BACKGROUND DOCUMENTS AND STUDIES

THE TWENTY-YEAR ACADEMIC PLAN

In 1985 the UC Santa Cruz campus prepared an academic planning document entitled the UCSC Twenty-Year Plan, [1] which established the objectives that the campus would have to achieve over the next 20 years in order to fulfill its mission to become a comprehensive university campus of national distinction. The Plan states that, while the campus would remain committed to undergraduate instruction, it would have to grow from a small, predominantly liberal arts institution to one with a full complement of undergraduate, graduate, and professional academic programs in order to fulfill its academic mission.

The Twenty-Year Academic Plan notes that the first decade of campus development was devoted to building colleges and founding undergraduate programs appropriate to a campus anticipating enrollments equaling those of the largest University of California campuses. Few graduate programs or research institutes and no professional schools were established during that period. The sharp curtailment of campus growth in the late 1970s and early 1980s left many boards of studies in the early stages of development, with uneven coverage in some important sub-disciplinary areas and broad gaps in others.[2] In many boards, sabbatical leaves result in further temporary gaps in program offerings. The approximately 30 boards of studies on the Santa Cruz campus have an average size of 11 ladder faculty members.[3] As a result, some boards do not have the flexibility to focus research efforts quickly on emerging fields of study. In addition, the early high level of faculty recruitments has resulted in a narrow age distribution of faculty members, of whom many are tenured.

In the late 1970's and early 1980's, the limited offerings of many boards of study resulted in difficulties recruiting and retaining students, including minority students.

The Twenty-Year Academic Plan lays the foundation necessary for the pursuit of the academic goals of the campus. The Plan outlines several elements, including new graduate and professional programs, enhanced undergraduate liberal education, new applied and undergraduate pathways, and strengthened research, scholarship, and creative activity. In a section entitled "Appropriate Size of the Campus," the Plan states that, in order to support strong graduate and undergraduate programs, approximately 20 faculty members would be necessary for each board. In addition, it states that a total of approximately 40 boards would provide opportunities to introduce new programs to broaden the currently limited offerings of the Santa Cruz campus. The Plan also calls for an increase in graduate student representation to approximately 15 to 20 percent of the total student enrollment by the year 2005.[4]

The total of 800 permanently-assigned faculty members resulting from these assumptions could be expected to serve approximately 15,000 students, based on the existing University student-faculty ratios. Although private institutions may be able to support the same number of faculty with fewer students, the University of California receives state funding based on a fixed student-faculty ratio that is not within The Regents' power to modify.

The Twenty-Year Academic Plan identifies a student enrollment level of 15,000 as "desired." Based on demographic uncertainties at the time the Plan was written, a lower enrollment level of 12,000 is also discussed and characterized as "conservative."

UCSC ACADEMIC PLANNING STUDY

In July 1988 the UC Santa Cruz Office of Finance, Planning, and Administration completed an assessment of the implications for campus development of the goals and academic programs envisioned in the Twenty-Year Academic Plan. Seven separate studies are presented in the document, each of which contributes to the campus' decision to attain a campus size of 15,000 students by the year 2004-05. The studies are summarized below:

  1. In January 1988 the academic deans and the administration re-examined the validity of the faculty Full Time Equivalent (FTE) assumptions in the Twenty-Year Academic Plan. A program-by-program analysis by the deans revealed that most current boards of studies were below the twenty-faculty-member average threshold cited in the Twenty-Year Academic Plan. Most boards needed additional faculty to assure their long-run viability as research and teaching units. In order to offer the breadth of curriculum needed to support undergraduate and graduate students, several basic areas of study were not offered and some courses were offered only in alternate years.[5]

    In addition, many programs were only partially developed and faculty recruitments were restricted to a few major subdisciplines. As a result, some boards did not have the flexibility to focus research efforts quickly on emerging fields of study [6] and were only partially developed in significant subdisciplines. Other boards attempted to offer a wide range of courses (i.e., breadth), but as a result lacked the depth of curriculum associated with a top-ranked university. Lack of a critical mass of resources (faculty FTE and the support that accompanies such FTE) was cited by many external review teams as a deterrent to attracting the first-rate faculty, including minority faculty members, needed to build new programs and to renew existing programs.

    The unanimous conclusion of the deans and the UC Santa Cruz administration was that the Twenty-Year Academic Plan goal of 15,000 students, which provides about 800 FTE faculty permanently assigned to the boards, is the minimum required to support the campus' goal of becoming a comprehensive teaching and research institution and that the introduction of graduate and professional programs is imperative if high quality undergraduate programs are to be maintained.

