A recent report outlining inefficiencies, redundancies and unnecessary administrative costs at UNC should come as little surprise.

Any organization bigger than a book club is prone to bureaucratic bloat, and the larger and more complex the organization the more extra weight it's likely to carry. Without deliberate attention to keep the operation trim and streamlined, big organizations tend to wind up loaded down with a lot of empty calories -- too many managers, too many meetings, too many people duplicating efforts, too many obsolete and inefficient practices.

Carolina is a very large, very complex beast, and it's hardly a shock to hear that in a lot of areas it doesn't function as efficiently as possible.

The consulting firm Bain & Company examined operations at UNC, identified many areas that could function better and made recommendations for how the university might tighten up and improve the way it works. Increased efficiency could produce millions of dollars in savings every year for the university, and by extension for the taxpayers who fund it.

The report details myriad places in which restructuring could produce significant improvements. Some sections of Carolina's chain of command go as many as 10 levels deep, for example, and a number of supervisors manage just two or three employees. Simplify the organizational flow chart, reduce the number of supervisors and cut back on meetings, and you can become more productive and cost-effective.

Most of UNC's more than 100 separate academic centers and institutes have their own finance, human resource and IT departments. Combine those support services and improve the reporting process, and the university could save up to $6 million a year, Bain said.

Chancellor Holden Thorp has been proactive in tackling this issue, and he's been forthright about the need for change. The economic crisis is likely to continue for some time, he said, making it increasingly necessary to save money, without compromising the university's mission, wherever possible.

Also, he acknowledged, "Public confidence in the way that universities are managed is strained. Legitimate concerns are being expressed about the growth in our administrative costs."

Thorp said the report (available on the UNC Web site) demonstrates "that we are serious about changing the way we manage our operations."

So far, so good. We believe the intent is there.

But the hard part comes next: deciding which concrete steps to take in order to accomplish increases in efficiency and decreases in costs, and then implementing them, seeing them through and following them up. Some of it will hurt in the short term. But, as with any fitness plan, the challenge is sticking with it.

We've told you our perspective on this issue. Now we want to know what you think. Send a comment of 75 words or less, with the subject line "Agree or Disagree," to Dave Hart, associate editor, at dhart@nando.com. We'll print your responses here next week. Thanks.