UC DAVIS: OFFICE OF THE PROVOST
March 6, 2007
Provost's Update, Spring 2007
Dear Colleagues:
As we approach the end of the Winter Quarter, it is a good time to update the campus on matters of interest to all of us, from budget to progress in academic programs. Our campus certainly has many impressive activities in learning, discovery, and engagement being pursued by our faculty, staff and students--much more than I can cover here. So, to enjoy a sample of those, I would highly recommend a visit to the UC Davis Frontiers website, http://frontiers.ucdavis.edu/. This site features video interviews of UC Davis faculty members whose big ideas, unexpected insights, and new inventions may well change the way we live in and understand our changing world. These interviews will soon be aired on UCTV--check the website for information about dates and times.
UNIVERSITY BUDGET
In mid-January, the Governor released his state budget proposal. The budget proposal is consistent with the "compact" between the university and the state providing increased funding for faculty and staff compensation including salary and benefits of approximately 5 percent. The Governor's budget proposal also includes funding for enrollment growth of 5,000 students systemwide. For the campus, we anticipate returning to a more modest level of enrollment growth and reducing the size of our next freshman class by about 500 students. The budget assumes student fee increases of 7 percent for most students with provisions for financial aid.
Funds for academic preparation are not included in the Governor's budget proposal. These programs are critical to the university and we will continue to work closely with staff at the Office of the President and our sister campuses to ensure that these funds are restored.
The campus budget plan for 2007-08 is being developed to reflect the information from the Governor's budget proposal and the Regents' budget proposal. However, I have already made decisions about investments for graduate student support because we cannot afford to wait for the state or the university to finalize budgets before taking action.
Funds totaling approximately $33.3 million will be dedicated to graduate student support (up from $31.5 million last year). Key investments include a $700,000 increase for block grants ($11.4 million total), on-going funds of $2.5 million to continue the fee and tuition buy-down program for graduate student researchers paid from extramural funds; $750,000 to match training grants (a $250,000 increase); $2.5 million for various programs administered by the dean; and $16.2 million for fee remission (a $1.3 million increase).
A complete description of the Governor's budget proposal was published by Dateline in January, http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/2007/jan10.html. Budget information is routinely communicated using the Budget News Web site at: http://www.news.ucdavis.edu/special_reports/budget/ and from the Office of Resource Management and Planning Web page, http://www.ormp.ucdavis.edu.
ACADEMIC PLANNING AND ALLOCATION OF POSITIONS
Since our campus needs to consider our academic directions for the future, the 25 new positions we anticipate from growth will not be allocated until that process has been accomplished. Hiring will actively continue for vacancies, such as retirements, and for positions already allocated for the on-going initiatives, http://www-dateline.ucdavis.edu/dl_detail.lasso?id=9298.
UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION--UPDATE ON MINIMUM PROGRESS
The Academic Senate revised the minimum progress requirement as a component of the on-going campus effort to improve the undergraduate time-to-degree. There was initially considerable concern as to how this revision might impact our undergraduates. Specifically, there were preliminary projections that large numbers of students might be placed on probation or dismissed. However, through the extensive communication efforts by the college deans' offices and the Registrar, coupled with the substantial advising efforts of many offices on campus, the results were far more positive than originally anticipated. The undergraduate students clearly responded by taking more units to meet this requirement and this should lead to improvements in our four-year graduation rates. Importantly, this will provide increased access for the rising numbers of prospective students who are applying to the campus.
ENERGY FOR THE FUTURE
UC Davis faculty members continue in the forefront of research and policy formation concerning alternative energy resources. As you may know, the campus has identified Energy for the Future as a major research focus. In Fall 2005, I partnered with the deans of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, the College of Engineering, the Division of Mathematics and Physical Sciences, and the Division of Social Sciences to commit 12 faculty positions to this campuswide initiative. Last spring, Governor Schwarzenegger visited the campus to mark a $1 million grant to support the UC Davis Energy Efficiency Center--a program dedicated to speeding the transfer of energy-saving products and services to California homes and businesses and led by Professor Andy Hargadon, Graduate School of Management, http://www.dateline.ucdavis.edu/dl_detail.lasso?id=8759. This fall we celebrated a grant of up to $25 million from the Chevron Corporation to support UC Davis research leading to affordable renewable fuels from farm and forest residues, urban wastes, and crops, http://www.dateline.ucdavis.edu/dl_detail.lasso?id=8984. We witnessed the opening of a demonstration biogas fuel plant at UC Davis--the first in the United States--that resulted from research and development efforts by Professor Ruihong Zhang, Biological and Agricultural Engineering, http://broadcast.ucdavis.edu/search/broadcast_detail.lasso?id=261. Most recently, in January, the Governor announced the appointment of Professor Daniel Sperling, director of the UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies, to be co-director of a panel of UC professors who will write the state's new low-carbon fuel standard, http://www.ucdavis.edu/spotlight/0107/low_carbon_diet.html, and in February, also named him to the California Air Resources Board. The state aims to reduce the carbon content of transportation fuels by at least 10 percent before 2020.
