Date: October 13, 2018
To: Vice President for University Operations
From: President Tony Frank, Provost Rick Miranda
RE: Task Force Charge

Background:

Since its inception, Colorado State University (CSU) has been an organization that has continued to grow and strive for excellence. Often, CSU has excelled in a manner that has exceeded expectations given the level of resources available to support such activities. Faculty members are engaged in research at levels exceeding that of their peers and we continue to make progress in retaining students and improving time to graduation. CSU certainly has a rich history of exhibiting a “can do” attitude and doing what is necessary to get the job done.

One area in particular where this is evident is within our administrative structure as it relates to our day to day business operations. Business Operations, for the context of this Task Force, are those that relate to financial and human resources related transactions, reporting and oversight. As units have taken on more responsibility and added greater levels of complexity, unit leaders have looked to their existing staff, with additions from time to time, to fill in the gaps and cover the necessary business and compliance related tasks. This strategy has served CSU well during its first 140 years of operation.

For FY 2018, CSU had an annual budget of over $1.1B, welcomed over 33,000 students to campus in the fall, supported over $370M in annual research expenditures, was in the midst of its 2nd Capital Campaign with a goal to raise $1B, and had an employee base of over 7,200. These are just a small fraction of the statistics relating to CSU that indicate that it has grown significantly, resulting in an organization that is quite intricate and increasingly more complex.

CSU also began FY 2018 with two separate and active federal audits; one conducted by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the other by the Department of Defense (DoD). The NSF audit is a component of the routine process deployed by NSF and is quite vigorous in nature. The DoD audit is the result of a deficiency in processes within CSU that was selfreported. The existence of these two audits is further evidence of the University’s
increasing complexity and sophistication and need to ensure the existence of sound business practices.

In addition to being the subject of two federal audits, the University has also found itself in a situation where two of our college units have struggled to meet annual commitments. And, our decentralized structure make it more difficult to adhere to financial policies and procedures which result in additional risk to the University.

Both the financial and human resource operations within the University are critical to its on‐going success, from a compliance perspective as well as providing an environment that promotes a healthy culture and supports attracting highly talented individuals to the University. Ensuring the individuals engaged in supporting these activities across the University have the appropriate qualifications, training, supervision, culture to support a high‐quality user experience, and reporting structure is essential.

Given the level of complexity that has evolved at CSU, it is vital that we become more intentional in the structure of our business operations across the University. We need to ensure that key financial personnel have the appropriate skills, that we offer rigorous and relevant training programs in all key areas and that we provide a structure that promotes career growth for such personnel. We need to ensure that leaders within the University are provided with the appropriate level of financial expertise, business intelligence and ensure that such support is provided in a manner that is in the best interest of the University.

Committee Charge:

With these goals in mind, we are establishing the University Business Operations Task Force, under the direction of the Vice President for University Operations, for creating a formal structure to help define, guide, streamline and improve business, financial and human resource related practices of the University. The VPUO, who may serve as or shall appoint the Chair, may appoint such other members as deemed appropriate from time to time. The VPUO may also engage the assistance of a third‐party consultant.

The charge to the Business Operations Task Force is to focus on the following four areas with the goal to provide the President and Executive Vice President/Provost recommendations for improvement. Factors such as best practices, peer institution structures, generally accepted accounting principles, the Uniform Guidance and other such resources should be considered.

1. University Structure ‐ Does the University have the optimal structure in place to address the increasing complexity of its financial and human capital operations and do we have a well‐defined reporting structure within as well external to each respective unit?
   a. Optimal internal business operations structure
   b. External reporting structure
2. Skill Sets and Training – Do employees have the appropriate level of skills, qualifications and are employees provided appropriate levels of training and support? What should the requirements and resources be to ensure we are meeting the needs of the University?
   a. Qualifications, skill sets
   b. Training and support
3. Shared Best Practices – What creative tools/processes have we implemented in one unit that could be shared more broadly? How are we using the data mining tools to provide information to help management make better decisions? What existing and new challenges facing the University can best be met through a collective effort involving units across campus? Are there ways to gain efficiencies through improved processes and/or shared services? Is it possible to eliminate the often‐encountered exception?
   a. Collective efforts
   b. Shared services
   c. Efficiencies
4.  System Process Mapping – Are our systems and processes efficient and effective?
   a. Identify processes that could benefit from mapping
   b. Review the process map to determine how this task could be accomplished more efficiently

Recommendations:

Recommended actions/changes should be:
1. reasonably measurable,
2. include a baseline and metrics that can be defined and tracked for evaluation,
3. provide an analysis of the benefit to be gained,
4. provide an estimate of potential resources needed, and

Committee Membership:

This committee shall be comprised of representatives to be appointed by the VPUO,
including, but not limited to:

Executive Director of Business and Financial Services/University Controller
Associate Vice President for Human Capital
Director of the Office of Budgets
Three College Business Officers (as that title currently applies)
Two representatives from the HR Liaison Group
One Vice Presidential Divisional Business Officer
Executive Director of the Office of Policy and Compliance
Representative from the Office of Internal Audit
Representative of the VPR’s Office, as designated by the Vice President for Research
Representative from the College Deans
Representative from the College Department Chairs

Task Force Timeline

• October – Charge completed and task force formed
  o Task Force kick off meeting
• November
  o Task Force up to speed
  o Subcommittees chartered
  o Subcommittee review process defined
• December through February – Research, assessment, consultation
• February – Subcommittee wrap up
• March – Drafts of overall Task Force Recommendations
• April – Final report and recommendations submitted to the President and Executive Vice President/Provost