Chancellor Katehi's Draft UC Davis Vision Document

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UC Davis: A Vision of Excellence

March, 2010

A Message from Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi

As we begin our second century, I believe that UC Davis is poised to be one of the world’s finest universities. We are already regarded as an institution with an extraordinary foundation of academic excellence and international reach. And in the coming years, we have enormous potential to build upon these strengths and rise to even greater heights of distinction and service.

This extraordinary capacity to excel has been clearly demonstrated to me, in just my first year as Chancellor. But to fulfill our capacity as a transformative university, it has also been clear that we need a renewed course of action, a new vision to guide our future. During the past few months, I have spoken with many members of the UC Davis community about our future and I have heard their varying perspectives about our campus’s attributes and aspirations. From their voices, a new framework for UC Davis’s future is emerging, one which I would like to share with the broader UC Davis community. To that end, I am providing this document, “UC Davis: A Vision of Excellence” for our collective consideration.
Let me emphasize that this vision statement is clearly a draft document. To refine its focus and secure its ultimate success, feedback from all corners of our community is critical. Please send your comments to visiondraft@ucdavis.edu by May 14, 2010. With your engagement, we can ensure that the strategic directions that we will ultimately pursue reflect the wisdom of our community and the benefits of our collective thinking.

I recognize that our vision needs to acknowledge the difficult economic circumstances of the present, while also focusing fully on the extraordinary opportunities of the future. I know that achieving this balance will be challenging, But I believe that as we try to solve the problems of today, we should not compromise our dreams for tomorrow – our dreams as a world class university, our dreams for our students who deserve nothing less than access to excellence, and our dreams for the people of California, whose well-being is so intricately woven with our own.

I ask all members of our campus community to join me in this spirit of optimism by providing ideas and constructive feedback to this draft vision document. Working together, we shall imagine and attain a transformative, second century of excellence.

Commitments to Guide Our Way

For more than 100 years, UC Davis has attained intellectual excellence through the essential enterprises of teaching, research and public service. The university’s mission reflects this achievement and this enduring responsibility:

“The central purpose of UC Davis, as a comprehensive research university, is the generation, advancement, dissemination and application of knowledge. In this, UC Davis is committed to developing and sustaining leading programs in

• The arts, humanities, biological and physical sciences and social sciences—disciplines at the core of all universities;

• Agricultural and environmental disciplines and engineering;

• Professional studies in education, law, management, medicine, nursing, and veterinary medicine.

In these programs, the campus integrates three purposes: teaching students as a partnership between faculty mentors and young scholars; advancing knowledge and pioneering studies through creative research and scholarship; and applying that knowledge to address the needs of the region, state, nation and globe. UC Davis is committed to the tradition of the land-grant university, the basis of its founding. This tradition—built on the premise that the broad purpose of a university is service to people and society—guides today the campus’s special commitments and emphases.”

The university’s mission is complemented by additional guiding statements of principle and policy, among these, the “Educational Objectives for Students, the By-Laws of the Davis Division of the Academic Senate, the Academic Personnel Manual, and the “Principles of Community". Each of these reinforces the campus’s dedication to excellence in such critical areas as student learning, academic freedom and shared faculty governance, and the advancement of the campus community. Together, they provide both the philosophic base and the springboard from which UC Davis’s vision of excellence is being launched.

Accordingly, with the academic strengths and aspirations of UC Davis in mind, and with the certainty of its place as a transformative, world-class university at heart, UC Davis will use the following statement to guide its pathway forward.

As members of the UC Davis community, we will:

• inspire and support excellence, and the success and engagement of our students, faculty and staff to learn, experiment and achieve to their full individual and collective potential;

• foster a bold and innovative spirit in our teaching, research and public service enterprises. We shall set a standard of excellence in all of our endeavors and reward creativity, risk-taking, collaboration, and entrepreneurial partnership, as optimal ways to promote learning and pursue break-through discoveries;

• expand our land-grant mission, so that our pursuit of knowledge and our engagement with partners will be in service to the nation, as well as the emerging challenges of an interdependent, global society;

• affirm our abiding commitment to diversity, as represented in our community and in our perspectives, as essential competitive measures of our excellence. We shall celebrate our cultural and intellectual richness and be resolute in advancing inclusion and equity in our community;

• be a true partner in economic development with those individuals, foundations, government entities, and businesses that are actively engaged in improving the economy of the region, state and nation, and the quality of life for all; and

• promote a community characterized by respect, integrity, openness and responsiveness, and consultation and collaboration, in which we are invested in our collective welfare and the responsible, far-sighted stewardship of our resources.

