UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi delivered the State of the Campus address before the Academic Senate Meeting on Feb. 11. Here is the full text of her speech:

I am honored to be speaking before the Academic Senate for the first time as Chancellor of UC Davis to:

• Provide an assessment of the present status of the campus
• Discuss the emerging vision for its future
• And continue the dialogue and hear your feedback about our directions, plans and actions.
• Assessing Campus Strengths and Fiscal Realities; addressing it all with our Vision Statement

UC Davis has just entered its second century with a great list of accomplishments that have already established the institution as one of the top public research universities.

We have a lot to be proud of — great recognitions that highlight our strengths in teaching, research, public service and patient care.

These past few months, many of our colleagues have been recognized nationally and internationally. Just to name a few:

• This past fall, Bernie Alder, professor emeritus of applied science, was awarded the National Medal of Science by President Obama.
• Chemistry Professor Susan Kauzlarich received one of the nation’s highest awards — the 2009 Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring …
• …and English Professor Frances Dolan and Evolution and Ecology Assistant Professor Artyom Kopp received prestigious Guggenheim Fellowships to study in Europe.
• And the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was so impressed with nutrition professor Kathryn Dewey’s work that they have awarded her and her UC Davis team of researchers a grant to help formulate and evaluate a cost-effective nutritional supplement aimed not only at saving children’s lives today, but also at helping parents raise healthy children in the future.

Our alumni have excelled, as well, and some of their success is literally out of this world:

• Astronaut Steve Robinson lifted off on the space shuttle Endeavor earlier this week — his fourth space mission — for a two-week assignment on the International Space Station.
• Ann Veneman champions the rights and welfare of children around the world as executive director of UNICEF, which is playing a prominent role in Haiti relief efforts.
• Chevron’s new Chairman and Chief Executive, alumnus John Watson, has taken a leading role in supporting energy research at UC Davis that will change the transportation paradigm for decades to come.
• And the new U.S. Undersecretary of Commerce, alumnus Dave Kappos, is leading efforts to reform patent law and protect intellectual property.

Yet our campus is poised for even more: We want to establish ourselves as the leader in higher education driven by our land-grant mission to provide affordability and access to EXCELLENCE.

Fiscal realities

Since I arrived here in August, we have come together to envision our future in the face of some very difficult challenges. We know that the issues not only affect our immediate circumstances, but also have the potential to undermine the very principles upon which this institution was founded.

But we are determined to transform today’s problems into opportunities for tomorrow. And it is important to keep forward-looking wisdom and optimism in mind as we address the very real challenges we face today — the furloughs and lay-offs, the issues of affordability and accessibility for our students.

• Since July 2008, the campus has lost $150 million in state funds (with $115 million lost since May 2009). We have taken many drastic measures to address this cut and balance our campus budget:
• We instituted graduated furloughs.
• We eliminated positions.
• And we were forced to increase student fees by 3 percent.

All were very difficult solutions with very personal consequences for our staff, our faculty and our students. At the same time, though, we have taken actions to soften the impact of these decisions:

• We are determined to limit furloughs to this year only: the UC President and the Chancellors have made the commitment to terminate them this August.
• We are aggressively promoting UC’s Blue and Gold Opportunity Plan, which covers all systemwide fees for families that earn less than $60,000 a year. And for 2010-11, the family income level goes up to $70,000.
• The university launched Project You Can, a UC commitment to raise $1 billion for student support over the next four years. For our part, we have committed to raise $120 million.
• To help us get there, we recently announced a new matching fund for graduate student support through the estate of the late Charlie Soderquist — a dedicated volunteer, benefactor and alumnus of UC Davis.

The new initiative provides matching funds to faculty, emeriti faculty and staff who give to help create named fellowships that will attract the best and brightest graduate students.

Graduate Studies Dean Jeff Gibeling and Professor Emeritus Walter Jennings of Food Science and Technology were the first ones to create named fellowships, and Jeff played an integral role in creating the program.

We are grateful to Jeff and Walter for their generosity and leadership in this initiative, which is part of the broader effort to secure support for all UC Davis students at a time when they need it most.

Vision for excellence

So, in the midst of this financial crisis, we are making progress. But we all need to do more. And we need a roadmap — a vision for excellence — if we are to work together effectively and productively toward a set of goals that are bold and sustainable.

To do so, we cannot simply look ahead; we must dream our future, develop a plan and accept its risks, and take actions to realize our collective aspirations.

And there is no better time for our campus than now to think boldly, take risks and act decisively.

