Dear Campus Community,
UC Merced is growing. The first buildings of the international award-winning Merced 2020 Project are taking shape. Our enrollment continues to climb. More faculty and staff are being hired to support our students.
We are the fastest-growing university in the nation, but building the future also means change and challenges. The ways we’ve done things in the past must be continuously reassessed and refined, including how we teach, research, hire and conduct business as an institution.
Modernization is a priority for our campus, and while nothing is perfect, we have had success implementing new systems and initiatives in areas like performance management and faculty hiring. Next on the agenda is a systemwide effort called UCPath, which is intended to streamline payroll, benefits, human resources, academic personnel and timekeeping into a single system. True to our pioneering nature, UC Merced is one of three UC campuses participating in the UCPath pilot, and we’re rolling it out Dec. 6.
What does this mean for you? If you work in a department like Payroll, HR or APO, you already know this will be a major shift in your overall workflow and processes. But in truth, these changes affect anyone who receives a paycheck from UC Merced.
Paper paychecks will now be sent to your home, so signing up for direct deposit — and updating your mailing address — is strongly encouraged. Business transactions will be handled at a shared service center in Riverside. This standardizes processes throughout the system and eliminates rework — or duplication of effort — that has been a barrier to productivity on our campus. However, it also means less control at the campus level. Transactions will take longer to process, and last-minute requests cannot be accommodated.
Change is never easy, but UC Merced is fortunate to have a great team of forward-thinking professionals working hard to ensure a smooth transition. Those who are most affected by the switch to UCPath will soon receive orientation and training on the system, and ongoing support will be available after launch. We want to thank our UCPath Governance & Deployment Team and all contributing subject matter experts for their hard work to date and their continuing efforts.
More information is coming, but don’t hesitate to reach out to our UCPath Team at ucpath@ucmerced.edu with questions. We look forward to this critical step in the evolution of our campus, and to additional improvements still to come.
Sincerely,
Brian Powell
Interim Vice Chancellor for Business & Administrative Services
Tom Peterson
Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor
Charles Nies
Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs
