Dear Faculty and Staff,

In response to your suggestions in the employee experience survey and in the spirit of UAA 2027’s aspiration pointing us to continuous improvement, I appointed the Shared Services Migration Committee (SSMC) in a charge memo dated March 28, 2024.

Potentially impacted staff members provided feedback and after data analysis and numerous meetings, the SSMC made recommendations regarding how to migrate and realign current Shared Services employees, Faculty Services and the Strategic Budget Officers back to the colleges and units they serve. I invite you to review the SSMC’s recommendations.

In summary, the SSMC proposed Shared Services personnel migrate back to the following work units: College of Arts and Sciences, College of Health, Community and Technical College/College of Engineering, College of Business and Public Policy/School of Education/Library, Office of Research and a unit comprised of the Chancellor, Provost and Vice Chancellor for Administrative Services.

We are adopting the SSMC’s recommendations, including the “soft cutover” date of May 20, 2024, and the “hard cutover” date of June 30, 2024 and their related work flows and distribution plan. The exception to this is we are not adopting the process improvement positions. Instead, these personnel will be offered other positions within the work units listed above. We will continue looking for other ways to more holistically address process improvement and advance operational excellence. 

While the initial charge to the SSMC did not ask for a recommended course of action for Sponsored Projects Administration Services (SPAS), the SSMC weighed in with several considerations. As Shared Services staff return to the units they serve, SPAS will need to adapt to this change. For units outside the Office of Research that require significant SPAS support, the associated unit leaders will be given the opportunity to choose whether SPAS staff will join their new work team or whether being served centrally by SPAS best serves their business practice. This choice allows for units to determine their best path for operational efficiency. The Office of Research will maintain SPAS with capacity to serve its sponsored centers, UAA's units with smaller sponsored portfolios and remain open to contracting with units when they need additional assistance.

We will continue to work together to improve our work processes. I want to thank the SSMC for the many hours they put into making recommendations. 

All the best, 

Sean Parnell
UAA Chancellor

 

May Archive