As part of continued efforts to be good stewards of its limited resources, the California State University has established the
Multi-University Collaboration Initiative to strategically address cost structures by optimizing resources while still meeting individual university needs. The initiative will enable the CSU to save or avoid costs, streamline and simplify processes, enhance the quality and efficiency of customer service and increase economies of scale.
The initiative leverages CSU's decentralized structure to foster systemwide collaboration, creating a more sustainable and effective operating model. The goal is to support student success, maintain academic excellence and responsibly manage resources.
"The Multi-University Collaboration Initiative leverages the CSU's superpower—its 'systemness'—to drive efficiencies and strategically manage costs, allowing us to direct our limited resources more effectively toward advancing our core educational mission," CSU Chancellor Mildred García says. “The initiative represents the CSU at its best: innovative, collaborative and student-focused."
Launched in August 2023, the initiative arose from CSU presidents' desire to explore new ways to collaborate across the system. Key opportunities for increased functional collaboration were initially identified through focus groups, workshops and interviews with representatives across the system.
Through continued analysis and discussion led by the initiative's steering committee—which is composed of presidents and leaders across functional areas and universities—the CSU selected three focus areas for the first wave: benefits administration, information security and procurement.
Specifically, the benefits administration opportunity seeks to coordinate shared benefits administration activities to reduce risk of error, increase consistency in the employee experience, reduce administrative burdens and enhance service quality.
The information security opportunity aims to improve the security infrastructure across all universities through a coordinated approach, addressing future information security challenges more effectively. The CSU will implement a systemwide Cyber Fusion Center to enhance coordination and resource utilization across the system.
Lastly, the procurement opportunity seeks to optimize procurement operations and systemwide spending. By accelerating the implementation of
CSUBuy, reviewing procurement processes and organization models, expanding strategic sourcing and exploring AI integration opportunities, the CSU will drive efficiency and cost savings.
These focus areas were selected for their potential to significantly impact cost management and operational efficiency. Parallel efforts in areas like financial aid, Title IX and academic programming are also underway, and additional opportunities identified will be revisited in the future.
“I extend my deepest gratitude and appreciation to the university presidents, the steering committee, working groups and all those involved with this initiative," García continues. “I have every confidence that this initiative will benefit current and future CSU students for many years to come."
Over the next several months, input from CSU staff and faculty will play a key role in the initiative's success. The initiative's steering committee will work with the CSU's 23 universities to design future state services in the three focus areas. Stakeholders may be asked to serve on governance committees, provide expertise, participate in workshops to design collaboration models and act as liaisons to their respective communities.
Find answers to some common questions about the Multi-University Collaboration Initiative below.
Why is the Multi-University Collaboration Initiative a priority of the CSU?
The CSU, like higher education peers, is facing external constraints that require us to think strategically about current cost structures. We must find ways to ensure we are good stewards of the CSU's limited resources while continuing to support student success and achieve strategic priorities. Now is the time for the CSU to meaningfully unite in shaping our future as one university.
What is meant by multi-university collaboration? What are some examples?
There are a variety of ways CSUs can collaborate to reduce costs or increase the level of service to students, staff and faculty. This may look like a single university supporting services for one or more additional universities. This may also look like a service provided by the Chancellor's Office to all 23 CSUs. Existing examples include how Cal State Long Beach manages payroll for the Chancellor's Office, or how Stanislaus State processes parking citations for other campuses.
How and why did the CSU select benefits administration, information security and procurement as the initial focus areas for collaboration?
The first step in the CSU's Multi-University Collaboration Initiative involved identifying 14 opportunities for collaboration through stakeholder engagement activities such as interviews and focus groups with function-specific university staff and Chancellor's Office individuals, feedback from the university vice presidents of administration and finance and input from subject matter advisors. This helped assess each area's effort, impact, risks and readiness.
Through this robust stakeholder engagement, the CSU then narrowed the list to six key areas: payroll, public works procurement, payment processing, benefits administration, procurement and information security. Following analysis around the current state, alignment with guiding principles and estimated implementation effort and impact led to the selection of three initial focus areas for collaboration: benefits administration, information security and procurement. A CSU working group has been established to develop the details of the future state model for each of these three areas.
However, it is important to note that future state design and implementation is expected to continue in other focus areas (e.g., payroll, public works procurement and payment processing) as the Multi-University Collaboration Initiative continues.
What benefits will the CSU see as a result of the Multi-University Collaboration Initiative?
The Multi-University Collaboration Initiative is intended to strategically address cost structures by optimizing resources while still meeting individual university needs. This initiative will enable the CSU to strengthen staff expertise in critical functions, strengthen the quality of customer service, leverage economies of scale, become more efficient and increase career opportunities for staff.
How will decisions be made under this initiative?
An important element of this work is providing transparency in how decisions will be made as well as establishing clear opportunities to provide input across the 23 universities. Key recommendations will be made by the Initiative's Executive Steering Committee, which is chaired by project sponsor Executive Vice Chancellor and Chief Financial Officer Steve Relyea.
The initiative's Executive Steering Committee is also responsible for defining the vision for multi-university collaboration and, ultimately, for serving as champions throughout the project. Recommendations will eventually go to the university presidents and the chancellor. In addition to the Executive Steering Committee, several advisory groups will be consulted for input into the decision-making processes, including, for example, chief human resources officers, chief information officers and the university vice presidents of administration and finance.
Find answers to additional questions at the
Multi-University Collaboration Initiative website.