Attaining our Vision of Excellence

UC Davis aspires to be recognized as one of the top public research universities in the nation. As such, we choose to be regarded, both domestically and internationally, as a pre-eminent leader of higher education that is driven by our land-grant heritage to provide educational affordability and access to excellence. UC Davis will be known for its diverse educational opportunities, its innovative, interdisciplinary and collaborative research endeavors, and its distinction in leading enterprises that support social responsibility and a sustainable global environment. Each of the following goals defines these dimensions of excellence and provides a course of action by which our vision can be achieved:

A Vibrant Community of Learning and Scholarship

• Through transformative and diverse opportunities for learning, UC Davis will inspire and prepare its students, faculty, staff, and alumni to excel and to lead in solving the dynamic challenges of tomorrow’s world.

A Center of Innovation at the Frontiers of Knowledge

• Building on the interdisciplinary strengths of its faculty, UC Davis will provide an environment that encourages innovations in learning and research by discovering ideas that take shape at the boundaries and intersections of academic disciplines and collaborative effort.

A Global Resource

• UC Davis will be the university-of-choice for international students, post-doctoral scholars, prestigious international and governmental exchange programs and research enterprises that have trans-national and global applications.

An Engine for Economic Vitality and a Sustainable Future

• UC Davis will be the pre-eminent university partner in advancing the economic prosperity of our region, fostering the burgeoning life-science, agricultural and sustainable energy industries of California, and delivering socially, politically, economically and environmentally relevant solutions to global problems.

A Champion for Healthy and Equitable Communities

• Guided by its commitments to social responsibility and community engagement, UC Davis will support and sustain healthy, equitable communities, in which the benefits of education and discovery are accessible to all.

A Culture of Organizational Excellence, Effectiveness and Stewardship

• UC Davis will provide an efficient and service-focused administrative infrastructure that effectively facilitates and advances its academic excellence.

Strategies and Assessment Measures to Achieve our Goals

Conceptual strategies and assessment measures have been developed for each of the primary goals of the UC Davis vision. While many of these strategies will be accomplished on a campus-wide basis, the success of each goal is dependent on the efforts of the campus’s academic schools, colleges, and divisions to create objectives of their own that help embody and achieve the vision. Thus, these high-level strategies, along with the more detailed ideas that follow many of them, provide a framework from which many more actions from the academic and administrative units can emerge.

A Vibrant Community of Learning and Scholarship

Through transformative and diverse opportunities for learning, UC Davis will inspire and prepare its students, faculty, staff, and alumni to excel and to solve the dynamic challenges of tomorrow’s world.

In advancing this goal, we will:

• support excellence in teaching by bringing innovative faculty into the classroom, who can share the fruits of cutting edge research in and across the disciplines and provide the best education to our students;

• encourage teaching and learning excellence through a wide range of academic and research resources and tools, including the use of emerging technologies, multi-modal learning, practicum experiences, and other curricular transformations;

• utilize our strengths and distinctions, particularly in the humanities, arts, and social sciences, to emphasize critical thinking, writing, and life-long learning, while encouraging students to ask questions about social values, cultural practices, ethics and citizenship, and what it means to live in a diverse and complex society;

• provide diverse learning and developmental environments for all students by achieving student learning outcomes, promoting faculty mentoring, encouraging involvement in research and creative expression, and supporting international study, civic engagement, and internship experiences;

• support and promote a prestigious, internationally-ranked library that takes its due place as the intellectual hub of the university;

• recruit, retain and support the most academically selective and diverse cohorts of students, at the undergraduate, graduate and professional levels;

• reinforcing the importance of having a broad global perspective to support active learning, recruit, retain, and support non-resident and international students at all levels; increase the size of the graduate student cohort;

• dramatically increase need-based and merit-based financial support for all students, through both UC-wide programs and campus-based fund-raising initiatives;

• attract, hire and retain a diverse group of faculty and staff members and sustain their enterprises with a superior physical, financial and technologic infrastructure to support their intellectual and professional development and their quality of life;

• create targeted programs to recruit and support both “senior or distinguished hires” and top-tier new and emerging faculty, to bring the world’s most talented teachers, researchers and collaborators to our campus;

• promote diversity in all our endeavors, understanding that diversity of thought, as well as of culture and human identity, is an essential element of the academic excellence we strive for as a top public research institution; and

• apply the recommendations of the UC-wide and UC Davis strategic planning efforts, respectively “The Future of the University of California” and “The Future of UC Davis” (both currently underway), in guiding campus directions in such areas as academic structure and scope, curricular and pedagogical innovation, funding, visibility, and advocacy.

