The following message from Steve Relyea, CSU Executive Vice Chancellor and Chief Financial Officer, shares an update on the Multi-University Collaboration Initiative:
I am thrilled to share exciting news that underscores our commitment to inclusive excellence and continuous improvement across the California State University system through the
Multi-University Collaboration Initiative (Multi-U). As you may know, Multi-U was established to strategically address cost structures by optimizing resources while still meeting individual university needs.
Chancellor Mildred García has shared the following about the initiative: “The Multi-University Collaboration Initiative leverages the CSU's superpower—its 'systemness'—to drive efficiencies and strategically manage costs, allowing us to direct our limited resources more effectively toward advancing our core educational mission. The initiative represents the CSU at its best: innovative, collaborative and student-focused. I extend my deepest gratitude and appreciation to the university presidents, the steering committee, working groups and all those involved with this initiative. I have every confidence that this initiative will benefit current and future CSU students for many years to come."
Following the latest convening of the Multi-U Executive Steering Committee, I'd like to share updates and outline the path forward for three critical workstreams under Multi-U: procurement, benefits administration and information security.
The procurement workstream continues to make progress with CSUBUY, a comprehensive procurement platform designed to optimize the entire procure-to-pay process, ensuring seamless and efficient transactions from sourcing to payment within the CSU system. CSUBUY is live at seven universities and the Chancellor's Office as of November 2024. To respond more swiftly to the CSU's needs, the team has accelerated the project plan to onboard all remaining universities. Initially scheduled to go live by the end of 2026, the revised plan now aims for all universities to be live on CSUBUY by the end of 2025.
I am also excited to announce the formation of a Benefits Administration Collaboration Team that—through a phased approach—will provide benefits administration services for the CSU's 23 universities and the Chancellor's Office. The purpose of this Collaboration Team is to increase accuracy and provide an improved and more consistent employee experience, while reducing administrative burdens. The CSU will implement the Benefits Administration Collaboration Team in five phases, with the final phase slated for fiscal year 2029-30. Universities will be brought into the collaboration team in the order of Common Human Resource System (CHRS) implementation.
The initiative also plans to move forward with the Cyber Fusion Center (CFC), a centralized information security hub aimed at strengthening cybersecurity across the CSU system and for all CSU universities. The purpose of the CFC is to establish a unified, standardized cybersecurity baseline across the CSU, providing 24/7 cybersecurity monitoring, real-time threat intelligence sharing, incident response support and compliance support. The CFC offers a flexible security option that enables the CSU to benefit from shared information security expertise across the entire system and reduces the burden on individual university information security staff. This effort will also help us address the challenge of quickly backfilling positions with qualified experts. Ultimately, the CFC aims to strengthen our security posture and promote the confidentiality, privacy, integrity and availability of our information assets across universities within the system.
For more information, please visit the
Multi-University Collaboration Initiative website or reach out to the Multi-U mailbox at
[email protected] with any questions.
I look forward to advancing these Multi-U workstream priorities across the CSU system, empowering us to work more effectively, consistently and collaboratively as one CSU system.
About the California State University
The California State University is the nation's largest four-year public university system, providing transformational opportunities for upward mobility to more than 460,000 students from all socioeconomic backgrounds. More than half of CSU students are from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds, and more than one-quarter of undergraduates are first-generation college students. Because the CSU's 23 universities provide a high-quality education at an incredible value, they are rated among the best in the nation for promoting social mobility in national college rankings from U.S. News & World Report, the Wall Street Journal and Washington Monthly. The CSU powers California and the nation, sending nearly 125,000 career-ready graduates into the workforce each year. In fact, one in every 20 Americans holding a college degree earned it at the CSU. Connect with and learn more about the CSU in the CSU newsroom.