding administrative costs.

The study, conducted by efficiency consultants Bain & Company on an anonymous donation, found that UNC is administration-heavy and decentralized, which hampers its day-to-day operations.

Chancellor Holden Thorp called the report “107 pages of acronyms,” indicating that the report’s business jargon, organizational diagrams, and wordy explanations of methodology render it a difficult read. But the report makes recommendations that could lead to a dramatic restructuring of the way that UNC does business, which in turn may result in millions of dollars in savings.

“It could very much change the culture of this place,” said Dick Mann, vice chancellor for finance and administration.

Chief among the report’s findings is that in regards to personnel, the University has a complicated organizational structure that impacts almost every aspect of business. At some points, the chain of command is nine layers deep.

A majority of administrators only manage one to three people. In the past few years, administrative costs have increased at a faster rate than academic costs.

UNC officials said several things could explain the trend, including more research activities that require services and government mandates that create new positions.

The University is also highly decentralized when it comes services, including human resources and information technology.

Many employees feared that the report would call for centralizing these functions, which would decrease departmental independence. But the main recommendations call for ensuring that these services are provided at the same level across the school.

“The report did not tell us to centralize every single function,” Thorp said. “That is not what we’re going to do.”

A committee led by former faculty chairman Joe Templeton will now evaluate how to implement the study’s recommendations. Bain & Co. will return in a few years to evaluate progress, but administrators were adamant that any changes made will be internal.

“If we can’t make these changes ourselves, the deans and the vice chancellors, then we really must evaluate our own abilities,” Thorp said. “Doing otherwise would be inconsistent with the way we do things as a University.”

Administrators said the optimum time to have this study done was during the economic downturn. “People will be more open to evaluating efficiencies,” Mann said.

The report has received national attention and could spur similar studies at other schools. “Bain’s got a new line of business in higher education,” Thorp said.

Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.