METRICS: We will measure our success in achieving this goal by assessing:

Undergraduate and Graduate Students

• growth in enrollment, diversity of undergraduate, graduate and professional students and excellence in student achievement as * demonstrated by awards, fellowships and other external recognition;

• increases in the recruitment and retention of underrepresented students, with particular emphasis in the disciplines of the sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics;

• increases in the number of non-resident and international undergraduate students, and international graduate and professional students;

• increases in the amount of scholarships and other philanthropic support for undergraduate, graduate and professional students;

Faculty and Staff

• increases in the quality and impact of the faculty’s teaching scholarship, frequency of external recognition of our faculty and associated media coverage that increases the campus’ visibility;

• increases in the quality and impact of the staff’s contributions in their area of expertise, frequency of external recognition of our staff and associated media coverage that increases the campus’ visibility;

• increases in the recruitment and retention of faculty and staff, particularly in under-represented categories, classifications or disciplines;

• increases in the number and quality of student experiences provided by faculty and staff in undergraduate research, domestic and international internships, career and leadership development programs, and public service; and

• improvements in mentoring of students, junior faculty and junior staff, increased opportunities for participation in mentor-mentee formal and informal activities.

A Center of Innovation at the Frontiers of Knowledge

Building on the interdisciplinary strengths of its faculty, UC Davis will provide an environment that encourages innovations in learning and research by discovering ideas that take shape at the boundaries and intersections of academic disciplines and collaborative effort.

In advancing this goal, we will:

• expand our leadership in break-through scholarship and research in and among academic units and in partnership with prestigious universities, business groups, planning agencies and philanthropic entities;

• create collaborative gathering places, both physical and virtual, that reach across disciplines and include community leaders and policymakers (e.g., virtual communication tools, digests of faculty expertise, journal clubs, repurposed facilities, cultural venues and library spaces);

• support excellence in basic research and translational science as it applies towards the solution of the most critical social problems including health, poverty, energy, transportation and climate change;

• develop a range of university incentives, training programs, and recognition opportunities for faculty, staff, and students that foster innovative collaborations, self-sustaining initiatives, team science, “high-risk/high-impact” discovery, next-generation technologies, entrepreneurial activity and other forms of core, interdisciplinary and system-level scholarship that are unique to the humanities, arts, and social sciences;

• create an innovative, transparent and effective research administration which will build upon past successes in substantially increasing the amount of external funding and partnerships to support the university’s research enterprise and promote the application of research for public use;

• secure increased financial support from programs primarily aimed at funding the humanities and social sciences;

• create a task force, with faculty representation from both the sciences and the humanities, to review methodologies and incentives for indirect cost recovery allocations from contracts and grants and corresponding national ranking calculations;

• strengthen and expand graduate groups throughout the academic units; leverage the quality of these groups as a distinctive strength of UC Davis and reward those groups that exceed established standards of performance and productivity; and

• utilize the breadth of our academic disciplines and research enterprises, (including the university’s array of professional schools) and our proximity to the both the state capitol and the UC Sacramento Center to create a coordinated and comprehensive program to address the serious social, political, economic and environmental problems of California.

METRICS: We will measure our success in achieving this goal by assessing:

Input Research Measures

• the number of prestigious faculty innovation and career awards (such HHMI awards, NIH innovation awards, NSF career awards, Guggenheim, Humbold and Fulbright Fellowships);

• the number of philanthropic donations, foundation awards and individual gifts that we receive for interdisciplinary programs;

• the number of federal awards from various agencies;

• the number of corporate collaborations and awards;

• increases in the productivity of grants and publications at the interface between disciplines, such as humanities and sciences; health system and basic sciences/engineering; policy and translational;

• Output Impact and Quality Measures

• the number of faculty inducted in domestic and international academies of high prestige;

• the number of honorary degrees held or obtained by faculty;

• the number of inventions disclosures, inventions, patents, licenses and start-ups that our faculty and staff obtain;

• the number of faculty awards and other prestigious measures of institutional visibility and leadership and the amount/effectiveness of corresponding media coverage;

• increases in the number of undergraduate students who report being engaged in a meaningful research partnerships with faculty members; and

• the number of interdisciplinary graduate programs/groups that are recognized as exemplary by external rankings or other measures.

