University of California
Control Initiative Priority Focus Areas
(No order of importance implied)
Impact on administrative functions as a result of growth
Administrative impacts on the University's teaching, research and public service mission as a result of the anticipated "Tidal Wave II". This risk factor may be greater for campuses with higher growth targets.

• Increase in number of faculty and department sizes
• Increasing administrative workload with limited resources
• Student enrollment related to administration (e.g. housing and registration systems)
• Equitable resource and space allocation to accommodate growth

Effects of a decentralized environment
The University's decentralized campus environment, coupled with the increased need for understanding of roles, responsibilities and accountability standards.

• Coordinated approach to training and maintaining a trained workforce
• Complex policy and guidelines for staff
• Control culture in the work environment
• Duplication of effort and inconsistency in departmental operations
• Pricing effectiveness of decentralized purchasing and travel

Sponsored Research
As a research institution, accurate management of all aspects of contracts and grants is a key function.

• Complex pre- and post-award processing (e.g. cost transfers and effort reporting)
• Increased regulations and compliance requirements for public and private awards
• Accountability to sponsors and the public (e.g. overspending, research misconduct)

Stewardship of Funds
Two broad areas include appropriateness of expenditures (how the funds are spent) and systems to make the expenditures (accuracy and completeness of payments, data security).

• Complex and numerous financial systems, subsystems, related processes and reporting requirements
• Compliance (e.g. tax, small business program)
• Financial system controls and data integrity

Health Services
For those campuses with medical center operations, three broad areas of risk include:

• Funds at risk (e.g. health care reimbursement, medical center profitability)
• Compliance with regulations (e.g. billing practices)
• Patient care mission

External Partnerships
The potential risks involved in forming business partnerships with external organizations and committing University resources to such arrangements.

• Technology transfer
• Faculty / industry private partnerships, due diligence processes
• Conflict of interest / conflict of commitment