DRAFT

Provost Advisory Committee Notes

January 23, 2001

 

Attending:  R. Anderson, J. Armstrong-Zwart, G. Brown, M. Chemers, W Godzich, L. Goff, J. Hay, F. Hernandez, E. Houghton, S. Kang, D. Kliger, L. Merkley, C. Sandeen, J. Simpson, R. Suduiko, T. Vani, F. Talamantes

 

Absent:   S. Gillman, M. Michaels

 

Staff:  G. Jarvinen, L. Kittle, B. Willis

 

 

Diversity on Campus – Faculty, Staff, and Students

 

Francisco Hernandez and Julia Armstrong-Zwart  reviewed a number of reports that analyze the makeup of the campus community:

In a discussion of how the PAC membership could help the campus achieve its diversity goals, the following ideas were raised:

  • Through their outreach efforts, the student affairs have attracted a diverse applicant pool.  Once these students are admitted, personal contact and follow-up from faculty and academic departments is needed to ensure that admitted students enroll.  In addition, Francisco invited academic participation in campuswide events such as the Banana Slug Faire and Scholar’s Day, as well as, appointments with prospective students and their families when overnight on-campus visits are scheduled.
  • Currently, a number of alumni receptions are scheduled in areas distant from the campus (e.g., in the Los Angeles area); it was suggested that more connections between alums and prospective students (and their parents) be arranged.
  • As the student body becomes more diverse, it is increasingly important that our faculty and staff (and our curriculum) reflect that diversity.  As the statistics show, the diversity of available faculty candidates in some disciplines makes recruitment difficult.  A number of ideas for increasing the diversity of the “pipeline” were discussed.
  • Some divisions such as Student Affairs have been quite successful in recruiting a diverse staff; these divisions are happy to consult with other campus units (e.g., next month Student Affairs will conduct a two-hour workshop).

  

Next steps.

 

  • Action:  Deans (and other principal officers) will work with their departments to ensure appropriate participation in follow-up events with prospective students.
  • Action:  Julia Armstrong-Zwart will compile hiring profiles for each academic department to aid deans as the monitor for diversity the faculty searches within their division.
  • Follow-up:  HR, student affairs, and the graduate division staff will continue to compile ideas on how to achieve the campus’ diversity goals.  This information will be made available to PAC.

 

 

Information Technology Issues

 

Francisco Hernandez and Larry Merkley reviewed the need for and proposed membership for an AIS Transition Team.  Over a period of four months, members of this group would be asked to meet weekly (or every other week) for a couple hours to make recommendations that would prepare the campus for a successful implementation of the Academic Information System.

 

Larry Merkley reviewed an ITC proposal for a committee to do an assessment of the campus’ current “Web Presence” activities.

   

Next steps.

 

  • Action:  Principal officers will review the suggested membership of these two groups and get back to Larry Merkley as soon as possible (e.g., this week) with additional suggestions.

 

 

Member Items

 

Members raised four items:

  • John Simpson solicited feedback on the interim budget process.
  • Linda Kittle indicated that in addition to planning a PAC retreat, staff are moving ahead with planning a campus forum to engage campus managers in the planning process.  It is planned for late-spring so that the planning document “executive summaries” submitted by principal officers (due on March 15, 2001) can form the basis of many of the general and breakout sessions.
  • UC Berkeley, Los Angeles, and Santa Barbara are planning to inaugurate their State-supported summer term in 2001; UCSC is being asked to consider expanded summer instruction as early as 2002.  Therefore, John Simpson has asked George Brown, Cathy Sandeen, Francisco Hernandez, and Meredith Michaels to form a task force that prepares a white paper identifying the issues the campus needs to address.  Once this paper is complete (March 1, 2001), PAC will discuss an action plan for addressing those issues and questions.
  • Julia Armstrong-Zwart reported that the Senate Faculty Welfare Committee has proposed converting the Student Center into a child care facility.  The Advisory Committee for Facilities will review a staff analysis of the proposal and report the results of their considerations.

 

Next steps.

 

  • Action:  John Simpson asked members to provide feedback on the interim budget process and on the ideas for a PAC retreat.