TO: Campus Community
FR: Emily F. Cutrer, Interim President
As I shared with you in March, I will present at the May meeting of the Board of Trustees of the California State University System, along with President Lynn Mahoney of San Francisco State University and President Cathy Sandeen of CSU East Bay, an item outlining the next steps in creating the San Francisco Bay Region Network (Network), a single infrastructure at the Administration and Finance level to serve all three campuses. It represents a creative and innovative collective response to the current landscape where urgent budget conditions and persistent demographic declines similarly and negatively impact the three campuses.
Outlined in the Board Item is the rationale for the creation a single effective and cost-efficient organization at the Administration and Finance level and describes a timeline for the first four functional operations (Human Resources, Procurement, Financial Aid, and three IT functions of Help Desk, Project Management, and Applications Support) to be completed by January 2026. It names Chief Financial Officer of San Francisco State Jeff Wilson to serve as project lead. He will convene a communications team over the summer whose initial goal will be to develop a website to ensure stakeholders at all three campuses will have synchronous access to information.
We expect the creation of the Network to achieve significant administrative cost savings and preserve services that would otherwise be damaged by budget cuts and associated cost-savings measures. Each president will ensure strict compliance with all existing policy, regulations and collective bargaining agreements. Many operational functions will remain campus-based, including, for example, many student support services and academic senates. Design and implementation decisions will be made in consultation with campus experts and stakeholders with the explicit goal of developing uniform practices across all three universities based on data and national best practices.
Separately, and prior to the creation of the Network, the CSU launched the Multi-University Collaboration Initiative (the Initiative). This broader systemwide effort aims to reduce or avoid costs, streamline and simplify processes, enhance the quality and efficiency of customer service. The Initiative is currently focused on benefits administration, information security, and procurement. Sonoma State is represented on the Initiative by M. Monir Ahmed, Vice President for Administration and Finance/CFO.
While the Network and the Initiative are distinct efforts, they are also interrelated. For example, the Initiative’s work on CSU Buy, the systemwide procurement system, will serve as a foundation for the Network’s efforts to integrate procurement functions across the three campuses. Understanding this distinction and acknowledging potential overlap is essential to ensuring the success of each.
The San Francisco Bay Region University Network is a bold, creative, proactive and necessary strategy to address the economic and demographic realities we face. Importantly, the aim of the Network is to ensure Cal State East Bay, San Francisco State and Sonoma State maintain their distinct characteristics and strengths, accreditation standards, and service to their surrounding community. The Network has great promise to serve as a collaborative model – for other regional networks within the CSU, as well as for challenged regional public universities throughout the nation.