UCI On-Campus Housing Problems

This Thursday's (8/23/07) LA Times has an article about a "critique of University of California operations" by UC Board of Regents Chairman Richard C. Blum.
He calls the way the UC administration operates "outmoded and dysfunctional" and calls for a "major overhaul."
From the article in the LA Times:

Blum ... said in an interview that the 10-campus UC system should cut back its administrative staff and devote more resources to education.

And,

Among his proposals Wednesday were ... eliminating millions of dollars in unnecessary or duplicative administration.

We have a prime example of "unnecessary or duplicative administration" right here at UCI Housing. Housing is way overstaffed, compared to commercial residential communities, and there is lots of duplication between Verano and Palo Verde. In my opinion, at least 1/2 of Verano and PV personnel could be let go without any significant impact on the (sadly already rather bad) service the offices provide.
Another example of a waste of money and unnecessary administration is the so-called ""co-curricular program component" aka "first-year initiative" that is now run by Bill Zeller, who before that assignment seemed to do his best to run UCI Housing into the ground.

I sincerely hope that Mr. Blum (who is the husband of Senator Dianne Feinstein) is successful in reforming the UC administration and getting rid of the waste that currently permeates the administration. A world-class university deserves a world-class administration, not the third-rate administrators we have right now.
In that context, another quote:

"Cumbersome and enormously expensive layers of bureaucracy have been added over the years, many of which may no longer make sense -- if indeed they ever did," Blum wrote. "Unless the University seriously and accountably commits itself to a new direction, we risk losing the perpetual battle for excellence in many areas."

Oh, and just to be clear: there are some world-class administrators at UCI, e.g., in the network operations (NACS.) I have nothing but praise for them.
But if there's light, there also is a lot of shade. And the UCI Housing administration is unfortunately on the lower end of the scale...

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