Campus News
SAP: Academic priority areas and oversight
With fall quarter in full swing, I’m delighted to provide this brief update about our Strategic Academic Plan.
Academic priority areas
Our academic priority areas provide themes around which we will organize faculty research collaborations and initiatives. The APAs highlight where UC Santa Cruz does cutting-edge disciplinary and interdisciplinary research, and where we can, and do, lead the world. They also provide another means for faculty across all of our divisions to connect. While we may not have the ability, like some universities, to hire 20 faculty in a single area, we can have 20 faculty members in a range of disciplines whose work in an area is mutually supportive, which collectively elevates the impact of all their efforts. Moreover, when hiring in these areas, new faculty will enter with a group of colleagues from across the university who are poised to be potential partners. This amplification of our work internally and externally is the reason we will prioritize proposed hires that support one or more APAs.Since my Oct. 5 update, I have clarified the role of the APA faculty leadership teams. They have been asked to focus only on hiring, helping identify complementary faculty hires across disciplines, departments, and divisions to influence the decanal hiring requests that will be submitted in early winter quarter.