U. of California to Propose Administrative Overhaul to Save $500-Million

The University of California will propose a vast administrative overhaul this week that it hopes will save more than $500-million annually in a bid to restore severe cuts in state support.

The proposal, which will be presented to the system’s Board of Regents on Wednesday, seeks to reduce costs by streamlining procurement, centralizing payroll and human-resources systems, exploring the feasibility of shared research computing, and adopting other common measures across the system’s 10 campuses.

The system has already cut $232-million from its $20-billion annual budget over the past two years, officials said. Within the next five years, officials hope to achieve more than $500-million in additional savings. Details of the plan were first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

In March, Peter J. Taylor, the university’s chief financial officer, told The Chronicle that adopting common financial systems would encounter cultural resistance in such a decentralized system. “The hard part isn’t identifying the opportunities,” he said. “It’s driving the cultural change that will have to take place.”