Focus
Marcos Garcia, left, credits much of his academic success with participation in MESA programs
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From soldiering to engineering: An academic preparation success story
One of the University of California’s highest budget priorities this year is restoration of $19.3 million in state funding for UC programs that prepare students for college. A successful California economy requires an educated population, and UC academic preparation programs have been proven to get educationally disadvantaged youths achieving at higher levels and prepared for college. For instance, 66% of program participants enroll in college, compared to only 46% of all California high school graduates.
But statistics tell only part of the story. The success of academic preparation is often told through individual lives.
Marcos Garcia went straight from rural Santa Paula High School into the army. Neither his parents – both laborers – nor his counselors encouraged him to go to college.
Yet today Garcia, a veteran of Desert Storm, is a product development engineer at Inovati, a high-tech protective coatings company. He says his academic success was due in large part to the Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement (MESA) programs at Ventura College, where he enrolled after his military services, and at UC Santa Barbara, where he transferred and earned his degree in mechanical engineering last June.
And to his delight, MESA and other UC academic preparation initiatives now have been established at his high school, providing support to students like him so they can go to college.
MESA, the Early Academic Outreach Program (EAOP), and the Regional Academic Initiatives (RAI) work jointly to establish a solid college-going culture for the entire school. With the help of these programs and the UCSB Academic Preparation and Equal Opportunity Office, Santa Paula High—ranked among the state’s bottom 30 percent in academic performance of schools—sent 46 students to UCSB in the last two years.
Today, Garcia continues to volunteer with academic preparation programs at Santa Paula High School while remaining an active alum at UCSB. These programs really work, according to Garcia.
“We have a large number of students who go to college as a result of MESA and other academic prep programs,” he said.
Systemwide News
President Dynes names systemwide staff diversity council
President Dynes earlier this month named 19 staff members from across the UC system to serve on a new systemwide Staff Diversity Council.
In a letter to the University community, President Dynes wrote, “The council will advise senior UC leadership and work alongside the UC Diversity Study Group in setting an agenda that promotes staff diversity throughout the system.”
President Dynes explained that the council’s focus will be on a broad range of staff diversity issues, including the recruitment and retention of a diverse workforce, leadership commitment to staff diversity at each location, and systems for threading diversity principles through the fabric of the UC employment experience.
List of members and further details...
UC Riverside celebrates centennial of world-renowned citrus research center
This story is also provided in a video version.
Where did citrus fruit originate? What are the three types of citrus that provided the basis for all oranges, lemons, limes, grapefruit and tangerines? Who is credited with bringing the navel orange to California?
The answers all lead back to UC Riverside’s Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension, which this year is celebrating its 100th anniversary.
Over the past 100 years, scientists at the Agricultural Experiment Station have established an international reputation in agricultural research and development, especially in semi-arid and arid horticulture and in natural resources. “Our faculty, extension specialists and students address a wide range of agricultural, urban, and natural resource problems that are critical to the future of California,” said Don Cooksey, executive associate dean for the Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension.
With its roots in citrus research, the station develops new varieties of fruit and advances new production techniques. On several occasions, it solved pest and disease problems that could have wiped out California’s citrus industry.
Very early in its history, the station’s mission expanded to include research on other fruit and vegetable crops, as well as graduate education in the agricultural sciences.
Today, researchers working in campus laboratories at the 500-acre experiment station and field sites away from campus undertake extensive studies in the plant sciences, environmental and natural resources, and pest and disease management. The research serves as the basis for new, improved plant varieties – including a newly released asparagus variety – as well as new, more sustainable agricultural practices to combat insect and disease infestations and to enhance crop productivity. More than 50 different crops are grown annually for research, including citrus, turf grass, grapes, avocados, date palms, corn, small grains, ornamental trees and shrubs, and cover crops.
President Dynes testifies in Washington, D.C., on competitiveness
President Dynes testified last week before the U.S. House Committee on Science and Technology about the University of California’s Science and Math Initiative (SMI), which has become a model for federal legislation sponsored by committee chairman Bart Gordon (D-Tennessee) to improve American competitiveness by training more science and math teachers.
In his testimony, President Dynes explained that SMI is now in its second year and is being developed simultaneously on all nine general campuses. To date, more than 600 students have enrolled in SMI, which now involves 467 teachers and 174 schools in 41 districts across California. The unique public and private partnership also reflects support from the governor, legislative leaders and corporate funders, including Intel Corporation, whose chairman, Craig Barrett, was another hearing witness along with Norman Augustine, former chairman and CEO of Lockheed Martin Corporation.
