Human Capital Management.
They're also undertaking a huge downsizing by centralizing all the 'shared services'. A couple of years ago they hired a company for $3 million dollars to find ways for the University to save money because of the State budget being cut. The company managed to turn themselves into a permanent University department and the new jobs hiring for the University is overwhelmingly for their top and middle managers. They're going to rip employees away from every single department and move them, rumor has it, to some warehouse building away from the university and everything will be done electronically. Shopping for the labs to hiring the Grad Students and Work Study students to managing grant money to computer services to reimbursements, and paying the bills will all be done away from the departments electronically.
The really sad part is that those of us who get moved away from the campus will not be able to be part of the campus with its wonderful activities and its beautiful tourist attracting grounds. Activities like free concerts given by the music departments, to any number of social organizations. We'll be chained to our cubicles never interacting with the students or Faculty face to face and forever grinding at the same enormous pile of orders or reimbursements every day. Gone will be the day where you could do many roles in one department because we will be doing just one perpetually. The plan is to stretch the move through 2014 moving everyone in phases.
They don't have a clue, nor do they care of the emotional relationship that exists between the staff, the students and the Faculty. UC Berkeley is the kind of place where employees stay for life. At least up to now. People on all sides have grown old together.
For staff it's never been about good pay. It's much more about having a job that actually benefits humanity. It's really sad to see them making the bottom line the goal, rather than putting out world class graduates and research.
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