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Standard 1:  Defining Institutional Purposes and Ensuring Educational Objectives

1.2:  Educational objectives are clearly recognized throughout the institution and are consistent with stated purposes. The institution has developed indicators and evidence to ascertain the level of achievement of its purposes and educational objectives.

UC Santa Cruz Summary of Evidence

As mentioned in Standard 1.1, UCSC revisited its mission in the deliberations of the Millennium Committee and then deployed those principles as touchstones in the campus planning process. Nearly everyone on campus is familiar with the following eight objectives:

• Preserve a liberal arts ethos at both undergraduate and graduate levels.
• Foster a collaborative ethos in research, teaching, and service.
• Foster an uncommon commitment within a major public research university to innovative graduate and professional education.
• Foster an uncommon commitment to undergraduate education.
• Become the preeminent educational institution in the Silicon Valley and Monterey areas as well as Santa Cruz.
• Take advantage of the particular resources of the region, and work cooperatively with local and regional partners.
• Achieve a size and diversity that will enable it to serve the UC mission with distinction.
• Achieve a mixture of faculty, staff, and students that takes full advantage of the intellectual resources of a socially and culturally diverse state and nation.

While these objectives have provided a focus for campus planning and propelled the campus on its upward trajectory, when it comes to the WASC definition of educational objectives and learning outcomes, our objectives still miss the mark. UCSC ‘s most recent statement on the desired outcomes of a UCSC education dates back to our 1986 report on general education. We have subsequently debated various facets of the UCSC education - mostly notably in a mid-nineties proposal to modify general education requirements that failed because of resource concerns - but we have not conducted a general review of the desired outcomes of the UCSC education for some time.

We plan to undertake a review of UCSC’s educational objectives and desired outcomes as part of our WASC educational effectiveness review. We feel we owe it to our community to issue a contemporary statement of our hopes, aspirations, intentions, and measurable outcomes for a UCSC education.

Links to Evidence and Related Documents

• 1986 Report on General Education
• UC Santa Cruz Long Range Planning (website)

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