Provost King welcomed Berkeley Vice Chancellor Carol Christ to membership
on the Academic Planning Council.
1. Promoting Intercampus Cooperation
The Academic Planning Council debated which effective roles the Council itself, the Provost's office, and Universitywide
administrative and Senate committees might play in fostering cooperative initiatives among UC's academic programs.
Guest Social Sciences Dean William Schonfeld from the Irvine campus, Chair of the APC Task Force on Foreign Languages
in the Curriculum, contributed to the exchange with a progress report on Task Force deliberations. Vice Chancellor
Christ followed with an update on the Council of Vice Chancellors' (COVC) project.
Dean Schonfeld began by emphasizing the centrality of foreign language instruction to UC goals of internationalizing
the curriculum and the complexity of the problems with which the Task Force was charged. He pointed out that it
is difficult for faculty in a field to advise on complex funding problems unless they are asked to assess specific
options, economies, and priorities. UC's multiple funding challenges in the foreign languages probably require
discrete solutions: staffing elementary language instruction, satisfying student demand for "heritage"
languages, juggling increased or decreased demand in large language and literature programs, and assuring availability
of less-taught languages somewhere in UC. Only the last challenge seems well-advanced toward solution, with the
help of distance learning technology.
Vice Chancellor Christ then outlined COVC's accomplishments in encouraging collaborations over the past 1-1/2 years.
COVC has held a series of meetings with deans and some departmental chairs in foreign languages, education, physics,
and history, featuring candid exchanges on how resources might be shared. COVC also met with the University Librarians.
With staff support from the OP Planning Office, COVC sponsored a history retreat on April 11-12 for campus teams
of deans, history chairs, faculty, and vice chancellors. Retreat participants probed the issues of doctoral graduate
placement, program specialization, and models for collaboration. The retreat inspired campus follow-ups, and the
department chairs will continue to foster intercampus projects through twice-yearly meetings.
The COVC has stressed that though the vice chancellors can take leadership in identifying and convening disciplinary
groups, cooperative planning must come from the bottom up, owned by cooperating faculty and to their mutual advantage.
APC members added that UC faculty ought to hear more about the constructive outcomes of the meetings sponsored
by the COVC, and that it will be important to create more forums in which faculty can become acquainted as the
basis for cooperation.
APC members agreed that remaining Intercampus Academic Program Incentive Fund (IAPIF) monies should be deployed
strategically; IAPIF should give substantial support to planning initiatives arising from the history retreat and
kindred events. Assistant Vice President Smith will work with the IAPIF Advisory Committee and COVC on strategic
options for APC consideration at its May 31 meeting.
2. Part-Time Degree Programs
APC members reviewed campus and Senate comments on the revised draft UC Policy on Self-Supporting Part-Time Graduate
Professional Programs and implementation guidelines. Provost King will issue the revised policy shortly. However,
because of Senate representatives' concerns about using fee income from self-supporting programs to fund ladder
faculty FTE, the issue was separated from this policy and will receive additional discussion. At its May 31 meeting,
the APC will examine UC data on current uses of non-state funds to support ladder faculty FTE.
The APC also recommended issuance of a draft companion Policy on Part-Time Programs, based on regular fees, for
Senate and campus review and comment.
3. On-going Activities
a. Long-Range Enrollment Planning
Assistant Vice President Smith introduced the report, "Enrollment Monitoring, 1996, Part II: Financial Framework
for Long-Term Enrollment Planning." She reported a new cautious optimism that the State might be able to fund
UC's operating budget needs for projected enrollment growth, but emphasized that there are no evident budgetary
solutions for UC's enormous capital funding problems, which projected growth will greatly exacerbate.
b. Reports from Administrative Groups and Senate Committees
Of particular note among this month's reports is the on-going assessment by UCPB and CCGA of how the new budget
allocation methodology might affect individual campuses and graduate education in general.
The next meeting of the Academic Planning Council will be held on May 31 in Oakland.