Chancellor Julio Frenk shared this message with faculty and staff.
Dear Colleagues:
Since arriving at UCLA, I have had the opportunity to learn directly from you through my early listening exercise, ongoing meetings with the Academic Senate and Staff Assembly, and many less formal gatherings. Those conversations have deepened my understanding of this remarkable institution and helped shape how I see our path forward.
We all understand that higher education is facing a time of extraordinary opportunity and significant change. Now is the moment to build on UCLA’s strengths and prepare our university for the future. As we welcome our students back and begin a new academic year, I want to share a framework for UCLA’s future.
You can read the full framework on my website. Below are its key ideas and the immediate actions senior leaders are taking in partnership with the entire community of faculty and staff members.
Two guiding premises shape our work:
Our mission is immutable. Since its founding, UCLA has pursued an enduring mission: to educate future generations, advance research and creative activity, provide outstanding healthcare and serve society. To do so, successive generations of Bruins have engaged in a continuous effort to build this great institution of ours. While our mission will never change, our structures, organizational model and culture — the way we do things — must evolve so we can better fulfill that mission in a rapidly changing world.
Our future must be shaped by purpose — not by pressure. Higher education is confronting profound disruption, driven by shifting demographics, artificial intelligence, public expectations and increasing financial strain. The question is not whether we must adapt, but how we do so — and how quickly — while remaining true to our purpose.
Based on this framework, we are taking the following immediate actions to strengthen, protect and renew UCLA — our shared institutional home:
1. Organizational Effectiveness
We are modernizing our organizational structure to improve effectiveness, promote collaboration and reduce red tape. This includes thoughtfully matching and consolidating leadership responsibilities where appropriate, while more closely aligning research and creative activities with innovation. We are also conducting searches for two vice chancellor-level positions critical to fostering institutional effectiveness, including the further development of a dynamic innovation ecosystem.
2. Budget Model
We are undertaking a comprehensive assessment of our financial model to ensure UCLA remains strong for decades to come. This work includes developing a new budget model while reviewing capital planning and major administrative functions.
Financial Update: Building a Stronger Financial Future for UCLA
In March 2026, we shared a projection that the central account would close FY26 with a deficit of approximately $220 million. I am gratified to report that the actual year-end deficit was significantly lower, at $58 million.
This improvement reflects a series of concerted measures taken throughout the year. While we implemented permanent reductions in many areas, a significant portion of the FY26 improvement resulted from one-time measures. At the same time, we assumed new recurring costs, including mandated wage increases and additional funding necessary to support critical operations. As a result, the $58 million year-end deficit is positive news for FY26, but it does not represent a comparable reduction in our ongoing structural imbalance. The underlying central structural deficit therefore remains in the range we previously reported, giving us reason to persevere in our efforts.
It is also important to note that these figures refer specifically to the central account. Several campus units continue to operate with expenditures that exceed revenues, including UCLA Athletics, where a significant financial gap persists. I recently asked Tim Harris to serve as our new CEO and director of UCLA Athletics. He is taking a disciplined approach to addressing the department’s structural deficit, with a clear commitment to greater financial accountability, aligning expenses with available resources and building a sustainable operating model.
We will continue to identify annual solutions that mitigate the immediate impact of these structural gaps. At the same time, we are developing the financial and operational changes necessary to achieve sustained budget balance. Ultimately, our solutions must both close the central structural gap and ensure that units across the campus operate within their available resources.
3. UCLA for Life
Dynamic labor markets are changing the relationship between education and careers. Through UCLA for Life, we are expanding opportunities for engagement, continuing education, workforce preparedness and professional growth.
UCLA for Life is a strategy for educational innovation — a place to pilot, test and rigorously evaluate new ideas that help prepare Bruins not only for their first jobs, but for successful careers and meaningful lives. Degree Plus is the first major UCLA for Life initiative to be introduced to students. Building on the traditional undergraduate degree, it will connect academic credentials with career readiness and internship pathways, beginning in areas of employer demand.
4. Research Park and the Westwood Expansion
The recent acquisition of Westwood properties by UC Investments presents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to advance UCLA’s academic mission by significantly expanding our main campus presence for the first time since the move to Westwood in 1929. The vision includes new classrooms, graduate student housing and innovation spaces that translate research into startup ventures, while deepening the connection between our main campus and the UCLA Research Park.
This initiative represents an investment in UCLA’s next century while creating a more vibrant Westwood for Bruins and the broader Los Angeles community.
5. Athletics
As I updated you a few weeks ago, the modernization of UCLA Athletics reflects the same philosophy of institutional stewardship. Organizational restructuring, improved financial management and strategic expertise will ensure that UCLA Athletics remains competitive, financially sustainable and aligned with the university’s broader mission.
Conclusion
Together, these efforts reflect a shared purpose: strengthening and protecting the institution we have inherited, so UCLA can continue fulfilling its immutable mission for generations to come.
As we undertake these changes, we are also working to strengthen our community, reconnect around our shared values and deepen the connections and shared sense of purpose that will carry the university forward.
UCLA enters this period of unprecedented challenge from a position of considerable strength, derived from the quality of our students and faculty, the breadth of our research and creative activities, the excellence of UCLA Health, and the positive impact we have on society. Precisely because of that strength, this is the right moment for us to undertake significant transformations. The ability to change is a sign of institutional fortitude, not weakness. If we fail to act with boldness now, we may find ourselves in a more vulnerable position. We must change before we have to change.
The work ahead is grounded in what I have heard across our campus. During my initial and subsequent listening sessions, thousands of Bruins have shared their experiences, perspectives and aspirations for this university. Those conversations have helped shape our collective vision, One UCLA, and that vision continues to guide the work before us.
Ultimately, institution-building is an act of stewardship. Our responsibility is to preserve what is essential, transform what needs improvement and build for what lies ahead. The work of creating UCLA’s future belongs to all of us, and I look forward to continuing this work together.
We are One UCLA.
Julio Frenk
Chancellor