UCOP will hold its third annual President’s Town Hall, Friday, Oct. 7, 2011, 10:30 a.m. to 12 p.m., at the Elihu Harris State Office Building Auditorium at 15th and Clay Streets in downtown Oakland.

President Yudof will address matters of concern to the UCOP community and answer questions.

The event, sponsored by the OP Staff Assembly, is intended to give staff the opportunity to hear more about and discuss the budget situation and other major challenges and opportunities the University faces. It was rescheduled from the previously publicized date of July 7.

Attendees will be able to ask questions from the audience or submit questions anonymously by handing them, in writing, to an OP Staff Assembly member on the day of the event.

Questions may also be submitted in advance online or by  email. Please submit your questions by Friday, Sept. 30. Note that questions will be reviewed and may be combined for the sake of common interest and time.

For UCOP employees outside the Oakland area, the event will be webcast live at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/uc-events/. An archived tape will remain available at the same web address following the event.

Consult this map for directions to Elihu Harris State Office Building from all downtown Oakland UC office locations.

Please note: The State Building requires visitors to go through security screening, a process that may take 10 to 15 minutes.

University of California President Mark G. Yudof and Board of Regents Chair Sherry Lansing have joined the It Gets Better campaign, posting a YouTube video that reaches out to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth with a message of hope and inclusion.

In the video, Yudof and Lansing urge young people who feel ostracized or alone to find support from someone they can trust, and to take heart from the fact that UC, like so many places, celebrates the diversity of its community.

“At UC, we believe that you have the right to feel good about yourself, to live without fear or harassment and to pursue your dreams,” Lansing says in the video.

The national It Gets Better campaign was launched last fall by syndicated columnist Dan Savage following several high-profile suicides by teens who had been harassed and bullied at school.

Since then, more than 20,000 people — from celebrities to everyday people — have posted videos to the It Gets Better Project website with the message: Don’t give up, because “It Gets Better.”

Jane Wellman, a Berkeley alumna and former UCOP employee who is now executive director of the Delta Project on Postsecondary Education Costs, Productivity and Accountability, will appear at UCOP on Wednesday, Oct. 5, 12 to 1 p.m., in the Franklin Lobby One Conference Room.

As part of the President’s Speaker Series, inaugurated earlier this month, Wellman will speak informally about her work with the Delta Project and the ongoing challenges of maintaining UC’s public mission and academic quality in the face of the state’s budget problems.

The Delta Project is an independent non-profit research and policy organization located in Washington, D.C., founded by Wellman in 2007. Its mission is to make college more affordable by controlling costs — without sacrificing access or educational quality — through better use of data to inform strategic decision-making.

The organization’s most recent report, Trends in College Spending 1999-2009: Where Does the Money Come From? Where Does It Go? What Does It Buy?  examines college spending and revenue trends nationwide in the years leading up to and into the current recession. Using the most recent data available, the report identifies several ongoing and new patterns in how institutions get and spend their money.

Wellman has more than 30 years of experience in higher education policy in the United States, at both state and federal levels, working with public, non-profit and for-profit institutions. Her particular expertise is in state fiscal policy, cost analysis, strategic planning, state and federal regulation of higher education, accountability metrics and performance reporting, and quality control including accreditation.

She is also executive director of the National Association of System Heads and on the Board of Directors for the Association of American Colleges and Universities. In addition to research and writing, she consults with national and international organizations including the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, the State Higher Education Executive Officers, the Association of Governing Boards, the American Council on Education, the National Governors Association, the U.S. Secretary of Education and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Wellman began her career in higher education finance at UCOP and received her B.A. and M.A. degrees from UC Berkeley.

You may have noticed several new faces in UCOP’s offices. Please be sure to introduce yourself and give a warm welcome to these 12 new employees who joined us in August and September:

• Lattice Armstead, Postemployment Benefits Coordinator, Human Resources
• Jaymeson Beck, Programmer, IR&C (change in status)
• Randi Brookes, Principal Administrative Analyst II, Human Resources
• Evelyn Cheng, Administrative Analyst, Compliance Services
• Daisy Lee, Business Analyst, Human Resources
• Charles Melton, Legislative and Communications Coordinator, Federal Governmental Relations
• Worden (Skip) Noble, Manager, Financial Accounting
• Charles See, Assistant III, Capital Markets Finance
• Gale Sheean-Remotto, Project Manager, Office of Strategic Change Resources
• Kathryn Stine, Administrative Analyst, California Digital Library
• Benjamin Tsai, Student Assistant III, Financial Accounting
• Terry Weinstein, Director of Staff Compensation, Human Resources