UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
ACADEMIC PLANNING COUNCIL

Bulletin #4


April 11, 1994


1. New APC Member

The APC welcomed UCEP Chair Manfred Kusch as an ex officio member. He will join the Nicol Subcommittee on reducing UC course work in subjects taken in high school to meet a to f requirements.

2. Restructuring

a. Proposals for College of Natural Resources at Berkeley and the Universitywide Agricultural Experiment Station.

Because the Agricultural Experiment Station (AES) has suffered budget cuts of 30 to 35 percent over the last four years, Vice President Kenneth Farrell, Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources (DANR), has proposed restructuring the AES by consolidating some programs and reallocating resources for agricultural and related research. The intent is to strengthen several production agriculture fields in which AES faculty numbers have fallen below critical mass. VP Farrell's proposal would reallocate resources from Berkeley to Davis and Riverside to achieve this objective. As reported by Berkeley Provost Judson King, a guest at the discussion, the proposal has provoked controversy at Berkeley. Executive Vice Chancellors Robert Grey of Davis and David Warren of Riverside, also guests at the meeting, reported that their campuses support the proposal.

The APC asked Provost Massey to appoint an ad hoc committee to review the proposal and to make recommendations on restructuring AES.

b. Library and Information Sciences

Because the Berkeley and Los Angeles campuses are both proposing to restructure their Schools of Library and Information Science, some APC members advocate appointing a committee with representatives from these fields and San Jose State University to make recommendations about the future development of the field of Library and Information Science in California. There will be further discussion of this at the next APC meeting.

3. Intercampus cooperation.

a. Letters and Science Deans meetings.

The Letters and Science Deans from the northern and southern campuses have agreed to identify areas impacted by VERIPs and look for ways to alleviate the impacts through collaboration.
The Northern Deans group has begun to pursue cooperative efforts in Italian, and is considering efforts in Near Eastern languages and the arts. The Southern group will meet on May 16 and 17 to identify areas conducive to collaboration. Possible candidates include Italian, German, French, and Classical Studies. In addition, Santa Cruz is participating as UC's lead campus in the formative stages of a statewide foreign language institute at Monterey Bay.

b. Proposal for All-University Conference on intercampus cooperation.

The APC agreed that rather than funding an All-University conference at this juncture, it would be more cost-effective and productive to fund specific intercampus groups or activities with serious ideas for intercampus cooperation in specific areas. Special Advisor Neil Smelser will report at the next APC meeting on the characteristics that make intercampus groups (such as the All-University Economic History Group) successful; he will propose a plan to foster such groups in areas of critical UC need.

4. Enrollment planning: discussion of papers on access and undergraduate enrollment.

Two papers on access and undergraduate enrollment have been widely distributed through Academic Senate and administrative routes. They are intended to stimulate discussion that will lead to the development of workable enrollment planning options over the next several months.

In their initial discussion of these papers, APC members raised questions about assumptions for eligibility rates for minorities, the effects of weighting enrollments in resource allocation, and the implications of various enrollment scenarios for the University's facilities. As discussions progress on campuses and in systemwide committees, staff will prepare additional analyses to address these and other questions that arise.

It is, of course, impossible to discuss undergraduate enrollment planning for this University without also discussing graduate enrollment. A companion paper about graduate and professional enrollment planning will be distributed for discussion in early May.

5. Continuing activities

The APC Subcommittee on expediting decision-making processes with regard to academic programs and units is continuing to develop new and streamlined processes and will make recommendations for action at the May 10 APC meeting.

The Subcommittee on reducing coursework generally taught in high school is developing a proposal for eliminating UC credit for coursework that repeats high school foreign language courses presented for e and f admissions requirements. Because APC members asked for information about the actual size of the problem, UCOP staff will compile relevant data.

The APC's requests for implementation of the recommendations of the Task Force on Intercampus Programs and Distance Learning have been distributed to the responsible Vice Chancellors and Academic Senate committees.

6. Other items of interest

The Davis campus is proposing discontinuance of its program in geography.

The APC e-mail process is working well and a number of UC staff and faculty have expressed appreciation for the e-mail distribution and have asked questions and commented on the APC bulletins.

The next APC meeting will be held on May 10, 1994 in Oakland.