ENERGY CONSERVATION
Watch for the Office of Administration's Energy Conservation Newsletter. This publication will be a quarterly insert in Dateline with the first edition in late March. The newsletter will help the campus community understand the nature of our energy issues and what we are doing as a campus to address these issues. There will also be practical suggestions on how we, as individuals, can also help reduce energy consumption.
NEW FACILITIES
In December, UC Davis dedicated a new, 121,000-square-foot Medical Education Building at the Sacramento campus. This new facility replaces outdated classrooms, doubles the space for library services and serves as a hub of learning where students, faculty, staff and UC Davis partners collaborate to improve the health of patients everywhere. Students began their classes in early January in the new building, marking the first time that all four years of the medical school class will receive training in a single location.
http://www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/newsroom/releases/archives/som/2006/edbldg12-2006.html
On the Davis campus, Warren and Leta Giedt Hall will provide much-needed lecture hall and small classroom space when it opens this summer. The summer will also bring the start of construction on a major expansion of King Hall. This project will provide new classroom and office space for the School of Law. The campus community can track the progress of these and other capital projects on the web at the following sites:
http://www.ae.ucdavis.edu/Projweb/projects.nsf/MasterProject?OpenView
http://www.ormp.ucdavis.edu/capital/capitalimprovement/documents/future_projects_2015.pdf
CELEBRATING THE FUTURE
Every year the campus honors faculty members who, early in their careers, have already distinguished themselves in teaching, research and public service. The honorees are designated Chancellor's Fellows, and each receives a prize of $25,000 for support of research, teaching or service activities. The Chancellor's Fellows for this coming year include: Tonya Kuhl, associate professor, Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science; Lori Lubin, associate professor, Department of Physics; Simon Sadler, professor, Department of Art, Art History and Technocultural Studies; Anne Schilling, associate professor, Department of Mathematics; John Stachowicz, associate professor, Section of Evolution and Ecology; Rosie Woodroffe, associate professor, Department of Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology. I invite you to read more about these folks and their accomplishments at: http://www.dateline.ucdavis.edu/dl_detail.lasso?id=9199.
COMMUNITY BOOK PROJECT FOR 2007-08
Our campus book for 2007-08 ("The Devil's Highway: A True Story" by Luis Alberto Urrea) focuses on immigration, http://www.dateline.ucdavis.edu/dl_detail.lasso?id=9316. Please start planning for events/classes/discussions around this book, so we can bring our community together to examine this important issue.
W-2 ISSUE
Some members of our campus community have expressed deep concern about the university's new W-2 reporting mechanism, under which the W-2 tax data of university employees goes to TALX Corp., which in turn can plug the data into employees' tax forms automatically when they use tax preparation software. In response to these concerns, campus officials have obtained assurances from the UC Office of the President that the university has not authorized TALX to release employee information to any third parties, and that the university will not do so in the future. Moreover, the university has made changes to the At Your Service Web site, https://atyourserviceonline.ucop.edu, allowing UC Davis employees to choose to prohibit their tax data from going to TALX. For employees who have not already opted out, choosing to opt out now will purge their data from TALX within a few days, http://www.dateline.ucdavis.edu/dl_detail.lasso?id=9278.
ETHICS BRIEFING
All University of California staff and faculty have been asked to complete an ethics briefing. The Office of the President has asked that UC Davis employees complete the briefing by March 16, 2007, http://www.dateline.ucdavis.edu/dl_detail.lasso?id=9190. Employees may access this briefing on-line or at an in-person presentation. Employees with a university e-mail account should have received an e-mail message that provides instructions for accessing the on-line version. Folks who have a university e-mail account but did not receive this e-mail message may contact ethics@ucdavis.edu for assistance. Folks with no e-mail account should have received an invitation to an in-person briefing, either by letter or from management of their department. Dates and times of in-person briefings on the Davis campus are listed at: http://sdps.ucdavis.edu/browse/hr/hr0004.htm. The UC Davis Health System will shortly publish dates and times of in-person briefings to be held at the Sacramento campus. Over 10,000 employees have already completed the briefing.
This briefing is just one of the many opportunities the university provides for all of us to consider some of the ethical challenges that occasionally do arise in the workplace and the standards upon which the university expects all faculty and staff employees to base their responses. Examples of other opportunities include classes offered through Staff Development and Professional Services, http://sdps.ucdavis.edu; seminars offered by the Responsible Conduct of Research Program, http://research.ucdavis.edu/home.cfm?id=OVC,10,1622; and guidance offered by the UC Davis Health System's Compliance Program, http://www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/compliance/.
Thanks for making UC Davis "a dynamic institution on the rise"!
Virginia S. Hinshaw
Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor
University of California, Davis
One Shields Avenue
Davis, CA 95616-8558
530/752-4964; Fax 530/752-2400
vshinshaw@ucdavis.edu