June 2004

NOTES FROM THE ACADEMIC SENATE CHAIR

LAWRENCE PITTS

Dear Colleagues,  

You are all wrapping up your academic year, but like the Academic Senate, I’m sure your lives remain a work in progress. Most of the prominent items that the Senate has considered this year are unresolved — budget, DOE National Labs, admissions policies, scholarly communications, and multidisciplinary research, among others.

 

Budget. UC and the Governor have reached a “compact” whereby, due to California’s budget woes, UC takes very substantial cuts this year (3200 student enrollment drop, 25% research cuts over the past 3 years, huge fee increases for undergraduate, graduate, professional and out-of-state students – the list goes on). In exchange, the Governor has pledged to put in his budget a plan for UC to increase its base funding by 3% next year, rising to 5% annually beginning in 2008, in addition to allowing UC to keep any future fee increases. This is intended to be a “floor” for future funding, so if the state finances improve, additional funding might be possible. Of course, the compact is only a promise from the Governor. The Legislature actually has to fund these increases, but since severe budget cuts were felt throughout California, including UC, a promise of future support from the Governor is better than no plan at all. The University, with the faculty’s help, has initiated an advocacy campaign, which needs to be sustained. The Senate will be helping the campus Academic Senates formulate ways that the faculty can be critically helpful in educating UC’s influential friends about the value that UC brings to the State’s life and economy. Be thinking about how you can become an effective advocate for UC. Remember, “All politics are local.” DOE Labs. Nearly 3300 of you just completed a statewide Senate poll in support of UC continuing a relationship with Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore National Labs. The draft contract for Los Alamos will be published soon for public comment. UC and the Academic Senate have much work before us to determine whether or not the contract proposal is compatible with our mission, and if so, to prepare a bid in response. The actual bids are not likely to be submitted until after the fall elections and a contract awarded until well into 2005. The Livermore contract process dates have not yet been announced. The Lawrence Berkeley contract will be bid later this year for award early in 2005. UC will certainly be bidding to continue its management of the Berkeley Lab.

 

Admissions. Barbara Sawrey, Chair of BOARS, has an extensive update on page 1. At the July Regents’ meeting, the Senate plans to propose changes in UC student eligibility to conform to the Master Plan for Higher Education’s mandate that the top 12.5% of California’s public high school graduates be eligible for admission to UC. Eligibility and admissions has been much in the news this year, as you’ll have noted.

 

Scholarly Communication. As you know, UC and Elsevier agreed to a 5-year contract that keeps UC’s average annual costs over that time about the same as last year’s contract. However, many questions remain about issues of access and affordability, both for periodicals and monographs. A Senate Special Committee will be exploring these questions over the next few years. This year has been busy and exciting. Despite the budgetary and political stresses that we have faced and will continue to confront, UC and its faculty, as usual, performed at their powerful best, allowing UC to remain the world’s premier system of public education

 

Have a great summer! - Lawrence Pitts