SUBJECT:  Maintaining Staff Excellence: UCSD's Key to Successful Growth

Dear Colleagues:

The Staff Retention and Support Steering Committee (SRSSC) has concluded its year-long review of staff-related issues and summarized its findings in a report titled "Maintaining Staff Excellence: UCSD's Key to Successful Growth." I, along with the Vice Chancellors and the Chair of the Academic Senate fully embrace this report. We are committed to building a positive environment for staff at UCSD, who are essential to the present and future excellence of this campus. This campus cannot flourish if our staff cannot excel.

When I convened the SRSSC last year, I directed its members to provide an action plan that would address staff issues identified in campus climate studies. They have done exactly that. Far-reaching in scope and pragmatic in approach, "Maintaining Staff Excellence" outlines 46 specific initiatives in seven core areas:

*Ensure adequate resource allocation for staff
*Hire and keep the best people
*Give staff the tools to succeed
*Improve the flow of information on campus
*Increase trust and understanding between faculty and staff
*Enhance staff training and development opportunities
*Expand the skills of managers and supervisors

I believe that the long-range action plan the SRSSC proposes will reap early dividends. The vast majority of these initiatives can be implemented by the end of this 2001-2002 academic calendar year. The rest can be implemented on either an intermediate (12 to 24 months) or a long-term (24 to 36 months) basis.

"Maintaining Staff Excellence" report is a milestone, not a finish line. The SRSSC will meet periodically to monitor the progress of this action plan. The same spirit of dialogue that governed the plan's creation will drive its implementation. Feedback from the campus community is critical. I hope everyone will have the chance to review the report's Executive Summary at http://blink.ucsd.edu/go/srssc. In addition to the online report site, hard copies will be available for reading at:

*All campus libraries
*The Hillcrest and Thornton Medical Centers (Human Resources Office)
*The Scripps Institution of Oceanography
*The Office of Human Resources at Torrey Pines Center
*On main campus at the Cross Cultural Center, the Women's Center, and the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transsexual Resource Office.

A special SRSSC e-mail account, staffreport@ucsd.edu, has been set up to receive online feedback, and written feedback can be sent via campus mail to: SRSSC Action Plan, mail code 0005.

The campus leadership is grateful to the members of the SRSSC Steering Committee and to its co-chairs, Vice Chancellor Steven Relyea and Assistant Chancellor Linda Williams, and we look forward to their continued success in this important endeavor.

                                                Sincerely,

                                                Robert C. Dynes
                                                Chancellor

                                                Marsha A. Chandler
                                                Sr. Vice Chancellor - Academic Affairs

                                                Richard Attiyeh
                                                Vice Chancellor - Graduate Studies and Research

                                                Michael Bernstein
                                                Chair - Academic Senate

                                                Edward W. Holmes
                                                Vice Chancellor - Health Sciences

                                                Charles F. Kennel
                                                Vice Chancellor - Scripps Institution of Oceanography

                                                James M. Langley
                                                Vice Chancellor - External Relations

                                                Steven W. Relyea
                                                Vice Chancellor - Business Affairs

                                                Joseph W. Watson
                                                Vice Chancellor - Student Affairs

                                                John A. Woods
                                                Vice Chancellor - Resource Management & Planning