Shared Services

Dear Colleagues,

 

Over the past year you have received communications about the ongoing development of Shared Services for campus. Our goal is to increase the quality of services available to faculty, staff and students to support your work and to be efficient and as cost-effective as possible in our delivery of support. Your input to this process is a crucial part of designing new processes, evaluating options and use of best practices for Shared Services.

 

To date, the focus of this effort has been primarily on engaging with administrative staff in your units to better understand the existing processes and identify possible opportunities where a Shared Services model makes sense. It is clear that more substantive engagement with a broad group of faculty members is essential. Faculty members in various units have recently expressed confusion and concerns about the process, structure, and the eventual implementation of Shared Services.

 

We are committed to improving information sharing on project progress and will make sure that your perspectives are a significant part of the development of Shared Service program. This kind of engagement may take time beyond what has been projected in previous communications. Please know that we will take the necessary time to allow for discussions that will inform the process going forward and rollout of new services and support structures, even if it means extending the implementation timeline.

 

In the coming weeks, we will reach out with opportunities for you to engage on this subject. We will hold sessions to share information and garner your input and feedback and we will be sending information on how to register. We recognize that many members of the faculty are off campus during the summer, and we will extend opportunities for sessions into fall quarter to try to make it possible for anyone who wants to participate to be involved. We have set up the following email address (SharedServicesInput@uchicago.edu) for you to submit your ideas on Shared Services or the process going forward.

 

In addition, we will be convening a Faculty Working Group that will provide regular feedback on the design and implementation of a Shared Services. We aim for the group to represent our diverse community of faculty and the range of uses of University services and will work with Divisions and Schools on committee membership to make sure that their interests are represented.

 

The information and input sessions will be led by Melina Hale, the new Vice Provost for Academic Initiatives. The Provost’s office is committed to communicating the broader university context for the implementation of Shared Services and on listening to faculty ideas, experiences and concerns. Clearly there are unique needs and opportunities in the various Schools and Divisions. We will also work closely with the Deans to reflect unit-specific issues in designing new processes and support structures.

 

We look forward to your input in the coming months.

 

Sincerely,

 

Daniel Diermeier

Provost