Dear Faculty and Staff,
I have been off campus more often than not recently, tending to university business in the Bay Area, meeting with our Foundation Executive Board and the UC Board of Regents, and then meeting this week with various members of our federal delegation in Washington, D.C. But even as I conduct work away from campus, I want to provide you with updates on some important campus news and developments.
President Yudof's Visit to Campus
As you may already know, UC President Mark Yudof will be on campus in early October, with visits planned to Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada Research Institute, and also to Merced for my formal introduction to campus.
You may wonder why I need introducing to the campus at this point, but President Yudof was unable to visit campus earlier and this traditional event will provide a wonderful opportunity for him to express his strong support for UC Merced. Since I have decided, as a cost-savings measure, to forgo the traditional chancellor investiture ceremony, this event will also provide me with a substitute public forum for speaking about UC Merced's growing research prominence and its future potential.
The formal introduction will occur on Monday, Oct. 3, at 3:00 p.m. in the Carol Tomlinson Keasey Quad. Following the program, a reception will take place in the newly opened Social Sciences and Management Building, during which building tours will be available. Please RSVP by Thursday, Sept. 29, at chancellorevents@ucmerced.edu. I hope to see you there!
Preliminary Criteria for Administrative & Support Staff Space
During my initial meetings with faculty and staff since I joined UC Merced in July, I have noted general agreement that as a campus community we must make some difficult decisions regarding the strategic allocation of administrative and support staff space. The simple truth is that we have a serious shortage of space on campus, and this reality means that some administrative and support functions, units and/or individuals will need to move to off-campus space in Merced and other locations. Although we regrettably cannot amend the space-shortage situation in the near term, we can resolve to make decisions regarding campus space in a clearly communicated and transparent manner based on sound principles.
As such, I would like to share a preliminary set of considerations for making administrative and support staff space decisions and also invite your input. You can find these preliminary space-allocation criteria on the Administration website. I encourage you to take a few minutes now to review the criteria and to offer your feedback.
Recommendations for Process Improvement
Another topic frequently mentioned during my initial meetings with faculty and staff is process improvement. As a very young University of California campus, we have put a significant number of processes in place of necessity at a rapid pace, but what may have worked well for the start-up phase of the campus may not be the best way to accomplish tasks today. If a process is needlessly time-consuming, convoluted and/or error-prone, it is a prime candidate for serious reconsideration.
In that vein, we seek your recommendations regarding the campus processes that you think should be the initial focus of the university's process-improvement initiative. Please send your ideas by Sept. 30 to Gail Grogan at g.grogan@sbcglobal.net. Gail, who is under contract with the University of California to assist its campuses with matters related to process improvement, will compile your responses without attribution and then present that list to senior management for review and action.
Update on Current Fiscal Year Budget
President Yudof recently provided budget allocations to the UC campuses for the current fiscal year in a letter. The letter describes the unfortunate fact that the university's budget was cut $650 million this fiscal year in response to the state's troubled economic situation. It is possible that an additional $150 million reduction will be made mid-year should anticipated state revenues not be realized.
Despite this sobering statewide situation, UC Merced received $6.75 million from the UC Office of the President for student enrollment-growth funding, thanks to a three-year funding agreement the campus developed with UCOP last year. This enrollment-growth funding is critical to our ability to hire additional faculty and staff to serve the university's growing student population.
President Yudof's letter also notes the many areas in the University of California's budget that will be reduced or eliminated in response to diminished state funding. It is clear that tough and painful decisions are being made in an effort to preserve the quality of UC as a premier research university in the face of eroding support from the State of California.
A key policy matter currently under review by the Board of Regents involves strategies for helping the State Legislature recognize its obligation to support public higher education and for bringing greater financial stability to UC campuses. The principle underlying the policy discussions is the necessity for a predictable source and level of funding to preserve the quality of UC's research and academic programs. This topic was on the agenda for the Regents' meeting last week and will be the subject of much debate in the coming months. This is a sensitive topic that will weigh in the balance UC's three core commitments: quality, access and affordability. Options discussed thus far include steep tuition increases if the state continues to fail to fund enrollment adequately, a major fundraising campaign for student scholarships, a ballot initiative that would mandate state funding at an acceptable level, and a concerted political-action campaign to convince lawmakers to reverse a long trend of underfunding public higher education.
