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National Association of College and University Business Officers awards top prize to UCSD

The University of California, San Diego's Business Affairs Team today received two awards, including the top prize, from the National Association of College and University Business Officers, (NACUBO) at the organization's annual meeting in San Antonio. UCSD was selected from a field of 67 submissions and was one of six institutions singled out for its innovative business practices by NACUBO's Higher Education Awards Program Council.

Steven W. Relyea, vice chancellor of business affairs, accepted NACUBO's top prize of $10,000 for UCSD's Link Family computer system, which electronically provides information through StudentLink, FinancialLink, EmployeeLink, TravelLink and DataLink. He also received a check for $2,500 for EZPay, which streamlined UCSD's paperless payment process.

"Link Family achieves the impossible dream of college and university business leaders," said Relyea. "It provides a non-proprietary Web-based system, requiring no special software on the customer side, that allows easy access to a wealth of information about the university's operations.

"Students can register for classes, faculty can check student rosters and staff can manage financial resources using a standard Web browser. One of the most unique aspects of this management initiative is that UCSD built Link Family solely using in-house staff, across many departments."

Integrated with UCSD's financial information system, EZPay electronically replaced a myriad of paper forms formerly needed to issue non-standard payments and reimbursements.

This is the second national honor for UCSD's Business Affairs team in the past few months.

In May, UCSD was one of six organizations nationwide to be awarded the 1999 Quality Cup by the Rochester Institute of Technology's College of Business and USA Today. Presented "to honor the men and women who excel in the pursuit of quality," the Quality Cup was given to UCSD's management team for its innovative approach to cutting costs, solving problems and increasing efficiency.

UCSD was the sole winner in the education category and the USA Today award specifically recognized the university's success in streamlining business practices to decrease costs and to increase productivity, customer satisfaction and employee accountability and morale.