Dear colleagues:
Our campus is now eight weeks into the fall 2013 semester and in that short time, UC Merced has been bustling with activity. I hope each of you is finding the 2013-14 academic year to be stimulating, productive and rewarding.
One highlight so far this fall was UC President Janet Napolitano’s visit to campus earlier this month, just after she took office. Various stakeholders including faculty members, students, staff members and campus supporters met with the president and shared their perspectives with her. In addition to the various meetings, President Napolitano visited three interdisciplinary labs with faculty members and graduate students, and also learned about our extraordinary achievements in the sustainable design, construction, and operations of campus facilities.
During all of her meetings, the president expressed her support for UC Merced and our need to expand campus facilities and infrastructure to meet the needs of a student population of 10,000 by the year 2020.
In addition, she expressed interest in and support for a new Memorandum of Understanding between the UC Office of the President and our campus that will provide us with additional financial support as we grow to 10,000 students. Continued and close collaboration with UCOP will be critically important to the successful development of the campus, and I am heartened by her enthusiasm for UC Merced’s important role in the University of California system.
Another relationship we are cultivating carefully and strategically is with federal officials. While visiting with legislators in Washington, D.C., this month, I emphasized the importance of sustained and predictable funding for research. As I explained in a recentModesto Bee editorial, the inability of Congress to agree on long-term budget priorities and keep the wheels of government turning has real consequences. Denial of necessary services, worker furloughs, mandatory budget cuts to vital programs (“sequestration”) and growing uncertainty about future funding streams could be doing serious damage to our nation’s ability to innovate, create new businesses and grow our economy. In addition, several of our research teams have been impacted.
The second phase of sequestration will also affect current levels of Pell funding. Almost 60 percent of our students depend on Pell as part of their financial packages, and during my recent visit to Washington, I also talked about the urgent need to continue Pell funding at current levels.
Turning our attention to internal matters, I would like to provide an update on an executive search being conducted and the 2020 Project.
You may know we are in the final phase of our search for Vice Chancellor of Business and Administrative Services.
No one candidate comes into the final round of campus interviews as a favorite, and all candidates could bring a unique set of skills to the position. In making my final decision, I will review campus feedback on candidates, additional confidential references, and other factors relevant to making this important decision. Several of the candidates are in other searches, and it is also possible they will elect to pursue those options. So while many factors determine the final outcome of an executive search process, I am confident we will be able to bring this search to a successful outcome.
As most of you know, the 2020 Project is underway. In the absence of sufficient state funding for the growth of our campus, the 2020 Project is our effort to create the facilities needed to support an enrollment level of 10,000 students through an alternative procurement process. These facilities will include academic, administrative, research, recreational buildings, student residences, student services buildings, utilities, infrastructure, outdoor recreation areas, and associated roadways, parking and landscaping.
The campus real estate team recently met with stakeholders across campus in 32 focus groups, providing team members with an opportunity to conduct significant discovery and data gathering.
To ensure our real estate team benefits from critical campus and UCOP expertise, four advisory subcommittees of the Campus Physical Planning Committee (CPPC) have been formed in the following areas: programming; infrastructure strategy; procurement, risk and finance; and master plan framework.
These sub-committees will be chaired by EVC and Provost Tom Peterson, Vice Chancellor Dan Feitelberg and Interim Vice Chancellor Michael Reese. Our real estate team will work with each subcommittee throughout the process.
The subcommittees will be expected to present their reports on key findings to the Executive Committee by early December. (The Executive Committee comprises Nathan Brostrom, executive vice president of UCOP’s Business Operations, Peter Taylor, UCOP chief financial officer, and me.)
These presentations should enable the Executive Committee to make decisions necessary to guide the development of the Request for Qualifications and prepare for its release into the market in February 2014.
The timeline for the 2020 Project and all that it entails continues to be very ambitious. We appreciate everyone’s flexibility in making themselves available and responsive when needed.
I would like to close by noting another significant milestone in the development of this wonderful campus.
Today, we mark the 11th anniversary of Founders Day, the day ground was broken in a field that would soon give rise to the first new UC campus in 40 years.
The vision and commitment of a handful of passionate citizens and inspired educators back then are clearly visible in everything we’ve become in just a few short years – and what we will become in the years ahead.
One day at a time, one block at a time, we are building something here of enormous consequence, with unlimited potential to effect meaningful change and shape a brighter future for the region, the state and society as a whole.
I can’t thank each of you enough for the dedication you’ve shown to the mission of UC Merced and the UC system. We have overcome a great deal to make it this far.
On this anniversary day and throughout the year, I hope you’ll take a moment to reflect on your collective achievements and honor your colleagues who make this extraordinary young campus the rising star that it is.
Sincerely,
Dorothy Leland
Chancellor