A Global Resource

UC Davis will be the university-of-choice for international students, post-doctoral scholars, prestigious international and governmental exchange programs and research enterprises that have transnational and global applications.

In advancing this goal, we will:

• extend our recognition as a leading international university by both increasing the number of international faculty, scholars and students on the campus, and the number of UC Davis students and faculty who pursue academic experiences abroad; we will do this as a means of promoting a culture of global relevance and collaboration and we will benchmark these efforts with other top-tier research universities;

• consider the resource and infrastructure needs essential to attracting, retaining and supporting students from all corners of the globe;

• develop student retention strategies and programs, as well as cultural communities of support, to ensure the graduation of international students;

• substantially increase the number of undergraduate students who participate annually in study abroad programs, international internships and public service learning opportunities; develop joint, collaborative international graduate programs;

• launch strategic academic and clinical health care research partnerships that are recognized for their contributions to critical global challenges; engage UC Davis faculty from specific countries or regions in the development of these efforts;

• expand UC Davis’ prominence and funding capacity by being one of the top universities in receipt of funding from those governmental entities and foundations that support international programs;

• strengthen and expand the international alumni network to keep it engaged with UC Davis and our international programs; and

• provide the technologic tools, cultural programs and student services to facilitate dialogue and international exchange, both physically and virtually.

METRICS: We will measure our success in achieving this goal by assessing:

• the number and quality of and funding for prestigious international academic programs, proposed and created on an annual basis;

• increases in the number of undergraduate and graduate international students who enroll at and graduate from UC Davis;

• the number of international scholars who annually choose to study and conduct research at UC Davis and comparative benchmark indicators from competitive peer institutions;

• the number of students who participate annually in study abroad programs, international internships and public service opportunities; and

• the number of international alumni with meaningful engagements in the educational and philanthropic activity of the campus.

An Engine for Economic Vitality and a Sustainable Future

UC Davis will be the pre-eminent university partner in advancing the economic prosperity of our region, fostering the burgeoning life-science, agricultural and sustainable energy industries of California, and delivering socially, politically, economically and environmentally relevant solutions to global problems.

In advancing this goal, we will:

• partner in opportunities to create innovative university-business ventures, community-based programs, research park(s), public venues and cultural resources, and next-generation virtual enterprises to promote the economic growth and agricultural vitality of the state;

• lead the development of the clean energy, life-science-based and agricultural economy of Northern California by developing a regional “Green Valley” concept, in which these industries will thrive. Apply the ways in which these types of entrepreneurial partnerships can help address the unique economic challenges of California, and broadly contribute to related environmentally-based economies throughout the nation and the world;

• utilize UC Davis’s leadership presence and community-based partnerships within California’s Central Valley to advance the region’s economic conditions; we will undertake these endeavors within the context of the Valley’s heritage of cultural, artistic and language diversity, its environmental and agricultural character, and its unique history;

• deepen the university’s connections to the regional, national and global business communities;

• conduct a high-level review of the campus’s technology transfer and commercialization processes and, subsequently, implement a model technology transfer process that optimally meets the needs of faculty and the research enterprise;

• utilize leading scholarship in the humanities and social sciences as integral contributors to understanding and addressing the historical, cultural, and social complexities related to both economic vitality and the development of sustainable communities;

• provide essential patient care services, tele-health options, health care partnerships and employment opportunities to the Northern California region, as well as to underserved rural communities across the state through the Sacramento Campus’s clinical, health education and research programs; and

• emphasize sustainability, in all its many forms and interpretations, as a primary feature of our campus identity and as found across all disciplines; leverage our academic strengths in these areas to advance the scholarly reputation of the campus and encourage the creation and application of ideas to address the pressing needs of an interdependent, global society.