Prior to the hearing, President Dynes participated in a press conference to present Chairman Gordon and a bipartisan group of lawmakers with an “American Innovation Proclamation,” calling upon Congress to quickly pass “an innovation agenda that will ensure continued US competitiveness” and signed by more than 300 business and higher education leaders.
President Dynes’ full testimony...
Additional salary increases offered to lower-wage UC staff
In recognition of the impact of California’s high cost of living on employees, especially lower-paid staff, and as part of UC’s ongoing efforts to provide competitive total compensation for all employees, the University is offering special wage increases to approximately 36,000 lower-paid non-student staff employees at UC campuses and medical centers.
The proposed increases, which total $7.8 million, affect employees with annual salaries of less than $40,000. They are in addition to salary increases already given to employees this year, or which are already expected under collective bargaining agreements.
For the roughly 4,000 employees covered by this proposal who are not represented by labor unions, the increases will be given automatically, effective April 1. For the roughly 32,000 UC employees covered by the proposal who are represented by unions, implementation of the proposal requires union consent. UC recently reached an agreement with the Coalition of University Employees union resulting in wage increases totaling $2.7 million for approximately 11,800 clerical staff. And, as of this writing, the University is attempting to reach similar agreements regarding increases for lower-paid service and patient care technical employees represented by the American Federation of Federal, State and County Employees, and for technical and research support professional employees represented by the University Professional and Technical Employees union.
Regents name new Executive Vice President, Secretary and Chief of Staff for the Regents
Katherine N. Lapp (left) and Diane M. Griffiths
The Board of Regents recently filled two critical senior positions as part of the ongoing effort to reflect changing demands both at the Office of the President and in the functions and roles of the governing board.
Katherine N. Lapp, who recently stepped down after nearly five years as executive director for the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority, has been named UC’s executive vice president for business operations. The newly-established position will be responsible for leading improvements in the effectiveness and accountability of the University’s many administrative support operations. Lapp will have specific responsibilities in such key areas as facility construction and maintenance, real estate management, human resource administration, information technology, support and procurement. She will also contribute to administrative oversight for the University’s compliance and audit activities, which recently have been enhanced by the Board of Regents.
The Regents also appointed Diane M. Griffiths as the new secretary and chief of staff for the board. Griffiths, a two-time UC alumna, is currently chief counsel of the California State Assembly Rules Committee. With her appointment, the position's title and role have been greatly expanded beyond the traditional duties of planning and coordinating regents' meetings, fulfilling UC's public transparency requirements and handling board correspondence. New responsibilities for Griffiths will also now include independent policy research and analysis in support of the regents' decision-making, long-range planning and problem-solving related to significant challenges facing the 10-campus system.
More information and background on Lapp and Griffiths
UC planning for growth in university health science programs
Recently, UC regents were presented with a summary of findings and recommendations from the President’s Advisory Council on Future Growth in the Health Professions. Among the council’s recommendations: a 34 percent increase in medical student enrollments between now and 2020; a 75 percent increase in master student enrollment for nursing; and a nearly 100 percent increase in pharmacy doctoral student enrollments by 2020.
We recently spoke with UC executive director of Academic Health Sciences Cathryn L. Nation to talk about the next critical steps after the completion of the Advisory Council’s report.
Board of Regents increases student fees; expands financial aid programs
The Board of Regents has approved student fee increases for the 2007-08 academic year to preserve the quality of UC’s teaching and research programs and ensure that all students continue to have access to the classes they need to progress to timely graduation.
The fee increases are consistent with those recognized in Governor Schwarzenegger’s 2007-08 state budget, and in line with the compact between UC and the governor, which includes a provision for regular annual fee increases. They include 7 percent increases for resident undergraduate and graduate students, and fees ranging from 7 to 10 percent for professional student students.
“It is regrettable that fee increases are necessary to address the University’s needs, but I want to reassure students that we have a strong financial aid program in place to mitigate the impact of the increases on financially needy students,” said UC President Robert C. Dynes. “In fact, 43 percent of our undergraduates would have their full fee increase covered by grant funds.”
The fees will cover, among other needs, the enhancement of mental health services provided to students. Given the serious and urgent need for enhanced mental health services, the University will set aside nearly half of the 7-percent increase in the registration fee -- approximately $4.6 million -- to fund initial steps in enhancing mental health services. The additional 4 percent will be used to fund salary and other necessary cost increases.
More details on UC’s student fees...
Regent Parsky named by Gov. Schwarzenegger to chair pension commission
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger last month named UC Regent Gerald L. Parsky to chair a 12-member commission created with legislative leaders to study the state government pension system.
