production services

Introduction
Instructional Development provides a full range of media production services to support the instructional, research, and administrative needs of the campus. Services range from computer graphics and photography to sound recording and Video Services. The first priority for the production units is to support instruction on the UCSB campus. As funding permits, Instructional Development will provide service at no charge to faculty during the regular academic year in order to support any course listed in the current Schedule of Classes or to prepare for any course listed in the current General Catalog which will be offered within one academic year. Free production services are limited (see details below), however, additional funding for more extensive instructional projects might be fundable through the Instructional Improvement program (call x2972 for information). Additional production services are available on a cost-recovery basis.
 
Free Production Services in Support of Instruction
For many years a substantial portion of Instructional Development's budget that was allocated to supporting the Production Units (ArtWorks, Photo Services, Video Services and Sound Recording) was funded from core state funds. Originally the whole budget was core funded and all production services were free. With the budget cuts of the mid 1990s the production areas had to shift to a split-funded model of providing a certain level of production support for development of curricular materials for free, based on state support for that activity, and providing support for non-instructional production on a recharge basis.
 
The last two years of permanent budget cuts in core funding for Instructional Development has now severely eroded our ability to maintain the same level of free support for the development of course materials, and we have had to recalibrate the levels of free support that we can sustain with the core funding available, and adjust the model whereby we account for that free support.
 
The new support levels and funding model will go into effect on July 1, 2010, to coincide with the beginning of the new fiscal year.  In the past, each production area determined their own level and metrics for instructional support, and the actual dollar amounts varied quite widely between areas. In addition, because those levels had not been analyzed and re-calibrated in several years to account for increased labor costs, benefits, etc. the model was not sustainable even without the recent budget reductions. The new free instructional support model will be based on a flat dollar allocation per faculty member per fiscal year across all production areas within Instructional Development. Our analysis indicates that a rate of $1,000 per faculty member per year is sustainable at current funding levels, based on past experience in which a manageable number of faculty annually requested our services.  Requests for production of course materials in any of the production areas will continue as in the past, with a work order being completed for each project. Internally we will be able to generate reports to monitor how much of the annual allocation each faculty member will have used, and will be happy to provide a report to you on request for your planning purposes. Additional production needs for course materials that are over the limit will have to be recharged to the faculty member's department, an Instructional Improvement Grant, Faculty Mini-Grants (if we can make those available again at a later date), or possibly Collaborate funds for faculty in the College of Letters and Science. Free production support can only be given to the faculty member who is the instructor of record for the course for which the materials will be used.  Teaching Assistants do not qualify for this support. Teaching Associates, because they are instructors of record, do qualify for this allocation. In addition, we will no longer be able to cover the costs of materials for these projects, so any cost for materials such as CD's, printing, photocopying, etc. will have to be billed to the faculty member.  As the vast majority of the materials produced for these projects are now completely digital, and can be delivered to the faculty member over the campus network, this should have a very small impact.  As has always been the case, production of non-instructional materials will be done on a cost-recovery, recharge basis, as is production of materials for student projects (e.g. poster printing, portfolio recordings, etc.). Rates for those services are posted on our web site.
 
We have not taken this step lightly, nor without already making reductions in other areas of expenditure within Instructional Development, including cutting staff positions, substantially reduced student assistance (especially in Classroom Services), reductions in the Instructional Improvement Grants Program, elimination of the Faculty Mini-Grant Program, elimination of the TA Instructional Grants Program, reductions in the TA Training and TA Departmental Grants Programs, elimination of printed ESCI reports at the end of each quarter, and other cost saving and consolidation measures. This step is a necessary reflection of the economic reality with which we are confronted, while still trying to provide as many of the essential instructional support services that it is our mission to provide to the campus. I would also like to assure you that in the event that increased core funding becomes available in the future, we will make every effort to increase the allocation of free production support for the development of instructional materials.