UC DAVIS: OFFICE OF THE PROVOST
March 25, 2004
Provost's Update
Budget Update: Our best estimate at this time is that the campus must reduce its general fund support budget by $15 million in 2004-05. The campus budget planning work group and other leadership groups have provided advice on how to best approach planning for budget reductions that will take effect July 1. To accommodate this magnitude of reduction, general fund budgets will need to be reduced by 6 percent (excluding outreach, graduate student support and ladder-rank faculty salaries). Deans, Vice Chancellors and Vice Provosts have been asked to prepare plans, due in mid-April, that implement the reductions strategically. Please see the budget website at http://www.news.ucdavis.edu/budget/default.html for updates. Despite the challenging state budget, the campus will continue to make strategic investments to best position the campus for the future. Two high priority objectives include increasing graduate student support and supporting a comprehensive fundraising campaign to increase non-state sources of support for UC Davis.
UC Davis Layoff Services: Budget reductions, the ending of contracts/grants and reorganizations all have the potential of reductions in staff. Employees facing layoff have a variety of resources, ranging from preferential rehire consideration to training/development opportunities to maximize placement efforts. The Davis Campus feels very strongly about its commitment to our employees and has been very successful in its placement services. More detailed information about layoff resources for UC Davis employees is available at http://www.hr.ucdavis.edu/Employee_and_Labor_Relations/layoff_information.
New Childcare Center: The Chancellor recently established a building committee to guide the planning and construction of a new campus childcare center. This $3 million project will enable campus childcare programs to increase the number of children they serve in response to increased need of employees. The center will provide year round day care for 95 children (infants to 6 years old) and for 24 elementary age children for school holiday and summer day care. The new building will be ready for occupancy by fall 2005.
GOAL: LEARNING
New Funding Committed for Graduate Student Support: As you have heard, the Governor’s budget proposes a 40 percent increase in graduate students fees and a 20 percent increase in nonresident tuition. I can assure you that there is much effort being directed at reducing this. It is clear that fee increases of this magnitude would significantly challenge campus efforts to achieve one of its highest strategic priorities—the recruitment and retention of top-quality graduate students. Therefore, Dean Gibeling and I recently announced steps to increase student support resources available to graduate programs in 2004-05. A copy of a letter that describes these steps is at http://www.news.ucdavis.edu/budget/downloads/grad_ed.pdf.
Francisco J. Samaniego Recognized with Teaching/Scholarship Prize:
Congratulations to Francisco J. Samaniego, Professor of Statistics and recipient of the 2004 UC Davis Prize for Undergraduate Teaching and Scholarly Achievement. The $30,000 prize, funded by the UC Davis Foundation and believed to be the largest of its kind in the United States, is a sign of the campus’s commitment to undergraduate education. Professor Samaniego exemplifies the enthusiasm and dedication with which our faculty approach teaching. To read more about his lifetime achievements, please see http://www.news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=6914.
GOAL: DISCOVERY
Research Update: For the past two years, research programs across the UC Davis campus have grown tremendously. The volume of research dollars ($423 million) brought into UC Davis ranks us about 15th in the U.S. Our federal awards are up $2.5 million for 2003-04 to $171.8 million, with over $95 million from HHS and $32 million from NSF. However, the California budget crunch has very definitely impacted our sponsored research with a decrease of almost $15 million in state-sponsored research so far for this fiscal year.
Administrative Support for Faculty Preparing Large, Interdisciplinary Research Proposals: Dr. Richard Meisinger joined the Office of Research in February as Director of Research Development. The objective of this office is to support faculty in the development of large, interdisciplinary proposals that contribute to the campus research vision and are sponsored by such agencies as the NIH, DOE, NSF, Homeland Defense Centers and other major extramural research sponsors.
Featured New Research Grant: $18 Million Grant Awarded to Global Livestock Program: The U.S. Agency for International Development has awarded $18 million to support the work of the Global Livestock Collaborative Research Support Program (GLCRSP), a research organization based at UC Davis and directed by Montague Demment, Professor of Agronomy and Range Science. The grant will finance for five years the program’s work to coordinate research projects in Africa, Central Asia and Latin America that deal with economic growth, human nutrition, environment and public policy (for details see at http://www.news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=6872).
GOAL: ENGAGEMENT
UC Davis Economic Impact Report: On Thursday, March 4, we released a new report highlighting UC Davis’s economic impact. The economic benefits
UC Davis brings to the region are detailed within the report including the fact that, for every $1 invested by the State of California, UC Davis has attracted an additional $5 to the region. After state government, UC Davis is the largest employer in the Sacramento region. A web page detailing aspects of the report can be found at http://www.news.ucdavis.edu/special_reports/economic_impact/.
Technology and Industry Alliances: Professor Alan Bennett will join the Office of Research on July 1, 2004 as Associate Vice Chancellor. Upon his arrival,
Dr. Bennett will assume leadership of a new unit, Technology and Industry Alliances (proposed name). Areas under this unit will be Research Outreach, Technology Transfer Center, Technology Business Development (new area), and UC Davis CONNECT. This coordinated effort is intended to supply a continuum of services that will help faculty establish productive private sector partnerships and guide budding entrepreneurs from the initial steps of preparing and filing patents, through finding partners and investors, to raising finances and setting up companies.
Principles of Community Celebration: Re-Affirming Our Principles of Community: UC Davis, the City of Davis and the Davis Joint Unified School District sponsored the first annual community-wide Celebration of Our Principles of Community last month. The programs and activities (http://occr.ucdavis.edu/occr_html/reaffirmation.html) occurred over a three-day period, February 24th-26th and were designed to provide members of our campus and the surrounding community with an opportunity to re-affirm our commitment to the Principles of Community, appreciate our diversity and foster a sense of inclusiveness.
Best regards,
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