Pillar 4: New Paths for Our Brilliant Future

In the 50 years since UCI’s founding, public policy toward higher education has gradually changed. Significant decreases in state support have led to a new financial reality for the UC system. In order to accomplish our goals in this new environment and realize the ambitious vision outlined above, UCI needs to ensure its strong financial footing, mobilize community support, promote staff engagement with our mission, and develop creative plans to establish an infrastructure that will support us moving forward.

Develop a sustainable financial plan

  • Align resources with strategic priorities to expand innovation and impact, ensure student success, and enhance community and global engagement
  • Diversify revenue streams, which may include: additional self-supporting graduate programs, more funded research, increasing intellectual property licensing and technology transfer, increasing enrollment of nonresident students, and adding revenue-generating labs and professional development opportunities
  • Generate a sustainable, long-term ratio of risk to investment return
  • Invest in administrative, financial and academic frameworks to increase efficiencies and grow and strengthen scholastic programs and services across campus
  • Effectively utilize debt financing to support infrastructure development needs

Make fundraising a central feature of our academic planning and leadership culture

  • Double average annual giving to the campus over the next two years (FY 2015=base)
  • Invest resources to support fundraising and strategic communities, both centrally and locally, to levels that are adequate to dramatically increase giving to the campus
  • Ensure that all campus leaders are committed and prepared to mobilize support from donors, foundations, and corporate partners
  • Develop systems and metrics of success that allow for ongoing assessment of progress in fundraising
  • Support the efforts of the UCI Foundation to engage in its own strategic plan to assess what changes are needed to ensure greater campus opportunities for fundraising
  • Calibrate our expectations of support – for students, endowed chairs, center and school namings, and other transformational gifts – to levels appropriate for our ambitions

Bolster and position staff to more effectively support the academic mission

  • Evaluate gaps in staff support and create a plan for increased hiring or reallocation of resources where needed, particularly for research, technology, and areas of strategic expansion
  • Partner with human resources and UCI Extension to develop and implement innovative efficiencies, including modernizing administrative processes and incentivizing staff ideas and contributions
  • Partner with human resources and other staff organizations to develop programs for staff professional development, career progression, and increasing staff engagement in campuswide activities
  • Establish policies and systematic processes to ensure staff salaries are competitive and meritorious work is rewarded
  • Institutionalize programs to regularly assess and address quality-of-workplace issues

Expand, build, and maintain an excellent physical infrastructure

  • Add space capacity and facilities to meet unmet and future demand
  • Allot a sustainable percentage of capital investments to facilities renewal
  • Maximize value of off-campus spaces, including University Research Park, North Campus, and the Orange County Great Park
  • Develop University Hills as warranted to accommodate faculty and staff growth
  • Address accessibility challenges in facilities to better serve students, employees, and visitors with special needs
  • Strengthen UCI’s campuswide parking, traffic management, and public safety plans to accommodate campus growth and accessibility

Ensure a high-quality, ubiquitous, secure, and robust information technology infrastructure

  • Provide resources and standardize support for educational technologies
  • Ensure pervasive support across multiple platforms, including mobile devices
  • Leverage external and cloud services to manage costs and maximize flexibility
  • Make tools and services available to facilitate and enhance the local and international Web presence of campus units and research groups
  • Develop systematic assessment protocols and implementation processes to ensure we adjust our cyber infrastructure as technologies evolve
  • Leverage central resources to maximize capacity for a robust network of internal and external services and information
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