Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi sent the following e-mail to the Council of Deans and Vice Chancellors on July 22. Subsequently, the chancellor's office provided this e-mail address for comments: future@ucdavis.edu.
More than a century of contributions by faculty, staff, students and friends have established UC Davis as one of the top public research universities in the nation. We have assembled an outstanding faculty whose studies cover a broad array of disciplines, and developed a world-class infrastructure, with stellar research facilities, classrooms and student services. The steadfast support of the state of California has been a foundation of our success, and the university in turn has educated generations of California residents and been an engine of economic development.
Today we find ourselves at a defining moment in our history as a campus. The state, faced with increasing needs and dwindling revenue, is no longer able to provide sufficient support to sustain the excellence of its public universities. Reduced state funding is a chronic challenge and not a temporary condition. Private philanthropic support, although very important and growing, cannot balance out the state budget reductions and has forced the University of California to substantially increase tuition.
As you are all aware, since the fall of 2009 we have made and continue to make every possible effort to become more efficient and to reduce costs. Our Organizational Excellence Initiative and other cost-cutting efforts are visibly reducing expenses and improving efficiency. Nonetheless, we have now reached the point where there is a clear choice. We can either accept that permanent reductions in state support will define a new status quo for UC Davis in which our ability to sustain excellence is constrained by limited resources, or we can take control of our destiny by developing new strategies and adopting new budget models that will move the campus forward in the coming years. I am committed to the latter course of action, and propose a strategy below to accomplish that goal.
Almost unique among the 10 campuses of the University of California, UC Davis has a physical footprint that is compatible with larger undergraduate and graduate cohorts; more than 6,000 acres and 17 million square feet of maintainable space. This fortunate circ*mstance, combined with our investments during the past 10 years in the physical infrastructure of the campus, positions us well to leverage our resources through careful and strategic planning. Our preliminary analyses suggest that increasing the enrollment of the campus and pursuing an appropriate blend of in-state and out-of-state students can help us:
• Bring the benefits of a UC education to a greater number of deserving students.
• Become financially stable.
• Internationalize our campus, to create a more diverse educational climate and to prepare future global leaders.
• Provide sufficient additional revenue to support up to 300 new tenure-track faculty positions, bringing the total to approximately 1,800 FTEs (full-time equivalents).
• Improve our existing infrastructure and make investments needed to sustain and grow excellence across the campus
• Boost regional economic development and create new jobs on and off campus
I began sharing this concept with various groups across campus last spring, and we have now begun preliminary discussions with the Office of the President. Transforming this idea into a dynamic and successful multi-year year strategic plan requires the support of the president and regents as well as the collective support and wisdom of the entire campus community, including faculty, staff, students and friends. We also look forward to strong partnerships with our Davis and Sacramento communities and the surrounding region, with a shared goal of creating positive outcomes for our campus and its neighbors.
Many questions remain, and in the weeks and months ahead, I will seek your thoughts and advice about this idea. We will launch a consultative process to consider the complex issues that must be addressed, including academic planning, strategies for increasing student recruitment and retention, infrastructure improvements necessary to support a larger campus community, and approaches to support growth in our graduate programs consistent with our overall vision of excellence. As we examine this idea and the opportunities it may bring to UC Davis and the region, we need to remember that success will require openness to new approaches and the development of a new activity-based budget model that provides incentives for success. Further, it will require a culture of creativity, team work, regular assessment, continuous improvement and discipline.
Throughout the process, we must always remember that our focus is on innovation and excellence; not growth simply for growth’s sake, but rather creating a university that can sustain its rising trajectory through its own efforts, leveraging the state’s support and rising above the fiscal limitations we now face. Together, we can and will define our own destiny, and I look forward to working closely with you as we contemplate our future and decide on a course of action that will fulfill our aspirations.
