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U.Va.
Announces First Steps In Administrative Reorganization
Nov. 18, 1999 -- As part of the University
of Virginias ongoing long-range planning program, U.Va. President
John T. Casteen III today announced changes in the responsibilities
of two vice presidents and the formation of a new unit for institutional
planning and assessment.
Executive
Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Leonard W. Sandridge
has become Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer.
He remains chief financial officer. Sandridge's expanded activities
will include financial and managerial oversight of the Health Systems
clinical enterprises, including the University Hospital. Two senior
officers will be added to Sandridges immediate staff over
the next six months to handle financial and administrative duties,
Casteen said.
"Leonard
has broad responsibility for finances and general management in
all units of the University," Casteen said, "but he has not previously
been involved in management oversight of the clinical enterprise,
which is a major part of the University's activity. Adding
analytical staff and other support gives him the capacity to improve
both financial and general management."
Existing
lines of accountability within the Health System for day-to-day
operations are unchanged in this new alignment. Responsibility for
academic medicine and research remains with Vice President and Provost
Robert W. Cantrell, who reports to Casteen.
"We
want to prevent problems that have occurred elsewhere in increasingly
complex and expensive teaching hospitals. Ours is financially
stable and clinically successful, but the larger economy of academic
medicine is changing around us. Leonard's expanded job is
to make us as effective and efficient as we can be, and in the process
to provide the best possible support for the people who count on
us for patients and their families, for physicians and staff,
for the people of Virginia," Casteen said.
As
a step toward freeing Sandridge of duties not related to oversight
of financial and administrative support, University Relations, which
oversees media relations, publications, community relations, video
production, and web master functions, will become part of an expanded
external relations operation headed by Vice President for Development
Robert D. Sweeney.
Laurie
Kelsh, executive assistant and chief of staff to Casteen, will organize
a new central planning and assessment unit in the president's office.
During a transition period, she will turn over chief of staff duties
to other staff members. The new unit will coordinate planning
throughout the University, and will support initiatives that involve
more than one unit's budget. Its primary responsibilities
will be institutional, as opposed to unit-specific, undertakings.
"This
approach lets us develop planning and assessment capacity equal
to the new demands we will face in the next five years as we implement
ambitious academic improvements within constrained resources," Casteen
said. "All of these reassignments are steps toward a more effective
system of managing resources and planning change."
Contact:
Louise Dudley, (804) 924-1400
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