December 16, 2019
First service level agreements published for new budget model
As outlined by Provost Taber in a letter to campus last spring, the creation of service level agreements, or SLAs, and a benchmarking process for university service centers is part of implementing the new budget model. We are pleased to share the first three SLAs developed over the past several months for the Division of Communications and Marketing, the Division of Facilities and Human Capital Services.
These SLAs, developed by the Service Center Working Group, were reviewed and approved through the budget model governance structure this fall. SLAs for the other service centers will be published by the beginning of the fall 2020 semester. We will plan for annual updates to occur over the summer to keep these service level agreements meaningful and current.
These SLAs will allow us to have a clear understanding of the levels and types of services provided by our service centers that are funded by General Use dollars. They help communicate the additional levels of services requested by campus units that may result in additional charges. SLAs provide a basis for benchmarking when comparing our service centers to peer institutions and play a role in understanding the impact of growing or reducing funding to service centers and the impact on the level of service that can be provided.
We thank the Service Center Working Group and the service centers for the tremendous effort they have undertaken to create these first high-level agreements.
Sincerely,
Ethan Erickson
Chief financial officer and director of budget planning