Student Town Hall with the Chancellor!

October 29th, 2009 | by Senator Parth Bhatt |

Your opportunity to ask challenging questions to the chancellor about the future of your university. It’s your right.The budget crisis is at the forefront of concern for many of us. Whether you are worried about rising fees, or the cutting of student services or programs, today’s budget related pressures are more important to students than at any other time in the history of our University.The ASUC is partnering with Chancellor Birgeneau to bring you a STUDENT TOWN HALL with Chancellor Birgeneau, Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Breslauer, and Dean of Students Jonathan Poullard, happening from 7:30-9:30 p.m. on Thursday, November 5 in Pauley Ballroom. The TOWN HALL panel will also feature key student representatives. Students in attendance will hear directly from our administration on their plans to address the cuts, and will be able to ask important questions about and provide direct input concerning the future direction of our University.Our primary goal is help make the University’s position about the budget crisis more transparent to students. As tough decisions are being made that affect our lives, we want students to know why decisions are being made and how we might be able to affect those decisions and so we encourage all students to become involved in this direct dialogue with our University administration. We hope you will join us by attending this informational meeting and by becoming more fully informed about these complex issues which affect our daily lives in such profound and tangible ways.Extremely difficult decisions have to be made, and we want students to know about those decisions, but more importantly, to be part of the conversation by having a voice in the decision making process. We hope you will join us by participating in this terribly important event.

Last 5 posts by Senator Parth Bhatt

  1. 3 Responses to “Student Town Hall with the Chancellor!”

  2. By Michelle Strausman on Nov 3, 2009 | Reply

    Thanks for posting this information! Can’t wait to go and hear the Chancellor speak :)

  3. By Milan Moravec on Nov 19, 2009 | Reply

    University of California President Yudof Approves $3,000,000 to Outsource UCB Chancellor’s Job
    The UC President has a UCB Chancellor that should do the high paid job he is paid for instead of hiring an East Coast consulting firm to fulfill his responsibilities. ‘World class’ smart executives like Chancellor Birgeneau need to do the analysis, hard work and make the difficult decisions of their executive job!

    Where do consulting firms like Bain ($3,000,000 consultants) get their recommendations?
    From interviewing the senior management that hired them and will be approving their monthly consultant fees and expense reports. Remember the nationally known auditing firm who said the right things and submitted recommendations that senior management wanted to hear and fooled government oversight agencies and the public? Consultants never bite the hand that feeds them

    Mr. Birgeneau’s executive officer performance management responsibilities include “inspiring innovation and leading change.” This involves “defining outcomes, energizing others at all levels and ensuring continuing commitment.” Instead of demonstrating his capacity to fulfill his executive accountabilities, Mr. Birgeneau outsourced them. Doesn’t he engage University of California and University of California Berkeley (UCB) people at all levels to help examine the budget and recommend the necessary trims? Hasn’t he talked to Cornell and the University of North Carolina - which also hired Bain — about best practices and recommendations that might apply to UCB cuts?

    No wonder the faculty and staff are angry and suspicious. Three million dollars is a high price for Californians to pay when a knowledgeable ‘world-class’ Chancellor is not doing his job.
    Please help save $3,000,000 for teaching our students and request that the UC President require the UCB Chancellor to fulfill his executive job accountabilities!

  4. By Transparency on May 10, 2010 | Reply

    UCB Chancellor Birgeneau Loss of Trust,Credibility
    The UCB budget gap has grown to $150 million, and still the Chancellor is spending money that isn’t there on expensive outside consultants. His reasons range from the need for impartiality to requiring the “innovative thinking, expertise, and new knowledge” the consultants would bring.

    Does this mean that the faculty and management of a world-class research and teaching institution lack the knowledge, impartiality, innovation, and professionalism to come up with solutions? Have they been fudging their research for years? The consultants will glean their recommendations from interviewing faculty and the UCB management that hired them; yet solutions could be found internally if the Chancellor were doing the job HE was hired to do. Consultant fees would be far better spent on meeting the needs of students.

    There can be only one conclusion as to why creative solutions have not been forthcoming from the professionals within UCB: Chancellor Birgeneau has lost credibility and the trust of the faculty as well as of the Academic Senate leadership that represents them. Even if the faculty agrees with the consultants’ recommendations - disagreeing might put their jobs in jeopardy - the underlying problem of lost credibility and trust will remain.

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