Shared Services Q & A with Provost David Lavallee

 Colleagues, 

 A large number of our colleagues across the University have already been affected by the SUNY-wide initiative that is now called "shared services.”

 Two weeks ago Provost David Lavallee came to our UFS Fall Planning meeting, where he faced an hour of questions from a hundred of your colleagues about this and other issues facing the university.

 After that meeting, we asked the Provost to come back to the table for a similar "q and a" from a much smaller group, where many of the questions would be repeated for a system-wide video audience. I was most pleased that Professors Shadi Shahedipour-Sandvik (UAlbany) and Phillip Ortiz (Empire State College) along with Tremayne Price, a student representative from the Student Assembly, agreed to join me on the panel.

 The session was taped last Thursday, and unfortunately, it has taken much longer to get it posted on the SUNY website than I originally imagined. It is now up, to use the jargon, and can be found at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMZqW68ZJ24

 Just to be clear, we believe that this initiative has the potential to reshape important aspects of our traditional campus communities. For that reason, the UFS Executive Committee and I are committed to getting the very best information we have available about the initiative, what it is, what it may become and what it potentially could be, into your.

 At our upcoming plenary meeting at least two resolutions will be introduced on the subject, one from the Executive Committee, which was distributed last month when it was passed, and another by the Governance Committee. While we pledge to continue to monitor this and other financial initiatives at System, we believe that the most effective points from which to observe – and participate in – this process is through your campus governance organizations.

 Ken O’Brien