We have many indicators that speak to our readiness for the next big step forward:

• A substantial increase in student quality over the past five years
• A doubling of our research enterprise over the past five years — to more than $620 million last fiscal year
• Our phenomenal success in attracting federal stimulus funds — nearing $100 million.

To refine our vision for excellence and ensure its ultimate success, feedback is critical from all corners of our campus community. While our vision document is still under review, I would like to give you a sense of the possibilities and of the directions we might pursue, as they emerge from your aspirations about our campus.

We could build upon the diversity of our campus and expand opportunities for transformative and multicultural education that is deeply immersed in a global context and understanding.

We might also leverage our reputation for interdisciplinary and collaborative research so that we become a center of innovation at the intersections of knowledge.

We can position ourselves as a global resource and make UC Davis first choice for international students, post-doctoral scholars, prestigious international and governmental exchange programs and globally focused research enterprises.

In addition, we could be the pre-eminent university partner in advancing the economic prosperity of our region.

And, guided by our commitment to social responsibility and community engagement, we could lead the way in supporting and sustaining healthy, equitable communities.

These are just some of the ideas that have been put forth as we work to define UC Davis’ vision.

In the coming weeks, we will be sharing the latest draft of this vision statement with the broader campus community. Please read it and offer your suggestions.

I ask for your participation in this process and welcome your ideas. Your involvement will help ensure that the directions we ultimately pursue reflect the wisdom of our community and the insight of our collective thinking.

To achieve the strategic goals we are formulating for our campus, we must stabilize our state budget, protect our academic programs and create a financially strong foundation upon which to build our future. To achieve this, we are doing the following:

Advocating for UC to stabilize our state budget

We are playing an active role in the effort and steps that President Yudof and the UC Board of Regents have employed in making the case for UC to the governor, lawmakers and the people of California.

Recent events suggest that this approach is effective. Governor Schwarzenegger’s proposal for a guarantee of support to higher education provides some hope and, at the very least, opens the door for important conversations about how California can restore higher education's place as a top priority for the state.

So we have made progress in this regard, but we need to do more. I know that many of you have been advocating for UC Davis, and I urge you to continue doing so.

We need to remind the public of the many benefits they receive from the great work that you do. And we need to remind the public of the value of higher education to achieving social mobility and boosting economic growth.

Support for our national universities is not only a state responsibility but a national responsibility as well.

Some of you may be aware that I spoke recently at the World Universities Forum in Davos, Switzerland, about the need for a Morrill Act for the 21st century and for the federal government’s reinvestment in public higher education….

….I also spoke about the need for the public to re-affirm its support for higher education as the highest priority. We must parallel the commitments made by our parents, a generation that built this country for the benefit of their children, and for our children and our children’s children….

….It is now our time to continue the building.

Protecting our academic excellence

In addition to stabilizing our state budget, we are also developing a plan to improve our organizational effectiveness, reduce administrative cost and — in the process — increase revenue and quality of service.

The campus has launched an “Organizational Excellence” initiative, recognizing that academic excellence cannot be achieved unless the academic units are supported by an administration that is lean, effective, transparent, service-oriented and innovative.

As part of this new initiative, we are developing Shared Service Centers for human resources, accounting and payroll.

We anticipate that — depending on the types of changes we make and if we do them well — we can achieve administrative savings in the range of 20 percent to 50 percent.

As we go about this process, we will present our findings, discuss our proposed actions and report on outcomes regularly. This process will be informed by the input and feedback from the community.

As part of achieving “organizational excellence,” we are committed to reducing central administration and redeploying resources to the academic units in ways that maintain the integrity of the institution.

For instance, excluding the UC Davis Health System, the current ratio of staff in central administration to staff in academic units is 1.3 to 1. We are committed to reversing this ratio. Current efforts are contributing to this goal: the budget cuts assigned to central administrative units average 30%, compared with 15% for academic units.

Diversifying and increasing our revenue sources

UC Davis’ first comprehensive fundraising campaign will be key to ensuring our financial stability and academic success.

We are currently in the Quiet Phase of the campaign, with our gift total now surpassing a half-billion dollars. We are still in the planning process, but we hope to publicly launch the campaign this fall, announcing an aggressive fundraising goal of $1 billion.

Your role as faculty members will be paramount to our success in the campaign. It is, after all, the important work that you do that inspires people and organizations to give.

UC Davis’ philanthropic partners are extraordinarily committed, and I feel certain that we will succeed in raising an endowment to support our outstanding students, faculty and programs.

