President’s Cost Containment/Revenue Enhancement Initiative

Objectives, Parameters, and Principles for this Project

Objective:

To design and evaluate possible scenario models for cost containment, process improvement, and an evolved organizational structure for UNM that will:

• Provide the greatest levels of efficiency, communications, and accountability within operational processes, both in academic and administrative areas;
• Optimize UNM’s ability to carry forth its mission and abide by its core values;
  Create tangible savings; and
• Aspire to create a model organizational structure for the modern public research university in the post-economic meltdown world of the 21st century.
  

Project Parameters:

1. Focus should be twofold:
   • Identify a broad range of strategies to achieve systemic process improvements, cost reductions, and long-term efficiencies.
   • Develop the most effective and resource-efficient organizational structure to carry out the core processes of university operations, in service to the mission.
2. Explore our current state and cost containment opportunities in eight key areas:
   • Purchasing
   • Energy efficiency
   • Health benefit strategies
   • Leveraging information technology
   • Leveraging the talents, capabilities, and productivity of our faculty and staff
   • Efficiency in the utilization of space and facilities
   • Generation of revenue from other sources
   • Communications and marketing
3. Models must include efficiencies in both academic and non-academic areas.
   
   
4. The pros, cons, and potential unintended consequences (i.e., shifting the cost burden to other areas) of each strategy and scenario must be developed and analyzed as part of the process.
   
   
5. Determine an appropriate level of reduction and reallocation in each year’s I&G fund budget proposal.
   
   
6. Should one or more of the strategies and scenario models exceed the targeted amount, the Design Team is encouraged to develop entrepreneurial proposals on how those resources might be invested to enhance the core missions of the university.
   
   
7. Indicators for monitoring the success of strategies and models must be developed.
   
   
8. Full implementation of proposed strategies and scenarios must be able to be completed within a two-year time frame.
   

Project Principles:

In seeking efficiencies from our units, we will follow the following principles:

• Protect and invest in our core educational and research missions.
• Remain competitive for faculty, staff, and students.
• Leverage UNM’s size and scale.
• Maintain high quality essential services.
• Eliminate duplicate and lower priority activities.
• Identify new funding possibilities.
• Avoid short-term, politically reactionary “fixes” that could create unintended negative consequences.
• Introduce centralization and greater sharing of resources in cases where this will result in higher quality services and/or more effective use of high quality facilities.
• Consider insourcing and outsourcing when that leads to improvements in service at the same or lower costs.
• Take advantage of advanced technologies to achieve efficiency of operations.

Executive Sponsor:

David J. Schmidly, President