The UC Office of the President, or UCOP, is continuing to make several changes to its structure after reading a report conducted by Huron Consulting Group — the report, completed in January, cost $735,000, according to UCOP spokesperson Dianne Klein.

On Jan. 17, 2018, Huron released a report that outlined potential strategies to make UCOP more efficient. Now, some of those suggestions are being acted upon. Klein said in an email that it is unclear what the structural overhaul will cost in total as they do not have a final invoice. On Nov. 14, the Compliance and Audit Committee will meet at the UC Board of Regents meeting in San Francisco to discuss how much will be spent on these changes, according to Student Regent Devon Graves.

Graves said the Huron report was originally commissioned in response to a California state audit that was conducted on UCOP to check the office’s efficiency.

“(UCOP is) taking great strides in accepting recommendations from the auditor and making sure that they are implemented,” Graves said. “The university is on track with meeting all of the recommendations in the time outlined by the state auditor.”

There are six operating models outlined in the Huron report and two enterprise-level options that “offer different framings for how UCOP could be organized in the future.” Graves said he does not believe that a decision has been made about what options or models to follow. The overhaul would not affect any one of the campuses unless some of UCOP’s functions are moved to a specific campus, Klein said in an email.

The restructuring of UCOP has begun, but changes will not be happening all at once, said Klein in the email. She added that it is up to UC President Janet Napolitano whether or not it will follow the report’s recommendations.

“The creation of the division of External Relations and Communications was among the first changes made after the Huron report was completed,” Klein said in an email. “Claire Holmes, the senior vice president, was selected to lead the new division, which now includes state government relations and federal government relations – thus eliminating a vacant position of senior vice president, government relations.”

This specific consolidation, Klein added, along with the termination of the other senior vice president role, has already reduced part of the office’s budget by $2.6 million.

“If the Office of the President is operating more efficiently, it benefits the campuses, which benefit the students,” Graves said.