Dear University Community,

Last October, President Frank and Provost Miranda charged me with forming a task force to review the university’s structure and processes as they relate to business operations. The university’s intention in forming the task force is to ensure that our business systems and resources are used to the best of our ability to support faculty and staff and the goals and mission of the university.  Business operations initially referred to business and human resources.  We have since incorporated aspects of sponsored programs into our scope.

Over the last several months, the task force has been working in earnest to engage partners from across the university as we begin to assess how individual colleges and units manage financial and human resources as well as sponsored programs day-to-day tasks. As you may expect, there are processes and structures on campus that work very well.  However, over the years we have experienced significant growth and we have not been intentional in our deployment of resources, structures and design of processes which have resulted in gaps and vulnerabilities.

The task force is charged with a massive mission. We aim to address the gaps and vulnerabilities by developing formalized training to help employees succeed; identify and fix broken processes; establish best practices; and strengthen and improve university structures in the business, financial, human resources and sponsored programs areas within the university.

The work of the task force has been divided into four subcommittees which are:

• University structure: What is the optimal structure to address the increasing level of complexity in the university’s operations?
• Skill sets and training:  What employee qualifications and skill sets should we expect for certain positions, and what training and support is needed?
• Shared best practices: Where can we collaborate among units, colleges and other divisions to get better results? What are the opportunities for collective efforts, shared services and efficiencies?
• System process mapping: Are our current systems and process efficient and effective? What are priority areas for improvement?

We are committed to transparency and communication to the campus community regarding our scope of work, progress, and the resulting recommendations that will be shared next fiscal year. To better inform the university community, we are finalizing a website, and will share it with you in the next few weeks. This website explains the task force structure and will provide regular updates from the task force and each of the four subcommittees.

We’ll also share a progress update with you next fall, once classes resume, along with a timeline for steps we’ll take during the academic year.

In the interim, please let me know if you have questions.  I can be reached via operations@colostate.edu.   Once the website is final, it will include a request for information form which will be our preferred method of communication to ensure transparency and keep all interested parties up to date.

Happy Graduation Weekend!