President Mark G. Yudof last week issued a draft accountability report that represents the first effort to comprehensively assess, and present to the public, the UC system's progress in meeting key teaching, research and public service goals across its 10 campuses.

The report presents 102 performance measures, including student success, access and affordability; research impact and funding; faculty diversity and quality; and university finance.

The data are presented in ways to highlight trends over time and, wherever possible, to compare UC's performance with that of eight other U.S. research universities.

"We should be accountable to the Legislature, the parents, the taxpayers, the students," Yudof said. "People deserve an honest answer to the question of how you're doing, and it needs to be backed up by statistical data. Numbers do not measure everything, but the fact you can't measure everything doesn't mean you don't measure anything."

The report is available online: www.universityofcalifornia.edu/accountability. Public comments are welcome via the same Web site.

— Dateline staff