Provost King welcomed incoming graduate student representative Nic Voge,
from Berkeley's graduate program in Higher Education, to membership on the Academic Planning Council. He also welcomed
the new Systemwide Vice Provost for Research Robert Shelton.
1. Expanding Delivery of Academic Programs
Provost King initiated the APC discussion with an overview of these issues:
UC formerly enjoyed widespread support by Californians, but that support has been diminishing.
Fewer legislators have UC degrees and often they are less well-versed in the importance of UC's graduate education
and research mission to the State.
Except for Extension, UC does not have a reputation for offering continuing education.
The Governor is pushing all of California's higher education segments to market programs via a California Virtual
University.
President Atkinson sees professional master's programs, scheduled for working adults, as one means by which UC
can serve California better.
The APC members discussed three elements of these issues: expanding UC's geographical reach, increasing part-time
master's degree offerings, and shaping the California Virtual University.
a. Geographical Regions Underserved by UC
Provost King observed that UC's impact is primarily coastal: its presence is far less felt in the San Joaquin Valley,
the northern portion of California, and the Owens Valley. Absence of a strong UC presence corresponds with low
UC participation rates among high school graduates from these regions. For example, a number of otherwise eligible
San Joaquin Valley students do not complete the a-f requirements; others do not take the SAT, suggesting that CSU,
not UC, is their goal.
Associate Provost Dan Simmons stressed two distinct sets of needs: short-term expanded UC education and outreach
in the San Joaquin Valley and long-term planning for the tenth campus. He outlined how UC was expanding its educational
impact in the San Joaquin Valley by consolidating in one location its scattered outreach, information, and educational
services offices in Fresno and by opening an outreach office on the Merced College campus. Incoming California
Assembly Speaker Cruz Bustamante from Fresno publicly supports plans for UC's tenth campus near Merced.
APC members agreed that a Fresno Center could model new ways to expand UC's reach in the State, becoming a pattern
for such expansion, for example, in northern California. However, members also stressed the importance of needs
assessments and marketing as the basis for expanded programming.
APC members concluded that there is a long-term dilemma for the tenth campus in this sense: the quality of UC's
undergraduate education depends on direct interaction of undergraduate students with faculty and graduate students
who are engaged in the research enterprise; and UC's tradition of residential campuses has proven an effective
way to make this interaction possible. But, as APC members noted, a residential campus is costly to build in an
era of uncertain State resources and is also costly for students, especially those from low-income families, who
live in on- or off-campus housing rather than at home. The APC recognizes that UC must figure out how to work in
new, creative ways with CSU and CCC to make higher education accessible to the coming tidal wave of students now
enrolled in California's schools.
b. Part-Time or Alternatively Scheduled Master's Programs
APC members recognized that in a rapidly changing economy, the need for advanced education to prepare for career
changes has grown. The APC believes that UC should offer more professional master's programs, tapping markets that
are complementary to those now served by CSU, especially because UC's campuses may have a special role in shaping
the professions of the future. The Academic Senate has supported the concept of partnerships between academic departments
and Extension to offer more alternatively scheduled professional master's programs.
However, APC members stressed that incentives will be essential to carry out this expansion. Many faculties are
struggling to maintain current programs and additional income in the form of overload payments may not be sufficient
to induce them to add an alternatively scheduled option. While self-supporting programs can produce the resources
for additional temporary faculty, some APC members observed that not all potential student markets can afford the
high fees required to make programs self-supporting: for example, in the public service professions.
The Council of Vice Chancellors is developing an inventory of current and planned alternatively scheduled programs,
both self-supporting and regular fee-based.
c. California Virtual University
Provost King and Associate Vice President Stuart Lynn updated the APC on the California Virtual University initiative.
The new entity will begin as a clearinghouse of courses and programs, rather than having a faculty and programs
of its own. Associate Vice President Lynn suggested that perhaps in some ways, the name "California Virtual
University" is unfortunate, since the purpose is to deliver programs in various modes, not only over Internet.
The Governor's aide, Joe Rodota, has been working with UC, CSU, CCC, Stanford and USC to create a design team and
a steering committee for the project. UC has provided an inventory of courses that Extension already offers, for
marketing via the California Virtual University. APC members believe that UC's most important contribution will
be to assure the quality of the enterprise.
2. Commission on the Future of Medical Education
Vice President Con Hopper described the membership of the new Commission as a broad national cross-section of government,
health industry, and academic leaders. Staffed by UCSF Prof. Charles Wilson, Senior Associate on Medical Affairs
for President Atkinson, the Commission will report this spring on the status of the current workforce, future needs,
recommended changes in UC's medical education, and a timeline for instituting the recommended changes. At its first
meeting, the Commission cited UC's stable output of MDs in a period of skyrocketing population growth in California.
Consequently, the Commission's initial view was that therefore UC should probably not reduce its output of MDs,
though maldistribution of physicians throughout the state continues to be a problem. Nevertheless, a number of
issues require immediate attention: for example, proliferation of foreign residents, the content of the curriculum,
continuing education over a physician's lifetime, and creation of the best fit among the components of the health
sciences workforce. The Commission will complete a series of 18 white papers in January on critical issues related
to its work.
Vice President Hopper also announced that the Chair of the APC's Health Sciences Committee will sit on the Senate's
new Committee on Health Sciences Education and vice versa.
The next meeting of the APC is scheduled for December 13 in Oakland.