Campus Goals 2009-2010

1. Reaffirm UCSC’s role as a distinctive public research university in service of our state and the world.

In particular, UCSC will implement our Comprehensive Academic Plan, which continues to build interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary programs, and recruit and retain the best faculty, staff, and students. Sustain our outstanding programs while nurturing, growing, and evaluating programs with the potential to be outstanding. Be a “research destination” for the most notable researchers and scholars in their fields. Possible examples include: Biomedical and Coastal Sciences, Long Marine Lab, Computer Gaming, Latin American and Latino Studies, Computational Design, Robotics, Philosophy, Film & Digital Media, History of Art & Visual Culture, Silicon Valley Initiative, MBEST’s Homeland Security Consortium, Digital Arts and New Media, Integrated Water research, etc.

2. Build upon and enhance our distinction and achievements as an outstanding undergraduate institution.

We will give our undergraduates the knowledge and the intellectual tools to prepare them – indeed, energize them – for the world in which they will live and work. Cultivate engaged world citizens. Give more undergraduates the opportunity to be actively involved in research and advanced critical study. Teach our students not what to think, but how to learn and discern. Examples include: Improving the colleges and their integration as vibrant living-learning communities, work with the Academic Senate to review and implement general education requirements and create an Honors Program, enhance opportunities for undergraduates to work with faculty in research, support and sponsor programs where divergent points of view are expressed.

3. Grow our graduate student population and build professional schools to meet the needs of our state and nation for individuals who will innovate, serve humanity, and tackle challenges facing society and our world.

Possible examples include: Baskin School of Engineering, Management, Global Health, Environmental Sciences, and Education, as well as new and growing graduate programs in the various divisions such as Digital Arts and New Media, Technology and Information Management, Film and Digital Media, Art.

4. Reflect in our faculty, staff, and students the diversity of California's population and cultures.

The diversity of the people of California has been the source of innovative ideas and creative accomplishments throughout the state's history and into the present. Diversity refers to the variety of personal experiences, values, and worldviews that arise from differences of culture and circumstance. Such differences include race, ethnicity, gender, age, religion, language, abilities/disabilities, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and geographic region, and more. Possible examples include: enroll students who are the first in their families to go to college, enroll students who overcome phenomenal odds to qualify for a UC education, enroll students who come from every socio-economics segment of the society, institute best practices for the hiring of staff and faculty (focus on recruitment), and put in place more programs to provide training and upward mobility for our faculty and staff (focus on retention). We do this as we embrace our Principles of Community and strive be Diverse, Open, Purposeful, Caring, Just, Disciplined, and Celebrative.

5. As a responsible neighbor, collaborate effectively with leaders in our region and the State and be careful stewards of our land and the environment.

Possible examples include: Chancellor’s Council on Climate Change, commitment to Sustainability, MBEC/EPC, SILVER, Climate Compact, Santa Cruz tickets, NRP development, business incubation, continuing to encourage and facilitate our students’ involvement in community service.

6. To seed and speed the goals above, undertake a comprehensive fundraising campaign.

This campaign will not only inspire, it will ensure that we can have the status and impact that we desire as well as be able to focus on service, quality, and access. The Campaign will prepare us to think ahead, to look beyond today to what is most promising and important for our collective future. Our goals today will determine what UCSC will be when it turns 50 in 2015. We will accomplish big things, fulfill our obligation to society, and do it with rigor and distinction.