Present efforts underway

I’d like to also share with you some other efforts currently underway.

At Convocation last September, I expressed my confidence that UC Davis will emerge as one of the nation’s top five public research universities.

We have established several committees aimed at helping us to achieve this goal:

Two blue ribbon committees have been created, each with a different charge:

A blue ribbon committee to review and improve our research enterprise: Led by Vice Chancellor and Dean Claire Pomeroy, this committee will focus on finding ways to substantially grow the university’s research funding over the next five years;

A blue ribbon committee to review and improve our intellectual property and tech transfer practices: Led by Management Professor Andy Hargadon, this committee will recommend specific ways and means by which the university can improve its support of technology transfer and commercialization.

We have also organized two committees aimed at increasing UC Davis’ visibility and improving our academic standing:

The Chancellor’s Awards Committee: will help the campus develop a strategy for increasing the external recognition of our outstanding scholars and scientists through nominations for important awards;

The Academic Assessments Committee: will examine current practices and policies on national and international quality assessment efforts and help us analyze and respond to related surveys and data requests.

In addition, the Academic Senate Committee on the Future of UC Davis has just been formed and is chaired by Senate Chair Bob Powell and Professor Linda Bisson. Much like the UC Commission on the Future, this committee will address a number of questions about our optimal size and shape in the future and how best to support our teaching, research and public service mission in a way that provides affordability and access to excellence.

We are also initiating several searches to fill key administrative positions.

We are in the process of confirming our search committees — which will include representatives from all of our constituencies — and we will soon be ready to launch the searches:

• Dean Neal Van Alfen will lead the search for our next Provost;
• Vice Chancellor and Dean Claire Pomeroy will lead the search for the Vice Chancellor for Research position;
• Vice Chancellor for University Relations Babs Sandeen will lead the search for the Executive Director of the Comprehensive Campaign; and
• Dean Harold Levine will lead the search for University Librarian.
• Each of these committees will have a faculty co-chair.

So, as you can see, there has been much progress and we are moving forward on many fronts.

Pursuing excellence through sustainability

While it is true that these are very challenging times, this is also a time of great opportunity for UC Davis.

We have many strengths upon which to build, and I would like now to share with you what I see as one of our most promising opportunities.

Sustainability is an area of both tremendous strength and opportunity for UC Davis.

Sustainability spans all of UC Davis — from the humanities to the sciences, from research in global climate change to the upholding of human rights.

For example, there is the School of Medicine’s Shifa Clinic, which treats underserved patients in our Middle Eastern and East Indian communities.

Our School of Education is helping our K-12 partner schools apply best practices to prepare at-risk students.

The TANA art center in Woodland, just opened by our Department of Chicana/Chicano Studies, cultivates the cultural and artistic life of the community.

As well, we are helping to preserve and revitalize languages, with a particular focus on California Native languages, helping to bring lost or dying languages back to life.

We are sustaining a competitive economy by producing entrepreneurial business leaders and sustaining the health of the world through our innovations in both human and animal health, and in our practical developments in nutrition, crop improvement and other innovations.

Recognizing our leadership, the U.S. Agency for International Development awarded us a major grant to launch an unprecedented international effort to find and control diseases that move between animals and people.

Sustainability is indeed an area of tremendous strength for UC Davis. We need only look around us to see that this is true:

From the overhead lights in the parking structures that seem to magically brighten as we approach them to our hi-tech irrigation system that responds to the weather, we can see it.

Consider our new brewery, winery and food science facility, which will be home to the first LEED-certified platinum brewery and winery.

And then there is UC Davis West Village, which is being planned as a net-zero energy community for students, staff and faculty.

In short, we are the leaders in this area and it is time for us to claim it.

To help us launch sustainability as a major initiative for UC Davis, I have asked Dean Steven Currall and Professor Nicole Biggart of the Graduate School of Management to help organize a Green Summit in the coming months. Our summit will bring together scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, academic researchers, elected officials and venture capitalists from both the Bay Area and Sacramento.

We look forward to a wide-ranging discussion about how UC Davis creative endeavors and discovery can play a stronger role in regional economic development, with an eye toward how best to create public-private partnerships in the area of clean energy technology and sustainability.

I see this as an exciting opportunity that could be incredibly fruitful for our university and our region.

The sustainability initiative is only one of many opportunities that we will pursue as part of our vision for excellence in a sustainable and transformative second century for our campus.

Before I close, I would like to return to what I said at the beginning of this address about looking ahead boldly while addressing today’s challenges.

As we try to solve the problems of today, we shall 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.