A 27-page report chronicles the successes of Envision UC Santa Cruz, a campuswide strategic plan for the future and the paths needed to get there.
The report, released in early March, summarizes the many accomplishments in key target areas since the strategic planning process began in the 2013–14 academic year. It also discusses the goals the campus continues to pursue and the many ways the campus community is working toward addressing those goals.
“Envision UC Santa Cruz has been a helpful process, as it has guided our prioritization of investment and effort,” said Interim Campus Provost/Executive Vice Chancellor Herbert Lee.
Envision UC Santa Cruz focuses on six areas, supported by goals that were developed through campuswide input and collaboration.
The focus areas are:
- Advance and support student success
- Allocate faculty resources strategically
- Support research excellence
- Make UC Santa Cruz a place where people people enjoy working
- Tell the world our story
- Address workload burden
In support of student success, the campus established the Division of Student Success, which is providing campuswide coordination and leadership for student success programs and activities across departments, divisions, colleges, and administrative units. The campus also has worked to better coordinate academic advising.
To allocate faculty resources strategically, the campus has used rebenching funding to hire faculty members who can help grow graduate enrollment. The campus also established the Center for Innovations in Teaching and Learning in fall 2016.
To support research excellence, the campus provided seed funding to establish the Office of Research Development. Additionally, the campus now has an Office for for Industry Alliances, which is taking a comprehensive lifecycle approach to commercialization and entrepreneurship. Additionally, the Office of Research was reorganized to increase efficiency and incorporate these two new units.
To improve the campus work environment, the campus started new staff recognition programs; held Principles of Community workshops; launched Tuesday Newsday, and reinstituted the Campus Welfare Committee.
In seeking to address workload issues, the Division of Business and Administrative Services expanded its internal process simplification initiative, which has four teams focused on systems that impact units across campus: travel, entertainment, procurement, and hiring. Additionally, the campus has implemented Career Tracks, a systemwide job classification structure that brings the campus in line with UC norms and provides employees with better-defined career paths.
The planning process for Envision UC Santa Cruz spanned the 2013–14 academic year and was overseen by then-Campus Provost/Executive Vice Chancellor Alison Galloway.
