As the academic year begins to unfold, I am delighted to share with you two updates on our Strategic Academic Planning process.
I genuinely appreciate all the wise feedback on the draft SAP and implementation guide, and I want to commend the Academic Senate for working earnestly over the summer to review the draft. The Senate’s work has enabled us to move forward faculty hiring and to address resource needs.
In reviewing the detailed comments, it became clear to me that it would be of great value to turn back to our community to continue discussions around the implementation of our Design Principles — the characteristics we say define our community — allowing more time to suggest, evaluate, and prioritize our target outcomes. Your input will be critical in developing implementation initiatives. We will work this fall to rewrite the plan and craft a more UC Santa Cruz-style document, then distribute it for further comment, encouraging feedback through the end of winter quarter.
The Senate and others also suggested faculty leadership for the Academic Priority Areas, and I am pleased to announce faculty leadership teams for each of the APAs. The co-leaders, with the assistance of associate leaders, will collaborate to bring focus to the APAs and work with the deans to shape faculty hiring. I anticipate that much of the hiring next year will be positions that relate to the APAs, while we continue to support graduate growth and critical undergraduate curricular needs.
The Themed Academic Working Groups produced so many innovative and exciting collaborations that I have made a decision to dedicate some of our limited resources to catalyze faculty initiatives and to continue to support the lively energy the TAWG process awakened. While not all of our faculty will participate directly in these initiatives — and, as we know, it is the range and depth of our work as a comprehensive university that makes us who we are — the entire campus community will benefit from our efforts to move forward on these fronts.
UC Santa Cruz is one of the most remarkable universities in the nation, and, indeed, in the world. We offer an innovative, insightful and humane model for the future of higher education. We must support the efforts of our exceptional faculty and students, their leading-edge thinking, research, creative work, and scholarship, and heighten their visibility. I believe our Strategic Academic Plan will help us to do so.
Finally, as a reminder, please join Vice Provost for Academic Affairs Herbie Lee for our first Cafe SAP event, 8:30–9:30 a.m. this coming Wednesday at the Music Center patio. All interested faculty, staff, and students are invited to stop by, ask questions, or simply share thoughts and comments about the SAP. Please drop in!
