UNC’s Faculty Executive Committee met Monday to talk cost cuts, red tape and the tension between excellence and efficiency.
The committee’s brief 45-minute meeting focused exclusively on the Carolina Excellence Initiative to streamline the University’s business operations. Rick Wernoski, senior vice provost for Business Operations, and Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Robert Blouin spoke to the committee on the progress of the initiative, opening the floor for questions and comments on how the project may be fine-tuned.
Although recent meetings have discussed the future of Silent Sam, this week’s meeting touched on a less controversial subject: improving administrative functions in areas such as finance, procurement and research administration.
“Let’s face it; infrastructure is not the sexiest thing to talk about,” Blouin joked during the course of the meeting.
Discussion included topics such as feedback from faculty and administrators on operational “pain points” and a reevaluation of UNC’s hiring process. Wernoski emphasized that efficiency, not cost savings, is the goal of the initiative’s streamlining efforts, but that such savings would be a positive consequence of tighter administrative processes.
A new road map for UNC’s administrative operations is expected to be completed in spring 2019. However, the overarching goals of the initiative are longer term, Blouin told the DTH. He noted the initiative was spurred less by existing dissatisfaction within the University and more by the administration’s desire to improve.
“I would hate to see that we get complacent. We can always get better,” Blouin said. “Knowing faculty like I do, I don’t think asking them to be demanding of the administration should be a stretch.”