METRICS: We will measure our success in achieving this goal by assessing:

• the number of business, cultural, service, and entrepreneurial partnerships that are developed and that produce visible benefits and/or economic impact;

• increases in the depth and breadth of economic impact on the region that arise from our efforts, as reported in the bi-annual “UC Davis Economic Impact Report;” monitor the economic impact in the state that accrues from the adoption of research technologies that are pioneered at UC Davis;

• the number of start-up and spin-off companies, and the local, regional and state employment impact, which arises from our entrepreneurial partnerships; and

• the rate of increase in the prestige of our graduates, as measured by earnings, social impact or other visible measures.

A Champion for Healthy and Equitable Communities

Guided by its commitments to social responsibility and community engagement, UC Davis will support and sustain healthy, equitable communities, in which the benefits of education and discovery are accessible to all.

To achieve this goal, we will:

• draw upon the unrivaled diversity of our academic expertise and the unique presence of the Sacramento campus to develop community-based models and resources that advance medical discoveries and healthcare delivery and wellness programs for people, animals, and food safety, educational equity, and community development;

• employ cutting-edge technologies, including tele-health programs, to extend our educational partnerships, specialized clinics, community outreach efforts and other public service programs, particularly to underserved communities;

• support partnerships that pair undergraduate, graduate and professional students together with faculty, alumni and community leaders, to operate community-based health care clinics, legal and immigration support programs, and innovative public school (K-12) initiatives in the Northern California region;

• support educational outreach opportunities and preparatory programs that encourage access to higher education and the many resources of the university, across all communities and socio-economic levels; and

• foster the cultural changes needed for sustained, equitable access to and use of technology to support low-cost and high-value health and educational services.

METRICS: We will measure our success in achieving this goal by assessing:

• the passage of state and federal legislation and implementation of regulations that draw on the expertise of UC Davis research and recommendations to create healthier and more equitable communities;

• the number, quality and availability of educational and healthy living resources, community partnerships, and referral mechanisms for healthcare, nutrition, and community well-being;

• the number, quality and availability of professional development resources, research-based recommendations, and support tools for health care professionals and members of the community;

• the number and significance of technologies developed annually through translational research at UC Davis;

• improvements in the college-going rates of California high schools with low Academic Performance Index ratings; and

• improvement in the number of underrepresented students (low-income, first-generation college students, etc.) that enroll in the disciplines of the sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics.

A Culture of Organizational Excellence, Effectiveness and Stewardship

UC Davis will provide an efficient and service-focused administrative infrastructure that effectively facilitates and advances the campus academic excellence.

In advancing this goal, we will:

• recognize and support the integral roles that staff members play in advancing the academic and institutional enterprise; support professional development, comprehensive compensation strategies, an equitable and supportive workplace, and innovative recognition opportunities that foster human and service excellence;

• create an effective, innovative and transparent administrative organization, in which streamlined business practices that eliminate redundant and unnecessary processes are utilized, an appropriate balance between risk taking and compliance measures is achieved, and centralized administrative resources are deployed to best support academic needs;

• conduct administrative unit reviews, as well as high-level internal and external assessments (“blue ribbon committees”) of critical campus-wide functions, to optimize the alignment of strategy and service with campus mission and service stakeholders;

• invest in technologic systems that facilitate valuable results, high quality service and low cost delivery, and leverage collaborative, efficient and sustainable technology solutions across campus;

• invest the campus’s financial resources in support of academic programs that demonstrate sustained or potential academic excellence and impact; develop funding criteria that use the measures of excellence and impact as guiding principles;

• create a strong financial foundation for the university that both advocates for enhanced public funding at both the state and national levels and diversifies the campus’s revenue base by significantly increasing research funding levels and private philanthropic donations;

• model energy conservation in construction and maintenance operations and utilities consumption through the pervasive and innovative application of “green“ technologies; through these actions and the development of an aggressive campus “climate action plan,” achieve the campus’s sustainability targets; and

• communicate timely and transparently on issues of interest to students, faculty, staff, and external constituents, and integrally involve our various constituencies in decision-making processes, governance and advocacy.

METRICS: We will measure our success in achieving this goal by assessing:

• metrics that demonstrate increased quality and transactional speed, reduced bureaucracy and improved administrative processes;

• levels of customer satisfaction;

• number of employees trained;

• use and effectiveness of advisory boards;

• number of Administrative Unit Reviews (AURs) completed; and

• number of best practices effectively and positively integrated into our administrative operations.

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