Campus News
Starting Our New Academic Year
Many of us sense excitement with every new academic year. For me, this year has the added energy of beginning to implement our new, shared vision for our campus.
Dear Colleagues,
The new academic year is here and I’m ready and excited to begin the year. As I make my way across campus and see more and more activity, with some people joining the UC Santa Cruz community for the first time, I feel the great possibilities ahead. Many of us sense this excitement with every new academic year. For me, this year has the added energy of beginning to implement our new, shared vision for our campus.
Leading the Change
Over the summer, members of the five strategic planning committees reviewed the feedback and suggestions gathered last year through meetings, campus surveys and planning sessions. Earlier this month, our new 10-year strategic plan was released. You can access it on the Strategic Plan 2023 website.
The plan establishes five central themes and identifies strengths and emergent areas of research, education, campus climate and service to advance the university’s global and regional impact, improve the experiences of community members and strengthen the campus push to lead at the intersection of innovation and social justice.
An implementation executive committee has been established. I will be co-chairing the committee with Associate Chancellor and Chief of Staff Anna Finn. We’re tasked with setting priorities, working on implementation timelines and budgets, and monitoring progress.
Student Success
Advancing student success continues at the top of our campus goals. Every student we admit is assessed, by us, as having the potential to succeed here. With that assessment, we carry a responsibility to do all we can to ensure our students will graduate on time and be prepared to succeed in their post-graduate plans and aspirations.
As the community with the most direct significant and persistent impact on students, our faculty members are vital to this endeavor. Over the next few years, with the leadership of Associate Campus Provost of Academic Success Jody Greene, we will be working within a more targeted approach to student success that focuses on the work within departments and programs and that centers the work of our instructional community. Faculty success is an integral part of our efforts, to create a sustainable model that allows us to leverage the expertise of our faculty.
This work aligns the five-year compact between Governor Gavin Newsom’s administration and the University of California and Chancellor Larive’s campus goals and priorities.
Across the campus, we are looking at how we teach and how to improve academic performance, inclusion and campus climate by redesigning key gateway courses and training faculty, teaching assistants and staff to meet the needs of all students. Partnering in this work, and with the guidance of the Teaching and Learning Center, we will reevaluate how we can be more responsible in our approach to the educational enterprise through course and curricula design that is culturally informed, promotes student success and closes equity gaps.
New Faculty
I’m happy to welcome our new faculty members. This year 54 new colleagues are joining our faculty across the five academic divisions bringing the number of Senate Faculty to 686. Our new colleagues are key partners in teaching, mentoring and preparing our undergraduate and graduate students to thrive at UC Santa Cruz and in their future chosen professions. Their research and creative scholarship areas enhance existing endeavors and open new fields of inquiry, including Afro-Latin social dances, game design, refugees, borders and colonialism, climate change, aquatic ecosystems, human-computer interaction, archeological preservation, and much more.
Generative AI in Teaching and Learning
We have been hearing a lot about how rapidly advancing generative AI (artificial intelligence) tools like ChatGPT, Bard, and DALL-E are changing teaching and learning and their usage by students continues to grow. Our faculty and graduate students continue to be intentional and creative in responding to the challenges and opportunities posed by generative AI.
I strongly recommend that you take a proactive approach to communicating with students about these technologies by integrating an AI policy into your course syllabi. Last week we sent a message to instructors providing advice, planning resources and guidance on the use of AI detection tools.
New Majors
We have admitted our first students into the new microbiology major this fall. Housed in the Department of Microbiology and Environmental Toxicology, the program leads to a Bachelor of Science degree. Students will study fundamental concepts in biology with a focus on microorganisms and their impact on humans and the environment and learn about the application of microbiology in human health, biotechnology and environmental fields.
