ACADEMIC PLANNING
COUNCIL
Bulletin #66
July 9, 2004
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
I. Introductions
Provost and Senior Vice President
MRC Greenwood, chairing her first meeting of the Academic Planning Council,
introduced Joseph Kiskis, incoming chair of UCEP. New members of the APC
will begin their terms at the first fall meeting.
II.
Library Strategic Planning
University Librarian Dan Greenstein
described how the model of collaboration among UC libraries that has been
developing over the past 25 years holds both promise and new challenges for the
future. The increasingly high costs associated with building and
maintaining library collections, along with funding shortfalls, the explosion
in knowledge in more diverse formats, and changing user expectations about the
availability of information have led to a number of successful approaches to do
more with less.
The UC campus librarians’ strategic plans and initiatives focus on avoiding
costs by changing the way libraries do business (e.g., by sharing in the
development of print and digital collections), by changing the economics of
scholarly publishing, and by supporting explorations into new forms of
scholarly communication.
There are several keys to the success of the strategic plans. For
example, campuses have become interdependent through the purchasing and sharing
of collections to avoid costly redundancy. Second, the California Digital
Library is becoming a provider of collections and tools that campus libraries
use to enhance and enrich their local offerings. The aim is to enable campus
libraries cost-effectively to provide the high-quality and highly distinctive
local information services they require to support campus research and teaching
needs and to complement and extend campus library strengths.
Librarian Greenstein pointed out that this network of collaboration, however, presents
challenges. For example, the locus of responsibility is not always clear
for activities that are critical to the mission of libraries and for the
University generally. Such activities might include collecting and
ensuring persistent access to the University's digital assets; providing, as
utility services, core components of a systemwide IT infrastructure that are
uneconomical to provide redundantly on the campuses; and, facilitating
effective pedagogical use of technology and online information resources. The
commitment of librarians to pool resources for universitywide activities may
conflict with campus budget priorities, thus weakening the development of
shared services. The work and technology of the libraries increasingly
overlaps with other academic areas, such as instructional
technology. However, the diffuse and very local nature of IT
applications, and campus concerns about a centralized or distributed electronic
infrastructure, make it difficult to engage in comprehensive planning that
could benefit both faculty and students, and potentially accrue significant
savings.
Librarian Greenstein also described examples of new models of publishing
scholarly work, such as the UC Press’s recent decision to publish
anthropological journals electronically, combined with a searchable database
for 100 years of previous issues.
APC members suggested that another area for collaboration that would assist in
the expansion of cross-campus course registrations would be for a centralized
catalog of all UC courses, which could be linked to electronic content
associated with those courses. There were questions about whose decision
it would be to keep or discard web-based material, such as faculty course notes
and websites, with the suggestion that the library can provide the utility for
collecting, while decisions about preservation would be
local.
There was agreement that in efforts to obtain support from the State for the
library infrastructure, it is important, but difficult, to provide a convincing
argument of the value of the intellectual contribution libraries make to the
public good, serving as guardians over and stewards of the state's scholarly,
cultural, and governmental record. As that record is increasingly available
(often exclusively so) online, in web-pages that rarely persist more than a
month or two before they are irretrievably altered, moved, or lost, the
libraries stewardship role becomes ever-more important.
See also: http://www.ucop.edu/planning/apcfiles/apc64.html
for the most recent APC discussion and
http://libraries.universityofcalifornia.edu/planning/
the site of Universitywide library strategic planning documents.
III.
Vice President Winston Doby
described to the APC the current status of activities formerly characterized as
“outreach” and Student Regent Jodi Anderson shared a draft Regents item with
APC members that seeks to obtain formal Regental commitment to the principles
of academic preparation as fundamental to the mission of the University.
The most recent statement of the University’s role in outreach comes from the
Strategic Review Panel report to The Regents, described to the APC in June 2003
(http://www.ucop.edu/planning/apcfiles/apc62.html). It recommended directing more
attention to improving the academic achievement of educationally disadvantaged
children, moving away from activities intended to help students become eligible
for UC. The term “outreach” is no longer accurate, therefore, in
describing the focus of University activities; “academic preparation” is more
descriptive of the new framework being developed.
Faculty responded to the Strategic Review Panel report by holding a conference
in Fall 2003 to consider new ways faculty could become involved in helping
close the achievement gap in K-12 schools. The report of that conference,
with recommendations, is nearing completion. Students are also responding
to the Strategic Review Panel report by seeking Regental confirmation of the
Panel’s recommendation that academic preparation be considered a core part of
the University’s mission.
APC members raised questions about the political context in which UC budget
decisions are being made, noting that there may be a perception in Sacramento
that the name change is more cosmetic than real. However, Vice President
Doby believes efforts to educate legislators about the nature of the
University’s commitment to K-12 education have been successful in dispelling
the idea that UC is focusing its attention (and State funds) primarily on
recruitment. APC members had positive comments on the proposed Regents
Item, noting that Regental approval would be consistent with the recent Master
Plan language calling for more seamlessness between K-12 and higher
education. There were also comments urging that “academic preparation” be
broadly conceived and not limited to or dominated by proposed improvements to
the teaching of K-12 science and math.
IV.
Executive Faculty Assistant Lynda Goff and Vice President Doby
discussed with the APC the preliminary ideas being formed with respect to UC’s
role in bringing about statewide improvement of K-12 science and math
instruction. The initiative is one of President Dynes’s and Provost
Greenwood’s highest priorities; it is also part of the Governor’s Compact with
UC and CSU. The Compact includes an expectation that “the University of
California shall develop in collaboration with the California State University
a major initiative to improve the supply and quality of science and math
teachers in the State of California and thus help better position the State for
economic recovery.”
It was noted that 60-70 percent of UC students who express interest in science
or math graduate in a different field, often in the social sciences. They
leave science/math not due to low grades, but because for some reason they
become discouraged from completing a major. It was also pointed out that
even if all UC’s science and math graduates were to go into K-12 teaching,
there would still be a shortage of qualified teachers in those subjects.
Thus, the challenge to produce more teachers for California is a large one and
the Compact expects that UC will take the lead in meeting.
Executive Faculty Assistant Goff will be leading an organized effort to involve
a variety of players, including both faculty prominent in the sciences and
business leaders, to plan a long-term strategy as well as a more immediate
budget initiative that will attract more UC students into teaching.
APC members raised some concerns about the ability of UC to counteract both a
culture and a marketplace that discourage students from studying science or
math and from choosing teaching as a career when they do. They noted the
importance of changing faculty and department behavior so that more students
would persist with a science or math major. They proposed ideas such as
creating a teacher-track program for entering freshmen and minors in Education,
for developing pathways in the General Ed curriculum, and for working more
closely with UNEX and CSU.
V.
CPEC Eligibility Study
Academic Council Chair Larry Pitts summarized the
recommendations for changing eligibility criteria to be taken to the July
Regents meeting. Changes to take effect for the class entering in Fall
2005 would be technical changes on how GPAs are calculated and the timing for
establishing eligibility for ELC students. These changes are estimated to
bring the current eligibility rate of 14.4 percent to about 13.1 percent.
The remaining change, raising the minimum GPA from 2.8 to 3.1, is
recommended for the incoming class of Fall 2007.
VI.
Long Range Planning
Provost Greenwood announced that one of her goals for the APC
is to move beyond the immediate issues raised by budget negotiations and to
look at a much longer planning horizon for the University. Future
meeting agendas are expected to include discussion of long-term strategic
direction in major areas of academic priority.