UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
ACADEMIC PLANNING COUNCIL

Bulletin #36

June 16, 1998

Provost King opened the final Academic Planning Council meeting of 1997-98 by welcoming new members who were present: incoming Academic Council Vice-Chair Larry Coleman and incoming chairs of UCPB–Dwight Read and CCGA–Barbara Hamkalo.

1. Health Sciences Update
   
   Vice President Con Hopper advised the APC of recent activities of the Health Sciences Committee, including a forthcoming report reviewing Veterinary Medicine education in California, especially as it relates to workforce needs. One of the questions addressed in that report is how the University might establish a Vet Med presence in Southern California.
   
   Professor Len Zegans from UCSF spoke about the Universitywide Academic Senate's Health Science Education Committee he has chaired for the last year to explore academic issues that are unique to and/or cut across the University's health sciences programs.
   
   The committee held meetings at campuses with schools of Medicine, Public Health, Optometry, and Veterinary Medicine, holding interviews with deans, students, faculty, and clinical faculty. The committee also intends to visit the remaining health sciences programs.
   
   Professor Zegans highlighted the major issues his committee identified, noting the widespread consensus across programs and among different constituencies (e.g., faculty, students, deans).
   • The changes in health-care delivery brought about by managed care, combined with the rise of technology, and an increasing proportion of patients with chronic illnesses are having a significant impact on clinical faculty and their teaching role. The committee will continue to try to understand these changes and explore ways to minimize negative impacts on students' education.

   • Diminishing diversity of the student body is of concern for many reasons. In the short run it deprives students of educationally significant experiences. In addition, there are more far-reaching societal impacts if fewer practitioners with relevant educational experiences pursue professional careers in non-white communities.

   • A third priority the committee wants to pursue is the development of ways to share materials and pedagogical methods across the system in order to reduce redundancy and improve education. To this end, the committee suggested the formation of a Health Sciences Education and Research Institute.

   • Other issues the committee identified include the need to define the best mix of generalists and specialists for the future, examining tuition levels as they relate to students enrollment choices, improving financial support for graduate academics, and becoming more innovative in the delivery of Continuing Education.

2. Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources
   
   Vice President Reg Gomes described the overall structure of DANR and its relationship to campuses, counties, the state and federal government. There are three major components, one of which is the Agricultural Experiment Station, part of an historic organization nationwide that studies issues affecting agriculture. California is unique in having three such programs, located at Berkeley, Davis, and Riverside. Most of the AES researchers have faculty appointments split between research and teaching.
   
   A second component of DANR is its public service and outreach arm, the Cooperative Extension. This program is located throughout the state primarily in county offices. The third component is the Natural Reserve System, which has 33 sites located throughout the state; these are managed by the campuses.
   
   The overall structure of DANR has become more decentralized in recent years with the Division playing a coordinating role for the many parties involved, within an agreed-upon framework of strategic planning. It was noted by APC members that these changes have been welcome and successful.
   
   The Academic Council will be convening a work group from several of its committees to determine if there are specific issues it wants to address in the coming year related to the Division's academic programs.

3. Library Planning
   
   University Librarian Richard Lucier brought the APC up to date on the University's Library Planning activities. He reminded members that, despite so much recent attention to the subject, the UC Digital Library is not the only focus of the University's planning. The broader planning effort has attempted to come to grips with the vast changes affecting scholarly communication, not just changes occurring within the structure of a library. These changes have an enormous impact on library collections and services, and it is not possible to deal with long-term solutions to the current library crisis outside of this broader context.
   
   Methods of reviewing, distributing and receiving information are changing; pricing structures and universities' business relationships with commercial publishers and professional societies are in flux; and the impact of this generally chaotic environment on faculty and the dissemination of their scholarship and research is still not well understood. The final report of the Library Planning and Action Initiative Advisory Task Force (http://www.lpai.ucop.edu/outcomes/finalrpt/) addresses these challenges and opportunities. In addition, a Systemwide Library and Scholarly Information Advisory Committee has been established to advise the University on systemwide library policies and strategic priorities and on long-term planning issues, including the transmission of scholarly and scientific communication in a digital environment.
   
   Some specific strategic initiatives and discussions are already underway, recognizing that they are important first-steps which are necessary in order to arrive at viable long-term solutions. These include
   1. Licensing agreements for digital content with those commercial publishers and professional societies that have business practices beneficial to the academy.

   2. Discussions with other renowned research libraries (e.g., CIC-- the Big Ten plus the University of Chicago) about possible digital library collaborations.

   3. Exploration of methods for sharing museum collections, built on an agreed-upon set of standards for describing images and artifacts.

   4. Workshops for UC editors to share systemwide perspectives and to share concerns about scholarly communication.

   5. Working with the proposed Library of California (currently still in the legislative process) which would create an administrative networking structure for libraries across the State.

   6. Publication of a forthcoming report on copyright issues, scheduled for completion this fall.

   Since the issue of scholarly communication is so vast and complex, University Librarian Lucier noted the planning group's preference for pursuing these types of targeted interventions, paying close attention to the results. APC members also shared their experiences with emerging forms of publication (e.g., preprint servers), intercampus loans, and noted that there are fundamental resource issues that are not necessarily addressed by digitization. Lucier detailed some systemwide efforts in this regard, as well, notably the PIR (patron-initiated request) project which is currently being implemented.

4. Enrollment Planning
   
   Assistant Vice President Sandra Smith shared a summary of recent campus enrollment proposals through 2010. She and the members discussed some of the issues that the proposals raise, such as impacts on Long Range Development Plan ceilings, the considerably greater growth proposed for graduate students as compared to undergraduates, the adequacy of graduate student support, and issues related to faculty recruitment. In the fall, she will share a new draft of the enrollment planning report, which is currently being revised.