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Strategic Plan

Effective UCLA

Overview

Over the years, UCLA’s administrative practices have grown alongside our expanding mission. To reflect the latest standards of excellence across higher education, we need to modernize our practices to match the pace and possibilities of the future. To continue driving excellence in research, teaching and service, we must ensure that the way we operate is as forward-thinking as the work we support. 


This initiative will advance and align UCLA’s administrative functions to operate more efficiently, transparently and in closer partnership with the needs of our campus community. By improving systems, processes and technologies, we will create an administrative foundation that empowers our faculty, staff and students to pursue UCLA’s mission with greater agility, innovation and impact.

This initiative advances the fifth goal of our strategic plan: Become a more effective institution. 

Goals

Align and connect core administrative operations — including IT, finance, communications and transactional human resources — to create more efficient, consistent and modern practices across the university.

  • Launch One IT as the first in a series of consolidations of shared administrative services.
  • Minimize risks: Strengthen cyber-security, improve policy and legal compliance and enhance operational resilience.
  • Deliver quality: Modernize administrative services to deliver equitable, high-quality user experience.
  • Ensure value for money: Align resources and reduce duplication, enabling reinvestment in our academic mission.

Create a growth mindset for continuous process improvement (CPI) on campus and empower individuals to streamline and refine processes that lead to operational efficiencies and service excellence.

  • Enhance how UCLA operates through the Bruin Process Flow, a campuswide framework for CPI.
  • Build skills: Provide access to Lean Six Sigma training to strengthen knowledge and apply proven methods for process excellence.
  • Share ideas: Launch our CPI portal to submit and track improvement ideas from across campus.
  • Get support: Partner with Organizational Effectiveness & Development team for guidance and facilitation of improvement initiatives.

Enhance campus space use efficiency through a pilot program of smart space technologies that deliver accurate occupancy insights, optimize energy usage and support more informed space planning decisions.

  • Deploy space-use technologies to evaluate opportunities to optimize operations, reduce costs and minimize environmental impact.
  • Ensure effective use of campus resources through smarter decision-making; strategic resource allocation; and proactive maintenance to support the evolving needs of students, faculty and staff.

Expected Outcomes

  • Streamlined administrative workflows with reduced duplication and clearer accountability.
  • Strengthened cybersecurity and core systems.
  • Clearly articulated policies and procedures that improve consistency and compliance.
  • Enhanced service delivery through coordinated communication and shared technology platforms.
  • Increased staff engagement and ownership of improvement initiatives.
  • Data-driven insights into space utilization and occupancy patterns across facilities.
  • Reduced energy consumption and operational costs through automated environmental controls.

Implementation
Planning Leads

A cross-functional team of campus leaders forms the Goal 5 Steering Committee, which provides oversight for the implementation of these initiatives:

  • Darnell Hunt, Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost (Co-chair)
  • Michael J. Beck, Administrative Vice Chancellor (Co-chair)
  • Stephen Agostini, Vice Chancellor and Chief Financial Officer
  • Lucy Avetisyan, Chief Information Officer
  • Claire Chaumont, Special Advisor to the Chancellor
  • Christina Christie, Dean, School of Education & Information Studies
  • Miguel Garcia-Garibay, Dean, Division of Physical Sciences
  • Tim Groeling, Professor, Department of Communication Studies
  • Athena Jackson, University Librarian
  • Christine Lovely, Vice Chancellor for Human Resources
  • Mary Osako, Vice Chancellor for Strategic Communications
  • Julie Sina, Chief of Staff to the Chancellor
  • Aaron Tornell, Professor of Economics

Meets Goal 5: Become a more effective institution

UCLA’s organization and processes have evolved over the course of more than a century. While much of our remarkably complex institution operates smoothly, inefficiencies have also developed. To ensure we can support brilliant research, excellent teaching and exciting new initiatives with our limited resources, the university must improve its systems and processes, free up resources, adjust incentive structures and modernize its technology. This will allow UCLA to meet its full potential.