 The figures to be presented to the board of trustees on Wednesday
detail $26 million in recurring savings stemming from changes in
procurement, information technology and off-campus leasing, among
other areas.
The university's three campuses and hospitals have struggled with
less money and slow payments from the state, including $313 million
still owed from the fiscal year that ended on June 30, officials
said.
The savings program was launched in late 2009. The goal has been
to make the university's administrative functions more efficient and
less expensive so the money can be reinvested in academics, said
Avijit Ghosh, special assistant to university President Michael
Hogan for strategic initiatives.
"It's not to say the university hasn't been mindful of
administrative costs, but now there's a greater sense of urgency,"
said Ghosh, who says he's coordinating many of the cost-saving
efforts.
More than half of the $26 million comes from centralizing how the
university buys supplies, from copy paper to computers. Instead of
colleges and departments ordering independently and submitting
receipts for reimbursement, they can order from a central
procurement portal, run by the university, that automatically
subtracts the cost from their account. The portal system allows the
university to buy supplies in bulk.
"Like our own little Amazon.com," Ghosh said.
Changes in information technology systems across the university's
hospitals and three campuses -- in Chicago, Champaign and
Springfield -- make up the second-largest chunk of the savings, at
$6.5 million. The IT departments have consolidated everything from
the data centers that keep the school's computers running to its
email system, said Michael Hites, executive chief information
officer.
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The university has avoided layoffs as it merges functions and
departments by incrementally reducing staff through attrition,
officials said.
Another $1.5 million in savings came from a review of off-site
leases, which led to bringing some offices on campus, consolidating
and renegotiating leases, according to the report. And $3.2 million
came from so-called shared service centers that have merged human
resources and other administrative services that used to be done by
colleges, academic departments and administrative units
individually. The last $2.1 million came in general administrative
costs.
[Associated Press]
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