Parsky, who stepped down as chairman of the Board of Regents last January, has long been a leader on UC pension issues. He provided critical leadership in the effort to ensure the continued safety of the university’s pension funds, which led to the adoption in 2000 of revised investment policies and practices to improve the university’s pension funds’ accountability, to increase diversification and to reduce volatility. He testified before the legislature last year in opposition to pension plan reforms that would “put [UC] at a noncompetitive disadvantage for hiring faculty."
Parsky currently serves as chair of the Aurora Capital Group, a Los Angeles-based investment firm. From 1977 to 1992, he was senior partner and a member of the executive and management committees with the Los Angeles law firm of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher. Prior to going into private practice, Parsky served as assistant secretary of the U.S. Treasury Department in charge of international affairs and capital markets from 1974 to 1977. He has served as a Regent since 1996.
UC releases annual reports on senior management total compensation; outside board activities
The University has released its annual reports on total management and outside board activities for senior management. These reports are redesigned to provide more specific compensation information than ever before. The total compensation report also includes an addendum that provides detailed explanations, where applicable, by individual of the compensation elements behind the aggregated numbers in the report.
Review these reports: Legislative report on senior management compensation | Compensation for outside activities
Dynes' Desk
Dynes' Desk is a way for anyone to email a comment, idea, or suggestion to President Dynes. While he is not able to respond personally in most instances, President Dynes does read each email submitted. In each edition of "Our University," he will respond to a couple of Dynes' Desk emails addressing issues of broad interest to the UC community.
Submit an email to Dynes' Desk
Comment:
How can the average Californian afford to go to school when you hike up fees as much as you did? You are turning California’s public schools into institutions intended only for a select few. Though I am one of those select few, I don't want my public schools to be so noninclusive.
Response:
Raising student fees is a tremendously difficult thing to do, and we don’t do it lightly. What we are trying to do is ensure that the University can continue to enroll all students who meet our eligibility requirements and choose to attend, hire and retain the talented faculty and staff who are key to the institution’s quality, and provide the classes that students need in order to graduate on time. We also are working to expand student mental health services, which are seeing increasing demand both nationally and at UC. Unfortunately, state funding alone is not enough to help us keep up with the cost increases necessary to achieve all of these things, and an expanded contribution from students is needed as well. We do place a high priority on expanding financial aid whenever there is a fee increase so that students from lower- and middle-income families still can afford to attend, and as a result, many students will not see the fee increase at all. And even with financial aid, we are making every effort to keep fee increases as moderate as possible.
Profile
"The most important advice I have, for those approaching retirement from the University: plan, plan and plan."
Eddie Murphy
Director
UCLA Emeriti/Retirees Relations Center
Eddie Murphy joined UC in 1998, as Director of the UCLA Emeriti/Retirees Relations Center (ERRC). Last year, Eddie was presented with the UCLA Staff Assembly’s highest honor, the Excellence in Service Award. Eddie, who is good natured when it comes to jokes about her famous name, is cited by all who work with her as diligent and focused on her work, with an uncanny sensitivity to the needs of those around her. “Eddie has such heart and such people skills,” said Maria Lubrano of the ERRC, who collaborated with fellow staffers to nominate Eddie for the award. “She makes building relationships a priority. The retirees of UCLA, the University, and the Center are all better off having had Eddie as the Director of the ERRC.”
Q
What do you like best about your work?
A
The thing that I most enjoy about my work is the sense of satisfaction that I realize from assisting others with issues and concerns in their lives. Tackling a matter with or on behalf of a retired faculty or staff member is stimulating to me.
Q
How would you define your management style?
A
For me, the key to being a good manager is treating those I work with in a manner that I would want to be treated. If I have an expectation of them as team members then I feel I must first exhibit that behavior before them.
Q
What do you enjoy most about working for the University of California?
A
I most enjoy the environment offered in working for the University of California. It is an invigorating environment and I have been motivated in many ways personally from the interactions with constituents, colleagues and students. I would be remiss if I did not mention the wealth and plethora of benefits available to us. We are very fortunate to have such generous coverage and choices from which to make our plans.
Q
Do you have any general tips you can offer people approaching retirement from the University?
A
The most important advice I have, for those approaching retirement from the University: plan, plan and plan. Planning goes beyond finances and includes psychological issues as well. It is never too early to start planning.
Did You Know...
- For more than a half century, the University of California has studied the phenomena of global climate change from a wide range of scientific perspectives. Learn more about the many ways UC researchers are developing technological solutions to curb global warming and mitigate its environmental, economic and health impacts.
Resources
What would you like to read about the UC system in future editions of "Our University"? Send your feedback and story suggestions to communications@ucop.edu. Produced by Strategic Communications, University Affairs, UC Office of the President.
