November 2005

 

Senate Leaders’ Broad Commitment to UC

 

On September 1st UCLA Professor of cell and molecular biology Clifford Brunk and UC Davis Law School Professor John Oakley, two experienced UC faculty leaders with distinguished records of teaching, research and Senate service, began their tenures as the 2005-2006 systemwide Academic Senate Chair and Vice Chair.

 

Professor Brunk has amassed nearly 40 years of Senate service in a variety of roles, including UCLA divisional chair, UCLA Graduate Council chair, and chair of the Systemwide Coordinating Committee on Graduate Affairs. Professor Brunk received his master’s degree in electrical engineering and Ph.D. in biophysics from Stanford, and began his career as part of a team working on the Stanford Linear Accelerator. He first joined UCLA’s zoology department in 1967 and now investigates molecular biological approaches to the study of evolution as a professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.

 

Professor Brunk also served for seven years on the Senate’s UC Merced Task Force, where he played an integral role in campus development and faculty hiring. Not surprisingly, one of his major goals this year is to continue fostering the young UC Merced Senate, which gained official divisional status in May. “I would like nothing more than to see UCM and the UCM Senate thrive,” he said. “I hope their faculty will work closely with faculty on other campuses and Senate committees to help strengthen faculty governance at the new campus.”

 

Another of Chair Brunk’s goals this year is the successful implementation of the California Science and Math Initiative, a statewide effort to train 1000 highly qualified science and math teachers annually to meet the state’s educational and workforce needs. However, he says that there are an enormous number of details in the SMI that still need to be worked out. “The SMI is a top down initiative, but for it to be really successful, it has to have a bottom up component, which must involve the faculty and the Senate. The Senate is in the best position to encourage faculty to get involved.”

 

One of the more important developments in the landscape of California higher education this past year was the passage of legislation giving CSU the right to offer a limited number of applied doctorates, and specifically, the Doctorate in Education. Professor Brunk sees other applied doctorates on the horizon, especially those in the sciences. He cited audiology as one field that will require an applied doctorate in the near future (by 2007). UC is currently looking at a number of alternatives to accommodate this need, including working with CSU in some way to offer this degree. He believes it will be important for the Senate to work closely with the administrative leadership in Oakland to manage this new reality. “UC and the Senate have to come to terms with how this and the tenets of the Master Plan will be handled in the state in the future,” he said.

 

One of the continuing challenges facing the Senate is attracting faculty to service on committees. Professor Brunk says the campus committees on academic personnel (CAPs) can help. “We have to change the reward system so CAP takes the service component more seriously, and we have to change the culture which says Academic Senate service is a career detriment. Our current structure for evaluation is not sufficient.” Brunk also envisions changes to the faculty evaluation process that will encourage more careful consideration of criteria for the evaluation and promotion of faculty in interdisciplinary disciplines.

 

Professor Brunk describes the state of shared governance at UC as strong and vibrant. “We have administrative officers at the university who appreciate faculty prerogatives and respond to them,” he said. As Chair, Brunk says he will continue to cultivate a collegial relationship with the administration, and he describes his philosophy of shared governance as practical – “trust and verify.”

 

Vice chair John Oakley, both as a Professor of Law and as an Associate within the Department of Philosophy at UCD, has been active in the Davis and systemwide Senates for close to 20 years. His service includes several years on the systemwide international education committee, and most recently as chair of the systemwide Faculty Welfare Committee. Professor Oakley attended and graduated from Yale Law School in the late 1960s, and remembers that one of his classmates was none other than now Senator Hilary Clinton. He clerked with the chief justice of the California Supreme Court before arriving at Davis in 1975 as one of the first Law School faculty members. In the late 1970s Professor Oakley spent a two year sabbatical in Washington as a scholar-in-residence in the civil rights division of the U.S. Department of Justice. The focus of his teaching and research is now on civil litigation and the philosophy of adjudication and federal jurisdiction.

 

Commenting on the value of service to the Academic Senate, Professor Oakley asks UC faculty contemplating service on a Senate committee to consider that “the world is run by people who show up. We are all part of a larger organism and we can contribute to the University by protecting the ability of that organism to function,” he says. “Consider if you are driving the rickshaw or just riding on it.  Now is the time to demonstrate a broader commitment to the university by devoting your effort to the higher good.”

 

Professor Oakley says he believes shared governance overall is healthy, though as the University moves forward in challenging times there is still room for operational improvements. “Faculty have unique influence at UC. We appoint the people that represent us and the faculty are taken seriously.”

 

Professors Brunk and Oakley, like many in the University community, are concerned about sharp declines in the public funding of higher education, which have translated into lagging faculty salaries and higher student fees. The Coordinating Committee on Graduate Affairs (CCGA) and others have noted that these declines are impacting graduate education in a number of significant negative ways. “Graduate education is the fuel of a research university, not just the output,” says Professor Oakley. Likewise, Professor Brunk promises that the Senate and Administration will work together to aggressively address the “abysmal state” of University resource allocation towards graduate education.

 

Professors Brunk and Oakley acknowledge that this will be a very busy year for the Senate, with many important issues affecting the faculty. However, both professors are looking forward to representing faculty interests in what promises to be an interesting and rewarding year. Commenting on the year ahead, Professor Brunk said that being the Chair of the Academic Senate is a full-time job, but definitely a “job worth doing”. The Senate leadership encourages faculty members to regularly check the Senate Source and the Senate website for news and updates throughout the year.