The Division of Biological Sciences took another step forward last week in its bid to become a college.
By a vote of 157-146, the faculty in the College of Letters and Science approved a plan for the division to reconstitute itself into a college, a move that supporters say would better reflect the scope and breadth of the division's research and teaching programs.
Under campus bylaws, both colleges where DBS faculty members hold appointments -- the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and the College of Letters and Science -- may register votes on the move. Faculty in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences voted last year in favor of the request.
Bruce Madewell, chair of the Academic Senate, said the proposal will now be reviewed in the Committee on Academic Planning and Budget Review, the Committee on Academic Personnel, the Graduate Council and the Undergraduate Council.
Unless these committees raise concerns, Madewell said, the proposal then goes before the Council of Deans and Vice Chancellors and Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef. From the chancellor, the proposal goes forward to the UC Office of the President.
UC President Robert Dynes will ultimately recommend action to the Board of Regents, who will make the final decision, Madewell said.
Phyllis Wise, dean of the Division of Biological Sciences, said the Letters and Science vote was "positive but close." She noted, "We are gratified by the confidence that many of our colleagues in Letters and Science have in our ability to be a college, and we will work to be sure that we understand the reasons for the concerns of some of them."
Wise said the reconstitution will "clarify and simplify" for students the processes for getting an undergraduate education in biological sciences.
"We will continue to collaborate with our colleagues in the colleges of Letters and Science and Agricultural and Environmental Sciences as we develop the new curriculum and serve the students. In fact, we continue to appreciate interactions with faculty in other colleges, as we strive to provide the best education to the students," she said.
Winston Ko, dean of the Division of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, said he is pleased the reconstitution is moving forward, "as DBS is already a de facto college."
"Those in Letters and Science who voted in support of the reconstitution were persuaded of the commitment for continuing cooperation of the two colleges in curriculum matters and in research, which is important to the campus as a whole," Ko said.
Becoming a college would allow DBS to give its faculty a full voice in the Academic Senate; oversee course and curricula processes; create its own college degree requirements based on the best features of its current parent colleges; grant undergraduate degrees and honors programs; and allow for a parallel structure with many similar colleges and schools in the country, among other benefits.
That message won favor in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, which voted 172-78 in August 2003 to support the switch.
Neal Van Alfen, dean of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, said the evolution of UC Davis from the "farm" of UC Berkeley into a major research university has always been led by the university's strengths in the life sciences.
"The formation of the College of Biological Sciences is a natural progression in this continuing growth of UC Davis into a world-renowned comprehensive campus," Van Alfen said. "Our college benefits greatly from the quality of faculty that can be attracted into the other life sciences programs of the campus, and we are thus supportive of the proposal to form this new college."
Executive Associate Dean for the Division of Biological Sciences Thomas Rost has said that the financial impacts of the switch are almost negligible.
The division's budget is already independent of the College of Letters and Science and the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, and that will remain the same, he said.
As of 2002-03, DBS has 135 faculty members, 370 staff, 4,500 undergraduate students, 518 graduate students and an annual budget of about $40 million. The division administers nine undergraduate majors in biology and it has five academic sections -- evolution and ecology; microbiology; molecular and cellular biology; neurobiology; physiology and behavior; and plant biology.
About 18 percent of UC Davis undergraduates are enrolled in majors offered by the Division of Biological Sciences. The comprehensive "biological sciences" category -- which includes majors outside the division as well -- continues to be the most popular on campus with about 1,900 students enrolled.