  2. A study of programs at comparison institutions [7] provided statistical support for the deans' qualitative program reviews. Many of UCSC's boards were staffed at levels far below that of comparable institutions. For example, forty percent of the boards at UCSC had 10 members or fewer compared with only twelve percent of the departments at the comparison institutions. The study also provided evidence that an average minimum of 20 faculty members was associated with programs of excellence similar to those anticipated by the Twenty-Year Academic Plan.

  3. In an examination of the number of faculty required by each board to assure quality and breadth, the average department sizes of the most highly regarded graduate departments in the nation were compared with UCSC's boards. With only one or two exceptions, UCSC's boards are significantly smaller. The average board size of 20 core faculty cited in the Twenty-Year Academic Plan appears to be the minimum required if UCSC desires to achieve national recognition.

  4. A review of degree programs offered by the majority of UC campuses pointed to a lack of breadth and comprehensiveness in UCSC's curriculum. While undergraduate program coverage in the Arts and Letters is comparable, programs offered as specializations within a board at UCSC are often full departments on other campuses. Furthermore, more graduate programs in Arts and Letters are offered at other campuses. Most UC campuses have more programs in the life sciences than are offered by the UCSC Natural Sciences Division. Santa Cruz offers the same areas of undergraduate study in the Social Sciences as do most UC campuses, but offers fewer graduate programs. The most significant disparity in curricular offerings is in professional programs. For example, the Santa Cruz campus has only one undergraduate engineering program and no program in business.

    Although the University of California does not have a core curriculum per se, the analysis of common University programs revealed that UC Santa Cruz does not offer undergraduate programs in several common disciplines, and offers significantly fewer graduate programs than other UC campuses. In order to meet the campus' and the University of California's criteria for quality, breadth of curriculum, and graduate programs, UC Santa Cruz must expand its curricular offerings.

  5. A more general Twenty-Year Academic Plan goal is "to join the ranks of the leading research Universities in the nation" and to have "vigorous graduate programs in all the basic disciplines." [8] Using information from An Assessment of Research-Doctorate Programs in the Unived States, top-ranked programs in each of the campus' three major divisions (Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, and Humanities) were identified. All U.S. public universities with top-ranked programs in two or more of these academic divisions had enrollments of 15,000 or more.

  6. While size alone does not assure quality, studies of the public institutions whose graduate programs were rated among the top 15 in the nation [9] revealed that enrollments of at least 15,000 were associated with such highly ranked schools. Furthermore, graduate and professional enrollment at these schools averaged over 25 percent of total enrollment, corroborating the Twenty-Year Academic Plan goal to increase graduate enrollment to between 15 and 20 percent of total enrollments. [10] Thus for public universities, it appears that 15,000 students or more are required to support the breadth and quality of graduate curricula and active research faculties that are characteristic of top-ranked graduate programs.

  7. One of the goals for the campus presented in the Twenty-Year Academic Plan is to "rank among the top 100 research institutions in the nation measured by the receipt of federal research funds." [11] A study of institutions within this group reveals few below the 15,000 enrollment level. Such smaller institutions either did not offer a comprehensive curriculum [12] or had substantially larger graduate enrollments [13] than those envisioned for UC Santa Cruz. Of the University of California campuses, only the two smallest (Santa Cruz and Reverside) did not appear in this top 100 list.

As a result of the re-examination of the assumptions about average program size and total required faculty FTE underlying the Twenty-Year Academic Plan, it can be concluded that, in order for the Santa Cruz campus to fulfill its goals and become a full-fledged member of the University of California system in terms of the depth, breadth, and quality of its teaching and research programs, it must grow with care and forethought to provide facilities for an enrollment level of no fewer than 15,000 students.

THE SPACE PLAN

The University of California Santa Cruz Space Plan is an extension of the campus' Twenty-Year Academic Plan. Whereas the Twenty-Year Academic Plan defines programmatic goals and directions, the Space Plan translates these goals and directions into physical requirements.

Space planning is based on a determination of the built area required to accommodate planned program elements. As recommended by the California Postsecondary Education Commission (CPEC), the University of California space requirements are based on the allocation factors established by State guidelines for various academic disciplines, modified by academic program considerations such as curriculum and research plans. The UC Santa Cruz Space Plan uses these recommended factors combined with the enrollments projected in the Twenty-Year Academic Plan to determine future campus instruction and research space to be supported by the State. Projects not funded by the State, such as housing, recreational facilities, and special facilities, are included; however, roadways, parking, and inclusion area developments [14] are not.

The Space Plan establishes broad principles to guide the development of specific projects, their siting, and their interrelationships. It outlines space problems currently faced by the campus and suggests capital projects that would enable the campus to provide sufficient space to serve the requirements of the campus at an enrollment of 15,000 students. The Space Plan calls for a greater than proportional increase in developed space for four reasons:

The space needs delineated in the Space Plan for a campus of 15,000 students form the basis of this LRDP and are enumerated in the Program Elements section.

 

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