April 9, 2020
To: All staff and faculty
April 9, 2020
Dear Campus Community,
At UC Merced we are working to address the current crisis, keep our students, faculty and staff safe, and provide the resources for educational continuity and success. We must also plan for the growth and sustainability of this university.
Our plans prioritize the people who make UC Merced great and contribute to the intellectual, civic, cultural and economic richness of the San Joaquin Valley — hence my enthusiasm for joining President Napolitano and my fellow chancellors in announcing we will lay off no career staff through this fiscal year.
What we do not yet know is the full scale and ultimate implication, at a state, national or global level, of the COVID-19 pandemic, so we must continue to be as fiscally prudent as possible while advancing our mission.
The Division of Finance and Administration will share specific guidelines about spending and personnel practices as we move forward. These will require us to make thoughtful decisions about university priorities. As you may know, every hiring decision is already scrutinized by our Position Delegates Council, under the guidance of divisional and school leadership; their criteria will now include a sharper focus on those positions essential to the university’s core goals.
But UC Merced has, from its founding, learned to create excellence with lean resources, and has over the years implemented a number of processes and policies that will, in our current challenge, stand us in greater stead than better resourced and less disciplined institutions.
I ask for your patience as we work through and communicate all the details about next steps. We will always continue to prioritize faculty, staff and students, their well-being, and the future of the university — because we know we are better together, and we are #BobcatProud.
Nathan Brostrom
Interim Chancellor
