Academic Planning Committee

Absent: Lynda Goff, Dave Kliger, Jamus Lin

Guests: Galen Jarvinen.

1. Chair Announcements

There were no announcements.

2. Approval of November 13 Minutes.

The draft minutes of November 13 were approved without amendment.

3. College Nine: Review bylaws.

Chair Brown provided a brief history of UCSC college organizational structure. The most recent college charter was College Eight in 1974. At that time, under founding Chancellor Dean McHenry, all faculty appointments were jointly held in colleges and in boards of study. In 1979, joint faculty appointments with the colleges were discontinued. The College Nine proposal would assign college administrative oversight to the Dean of Social Sciences. The dean would appoint an associate dean who would holds the concurrent title of provost and would have the same duties and responsibilities as other college provosts.

Colleges may impose student graduation requirements beyond campus, major, and general education requirements. Formal establishment of new colleges requires UC Regental approval. College Nine’s proposal was submitted for senate review last spring, and CEP subsequently endorsed the academic program. CPB raised questions regarding the governance and administrative structure. In response to CPB’s comments, the College Nine proposed bylaws were revised and distributed to APC for today’s discussion. The revised bylaws clarify the faculty role and voice over curricular issues. Vice Provost Brown, Vice Provost Goff, Dean Chemers and Provost delegate Leaper will meet with CPB on November 29 to review the revised bylaws and request formal endorsement. Assuming favorable senate review, the campus provost will transmit the proposal to University Office of the President for systemwide review and regental approval. Students anticipate graduating Spring 2002 with diplomas conferred by College Nine.

Dean Chemers reviewed the history of the development of the College Nine proposal. In 1999, Merrill Provost John Isbister chaired a College Nine and Ten Planning Advisory Committee that recommended a new college model, in which colleges sponsor interdisciplinary curricula in areas of fundamental interest to the faculty but outside core departmental vision. A key recommendation of the committee’s report is College Nine and Ten affiliation with the Division of Social Sciences. The anticipated result is the development of college academic programs of central importance to the division and greater engagement with ladder faculty. The committee’s position was that multiple models for college organization could exist on campus simultaneously. Dean Chemers agreed to administer Colleges Nine and Ten as an experiment. The colleges will have the same curricular autonomy as departments and the provost responsibilities will be the same as on other colleges. A critical issue is that administrative oversight be aligned with the financial responsibility.

Discussion followed on how to engage ladder faculty in colleges without adversely impacting research agendas or department-based instruction. The nature of faculty collegiate affiliation is quite different when the faculty appointments remains embedded in a department. Similar to interdisciplinary programs, faculty must voluntarily agree to participate in college venues. This requires colleges to attract faculty with intellectual vision and opportunities that may not be present in departments. Historically, all faculty were expected to affiliate with a single college. New models support the possibility of multiple simultaneous affiliations. Other universities have developed rigorous standards where faculty are invited to belong to colleges, and whose membership confers academic prestige and honor. College curriculum that is indeterminate and inadequately funded discourages faculty participation.

Advantages to divisional administration include intellectual synergies leveraged with greater resources than colleges presently control. By way of examples, Social Sciences is including: 1) allocating resources to the Santa Cruz Center for International Economics (SCIIE) targeted to support undergraduate research fellows; fifty percent of the fellows must be college nine students; 2) Co-sponsoring an honors program with the Center for Global, International and Regional Studies (CGIRS); 3) Offering ladder faculty opportunity to teach the college freshman seminar core course in exchange for release funds allocated to their department; 4) Expanding funding support for graduate students to either teach in the college or in the department as ladder faculty replacement; and 5) Intellectual enhancements for college students by extending them invitations to attend lectures and colloquias funded by the division and sponsored by departments.

Active participation by ladder faculty is achievable if college participation satisfies faculty professional goals. Teaching a freshman seminar or developing interdisciplinary programs will be attractive to faculty members at different times in their careers. College core courses are currently funded on a formula of one section to twenty-two entering freshman, ranging from $60-90,000 per college. These instructional funds could be reconfigured to support other programs if the college curricula are restructured. Additional academic funding supports the provost position and key advising staff. The traditional core course offers advantages that include socializing new freshman and improving writing skills. Engaging ladder faculty will probably require broadening of the intellectual program. Core course instruction is now conducted by lecturers, reducing the opportunity for freshman interaction with research faculty. Student college membership is now irrelevant to their major studies, although they receive diplomas conferred by the colleges. Student surveys reveal they value the first quarter seminar experience for many reasons; however, students are less aware that colleges sponsor the courses. The same outcome might be possible without a college structure. The campus collective goal for the colleges is distinct from when the campus was founded, and there may be redundancies in student advising and administrative records.

Pragmatically, College Nine is prepared to confer diplomas in Spring 2002, and needs formal systemwide approval soon. The Academic Planning Committee consensus is to recommend approval with the possibility of later structural changes as the campus determines the best future college model. The bylaws should be revised to include a soft term-limit provision for faculty membership. The campus can transmit College Nine for systemwide approval while agreeing to review the administrative structure in five years.

4. Members Items. No items were presented.

Attest: George Brown, Chair