UC Santa Cruz has received approval for our first online major. The Arts Division‘s new Creative Technologies online major is the first of its kind in the UC system. Launching Fall 2024 and led initially by Ben Leeds Carson, Professor of Music, the major will expand higher education opportunities and access in a way that prioritizes the quality of a UC education and offers those who cannot reside in Santa Cruz an opportunity to earn a UC Santa Cruz degree.
Developed by Arts Division faculty, Dean Celine Shimizu says the curriculum design builds on traditional pedagogies with additional curriculum in computing, historical context and entrepreneurship and takes art practice beyond the art studio into virtual and global worlds of collaboration and creation. Students will spend at least three quarters on campus, and this major will allow students to complete a degree through the online modality.
Helping students build networks and community has been an important component of the planning. Whether on campus or online, Creative Technology majors will have access to UC Santa Cruz’s comprehensive online support network, including advising, mental health care, opportunities for cohort building and co-curricular activities.
Kresge Academic Center
The new 35,000-square-foot Kresge Academic Center is about to open. It is part of the Kresge College Renewal project, a renovation and expansion project designed by noted architect and MacArthur Fellow Jeanne Gang of Studio Gang Architects. The building will house multiple departments, including the History of Art and Visual Culture, the Science Communication Master’s Program, the Film and Digital Media Department, the Writing Program and faculty offices along with multipurpose classrooms, study lounges, a 48-seat state-of-the-art computer lab, and a 600-person lecture hall—the largest on campus—for events and performances. I hope you can join us tomorrow for the center opening ceremony starting at 10:30 am.
The newly renovated and expanded Rachel Carson/Oakes dining hall opened last week. The state-of-the-art hall rivals restaurant dining rooms with an open kitchen, take out options and a sit-down dining area.
Campus Climate Initiative
Last spring we announced that UC Santa Cruz was joining Hillel International’s Campus Climate Initiative (CCI). We are one of 13 colleges and universities, including UC Irvine and UCLA, in the 2023-24 cohort.
The initiative recognizes that key campus leaders play an important role in bringing about broad-based educational and policy changes. By partnering with Hillel International, other colleges and universities and Santa Cruz Hillel, we can catalyze advances benefitting all students.
Joining me on UC Santa Cruz’s CCI leadership team are Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Anju Reejhsinghani, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs and Success Akirah Bradley-Armstrong, Dean of Students Garrett Naiman, and Executive Director of Santa Cruz Hillel Becka Ross.
Working with our cohort peers, we will explore Jewish student experiences on campus, the diversity of the Jewish community and the challenges of campus antisemitism and develop and implement action plans that create a more inclusive climate for Jewish students and all students.
New Guidance on Academic Accommodations
Last year the Disability Resource Center in partnership with UC Santa Cruz faculty, provided disability accommodations and services for 2,404 Students with Disabilities. The number of Students with Disabilities attending UCSC continues to grow each year, a positive outcome of civil rights laws protecting the rights of Disabled people.
In partnership with the campus directors of disability services, UCOP recently released new guidance documents for faculty regarding academic accommodations. These documents were created to help faculty and instructors navigate the work of implementing disability accommodations in their classrooms. They include practical information: a brief on accommodations, an explanation of roles and responsibilities and the Providing Academic Accommodations Series. We also encourage you to view and share the DRC presentation: Accommodating Students with Disabilities in the UCSC Classroom. Together this presentation, along with the new UCOP guidance, will provide all of the foundational information needed to create an inclusive learning environment for Students with Disabilities.
If you have general questions regarding compliance, please contact the director of the UCSC Disability Resource Center. For specific student questions, please contact the student’s Disability Coordinator.
Website
And, lastly, I am happy to share that we are about to launch the new CP/EVC website. It highlights the work of the office through the lens of our four campus goals. You will find information on how the campus is Advancing Academic Success, have access to a new Religious Holidays & Observances calendar and much more.
My best wishes for the start of this new academic year. I’m looking forward to working together to advance our goals.
Sincerely yours,
Lori
Lori Kletzer
Campus Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor