by Greg Bump

About 160 members of the campus community attended the Administrative Excellence campus forum on June 20th at Union South.

After opening remarks from Provost Paul M. DeLuca Jr. and Vice Chancellor for Administration Darrell Bazzell, the attendees broke into smaller sessions focused on recommendations of seven work teams.

DeLuca praised the teams for their work.  The teams have been analyzing data, engaging stakeholders and developing recommendations since January.

“The results are quite exciting and for the most part will take us to a different place, a place that will be much better,” DeLuca said.

Bazzell said the Administrative Excellence project has taken the improvements made in the Administrative Process Redesign initiative to another level.

UW-Madison’s peer institutions have already undertaken some of the changes suggested by the Administrative Excellence work teams, Bazzell said.  The UW needs to catch up, he said.

“What we’re talking about here is not groundbreaking, cutting edge kinds of change,” Bazzell said.  “But it’s reflective of where our culture has been.  We’re moving from a highly de-centralized culture to one where we’re saying there are some things we need to do more in common, more together.  Other universities have figured that out sooner than we have.”

The four breakout sessions, on Email and Calendaring, Strategic Purchasing, Classroom Space and Data Center Aggregation, lasted about an hour and a half.  Work team members presented their findings and fielded questions and input from the audience members.

Opening remarks by Provost Paul M. DeLuca Jr.

Opening remarks by Vice Chancellor for Administration Darrell Bazzell

View each team’s power point presentation: Strategic Purchasing (Office Supplies, MRO Supplies, Scientific Supplies, Computer Bundles), Email and Calendaring, Data Center Aggregation and  Classroom Space Utilization.