Chancellor

Nature of the Chancellor's Cabinet

The role of the Cabinet is to advise the Chancellor; provide effective, responsive, and informed leadership to the University of California, Riverside; consider policy needs; and provide penultimate review of recommendations on matters of broad institutional significance.

The Cabinet will ensure that the University of California, Riverside makes timely progress toward its goal of advancing as one of the nation's best Universities by:

• ensuring that the University of California, Riverside successfully articulates an aspirational vision and meets its mission;
• identifying the University of California, Riverside's core values and inculcating them throughout the organization;
• setting professional, productive, and ethical expectations throughout the University of California, Riverside's policies and practices;
• maintaining the institution's financial and legal integrity; and
• enabling successful leadership throughout the University of California, Riverside that reflects trust, integrity, openness, accountability, and timely responsiveness.

In practice, the Cabinet discusses most major policy and operational issues affecting the University of California, Riverside. The Cabinet never votes, but rather its members offer recommendations and perspectives on UCR-wide policies and practices, and it provides advice to other Cabinet members on decisions that are more specific to various programs and parts of UCR.

RESPONSIBILITIES OF CABINET MEMBERS

The primary responsibility for each of us as members of the Cabinet is to bring our perspectives to issues of importance to the University of California, Riverside. Our prevailing objective is to bring together the best ideas for the good of UCR.

Although our perspectives are shaped by many influences, including our individual responsibilities, the Cabinet is not "representative" in the sense that we are expected to advocate from our positional responsibilities. Rather, our diverse perspectives and experiences help inform topics under discussion in a comprehensive and thoughtful manner. This focus on the value of perspective instead of representation enables us to think and speak about issues in an open environment.

Thus, the greatest good for the University of California, Riverside is the only criterion by which we offer our intellectual contributions to the deliberations of the Cabinet.

LEADERSHIP STYLE OF THE CABINET

The Cabinet will engage a definite leadership style that includes a set of expectations for us as individuals and for our work together. These expectations guide the work of Cabinet members at all times--as we work alone, with others on- and off-campus, or as a group.

The leadership style of the Cabinet is based on relationships, both to each other and to the University of California, Riverside. The basis of these relationships is one of support--support for each other and for UCR.

Although the entirety of this style encompasses more than a simple list of behaviors, the following core expectations and responsibilities guide us in our work:

• We repeatedly affirm among ourselves that diversity of thought, dissent, and alternative ideas are valued and encouraged;
• We approach each other as equal-status peers; in that each member is expected to share his or her thoughts openly without deferring to perceived authority;
• All members have agreed to effectively work together to maintain positive individual and group relationships during and between meetings;
• We endeavor to be sensitive to the challenges each of us faces, and to examine issues from this reciprocal understanding;
• Members are expected to participate in deliberations about all topics, which means that every topic of consideration is owned by each of us and all of us;
• We expect our conversations to be forthright and with full disclosure, but also with understanding and respect for each other;
• All of us take responsibility for distinguishing when ideas, opinions, or conclusions should be shared only within the Cabinet; these instances usually concern issues of personal confidence or when deliberations are preliminary;
• We all take responsibility for identifying important issues that would benefit from the attention of the Cabinet;
• As a group we seek to consider issues in a manner that efficiently facilitates the most productive outcomes;
• On occasion, there may be a topic such that a member(s) of the Cabinet should recuse him/herself from the discussion;
• We recognize there are times when our individual opinions do not prevail, and compromises are made for the benefit of the University of California, Riverside or particular programs; and
• We agree, as Cabinet members, to help facilitate the implementation of decisions in a manner consistent with the core expectations and responsibilities.

Just as the Cabinet's work depends on supportive relationships among it members, the role of the Cabinet in providing leadership to the University of California, Riverside also depends on similar relationships.

An aspiration for the leadership style of the University of California, Riverside is the functional absence of a strongly hierarchical organization; this will become a major strength of UCR, placing value on inclusion while also being nimble, responsive, and entrepreneurial.

There is sufficient structure at UCR for recognizing individual and organizational responsibilities, authorities, and accountabilities. In addition, and not in opposition, there are multiple pathways of communication. These networks of communication are important because they invite and empower ideas and contributions from throughout the University of California, Riverside. These networks also foster responsiveness by eliminating unnecessary barriers to information flow.

In a relatively non-hierarchical organization, the Cabinet as a whole - and we as individual members - seek to encourage and maintain many relationships. Some of these relationships are systematic, such as the scheduled joint meetings with other established groups and councils, while others are more opportunistic and topic-specific. The expectations for the high quality of these relationships of the Cabinet with the University of California, Riverside are the same as those within the Cabinet itself.

MEMBERSHIP

Membership of the Chancellor's Cabinet consists of nineteen persons, plus an executive support member, all of whom have University of California, Riverside-wide leadership responsibilities. The composition of the Cabinet is designed to ensure a broad reflection of perspectives. Although the Cabinet discusses changes in its membership, as Chancellor I will take responsibility for such decisions.

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