New Opportunities for Growth in Graduate Student Enrollment
President Yudof's letter also discusses a new model for distributing money to the campuses called “funding streams.” The good news is that changes in how campuses are funded give us new flexibility to begin to address graduate-student enrollment more aggressively.
One of our top priorities at UC Merced is to increase graduate-student enrollment. Currently, graduate students comprise about 5.5 percent of our total student population, with a graduate-student headcount of approximately 280. UC Merced's rough ratio of 1.8 graduate students per ladder-rank faculty member lags considerably behind other UC campuses and will need to improve steadily to meet our mission as a research university.
Fortunately, we have significantly more resources to dedicate to graduate support for the fall of 2012, due largely to the previously mentioned flexibility provided by UC’s new funding model. This flexibility will allow us to invest nearly $2 million in additional, ongoing support of graduate-student appointments to cover both resident and nonresident tuition and teaching assistants’ salaries. To maximize the impact of this investment, Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Dean Sam Traina will work closely with the schools to develop new graduate-enrollment goals and recruitment strategies.
Update on Capital Projects
Several new building and facilities are on the horizon. When they are constructed, our current space-shortage challenge will be lessened somewhat but not eliminated.
At the Regents' meeting last week, funding was authorized for preliminary planning of the Student Services Building, which will provide flexible space critically needed to support our growing student population. In addition, the Science & Engineering 2 Building is still on track — with the expectation that bonds will be sold this November and that construction will begin shortly thereafter.
Upcoming non-state-funded projects include the fourth phase of student housing (construction to begin this fall) and the 20,000-square-foot expansion of the Joseph E. Gallo Recreation and Wellness Center, expected to be completed next summer.
California Dream Act
The California State Legislature recently sprinted its way to a finish, working to pass hundreds of bills prior to the end of this year's legislative session. Of major importance to the University of California is the progress of the California Dream Act [AB 130 and 131, Cedillo (AD-45)]. AB 130 exempts students — particularly nonresident students who attend three or more years of, and graduate from, secondary school in the state — from nonresident tuition at the state’s public institutions of higher education, and also renders those students eligible to compete for privately funded scholarships. AB 130 was signed by Governor Brown and will become law. Another bill, AB 131, allows students that meet these new in-state tuition requirements to be eligible for any student financial-aid program administered by the State of California, e.g., Cal Grants. AB 131 is awaiting Gov. Brown’s signature. These important pieces of legislation will make the dream of a higher education more attainable to qualified and deserving students.
Administrative Transitions
This year, we will conduct searches for two senior administrative positions: Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost, and Vice Chancellor for University Relations.
Prior to my arrival as Chancellor, Keith Alley, our current EVC and Provost, expressed his intention to retire. I know that the entire campus community is grateful for his years of exemplary service and leadership. In addition, David Hosley has capably filled the Vice Chancellor for University Relations position on an interim basis, with the expectation that a national search would be conducted when the new chancellor was on board. We are also grateful for David's service and leadership.
I am now in the process of forming search committees for both positions and will keep the campus informed of progress once these searches are officially launched.
Next Lunch with the Chancellor – Tuesday, Sept. 27
I very much value opportunities to meet informally with faculty and staff. One such opportunity is the next "Lunch with the Chancellor" on Tuesday, Sept. 27, from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the Garden Dining Room in the Yablokoff-Wallace Dining Center.
"Lunch with the Chancellor" is an opportunity for you to share your thoughts involving our campus. These informal lunch gatherings, held on the last Tuesday of the month, are open to UC Merced faculty, lecturers, staff and graduate students. Participants may either bring their own lunch or purchase a boxed lunch from Dining Services. Boxed lunches need to be purchased in advance and can be ordered through E-pay using an online form here. Beverages will be provided. Space is limited so please register early. To RSVP without purchasing a boxed lunch, please do so here. If registration is closed, you can email chancellorevents@ucmerced.edu to join the waiting list for the following month's lunch.
I thank faculty and staff for your hard work and your dedication to the mission of the university.
Sincerely,
Dorothy Leland
Chancellor
