Katehi delivers 2011 State of the Campus

2.24.11

(Chancellor Katehi delivered the following address to the Academic Senate at the winter 2011 meeting on Feb. 24.)

Good afternoon to all of you and thank you for giving me the opportunity to come back a year later to the Academic Senate.

It is a pleasure to speak with you today about our progress and our challenges – and where UC Davis stands locally, nationally and globally.

We all know about the ongoing economic crisis that has gripped the world economy and our state.

Still – as you see every day at UC Davis – we are moving forward with a bold vision and outstanding faculty, staff and students.

We are a thriving center for innovation that happens at the intersections of the world’s most critical challenges the converging challenges of food, water, energy, environment, health and society.

Examples of distinction

I want to share just a few examples of the incredible work UC Davis faculty, staff and their students are doing in each of these areas.

Food:

R. Paul Singh – 2010 Nicholas Appert Award. Paul is a joint UC Davis professor of food science and technology and professor of biological and agricultural engineering.

He was honored for preeminence in, and contributions to, the field of food science and technology, including mathematical techniques for understanding physical changes in food processing.

Water:

Peter Moyle is a professor in wildlife, fish and conservation biology – was honored with the 2010 Brown-Nichols Science Award in recognition of his scientific contributions to the San Francisco Estuary and watershed.

Peter was recognized as California’s most knowledgeable fish expert and for his long work with fisheries and the preservation of native fishes.

Energy:

Ilke Arslan is an assistant professor in our Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science. She has received the prestigious Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, awarded by President Barack Obama.

Ilke was nominated for the award for her work studying nanomaterials for energy and hydrogen storage.

Jeffery Ross-Ibarra, assistant professor and plant genetics expert, received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.

He was nominated for a research project that uses a novel approach to identify genes that would improve varieties of corn.

Environment:

Daniel Sperling has helped make UC Davis the energy leader in research and practical applications. Dan is leading UC Davis’ efforts to rewrite the state’s and the nation’s fuel standards to create cleaner, more energy-efficient vehicles.

This year, he also won the 2011 Heinz Award for his contributions to revolutionary transportation and energy research.

Health:

In October, UC Davis Medical Center completed the new Surgery and Emergency Services Pavilion, the largest construction project ever undertaken in UC Davis history.

The pavilion is 472,000 square feet, cost $424 million to build and is the most technologically advanced building on UC Davis’ Sacramento campus.

Our health system is a crown jewel and I want to mention just a few of its many recognitions this year:

• The UC Davis Medical Center was named a top hospital by the nonprofit Leapfrog group.
• Modern Healthcare named it among the top 60 most integrated healthcare networks.
• Sandy Chen Stokes, a chaplain resident at UC Davis Medical Center, has been selected to receive AARP Magazine’s Inspire Award for her efforts to address end-of-life issues in the Chinese-American population.
• And our School of Medicine is now among the top 40 in the nation for National Institutes of Health funding.

Humanities:

Yiyun Li, UC Davis English professor, recently received the prestigious "genius award" from the MacArthur Foundation.

Yiyun is an outstanding storyteller – and through her fiction writing, she is helping societies better understand each other.

As you can see, there are many, many acts of excellence happening on our campus every day. This was just a short acknowledgement of the exceptional work all of you are doing at UC Davis.

Call for faculty assistance

We are at a crossroads.

As you know, UC Davis is growing in its impact and reputation at a time of a great crisis.

We are now ranked among the nation’s top 10 public-research universities – and that’s because our faculty, staff and students are also among the best in the nation.

You are exceptionally talented, dedicated and collaborative.

And right now, UC Davis needs your commitment and collaborative spirit more than ever.

We need your help as we move this campus forward – and become more efficient, more effective, more entrepreneurial and more globally connected.

Framing the challenge

Gov. Jerry Brown’s 2011-12 budget for the state of California calls for a 16.4 percent cut to the UC system ($500M to the UC).

UC Davis’ share of that is $73 million.

Additional fixed costs bring the shortfall for the coming year to $99 million.

This would mean our state funding will have dropped nearly 40 percent in just four years.

This is an accelerated withdraw of the state from its contract with the public under California’s Master Plan.

If this cut materializes, our state fund will be 8 percent of our total budget.

UC Davis is facing a new reality – one that requires that we change fundamentally.

We have a choice:

• Stay the way we are, absorb the cuts and allow the erosion that started four years ago to continue, or
• Re-invent ourselves, re-form, re-adjust and continue with our progress.

For those of us who see ourselves as the guardians of a treasure given to us by almost eight generations of Californians, there is one way to go.

We should not be defined by the cuts we make, but by the vision we follow, the risks we take, the investments we make. 

Budget details

Strategy:

The first part of the solution is the UC Davis share of university-wide solutions such as the 2010-11 restoration funds, 2011-12 student tuition increases and some share of the reductions that will be implemented centrally.

We estimate that these actions will provide about $39 million or 36 percent of the projected shortfall.

The remaining shortfall of $68 million will be addressed with a balanced approach including new revenue, efficiency improvements and cost reductions.

We are committed to making decisions that provide permanent solutions, but in some cases we will rely on transition or bridging strategies. Our expectation is that all actions will be permanently in place by the start of the third year (i.e., July 2013).

Communication, consultation and advocacy:

The provost has formed a budget task force. A new task force was appointed that includes faculty, students and staff.

There will also be student dialogues, open forums and regular presentations. Budget ideas are being collected using budget@ucdavis.edu. Each suggestion or inquiry receives a personal response.

Reason for optimism

First, I want to share with you that I am optimistic.

I am certain that our future is bright and that we are poised for greater and greater success in scholarship, service and innovation.

This doesn’t mean I am oblivious of the hardships we face, the sacrifice we will make and the stress we will endure.

But I strongly believe that by minimizing our dependence on state funding, we will be a better institution.

By any measure, our university has had an extraordinary year.

Our academic strength has never been greater.

Research

As I mentioned, we broke into the top 10 and are now ranked 9^th among public research universities.

We are among the top 10 public universities in research funding, with a UC Davis record of nearly $700 million – thanks to our faculty.

We have 280 ARRA awards, totaling more than $156 million.

ARRA indirect costs will be used for a strategic investment in campus research infrastructure totaling $19 million over two-to-three years.

Students

We also have the highest-scoring, most competitive freshman class in our history.

We are increasingly more selective. Our admit rate for new freshmen is now 45 percent of all applicants, compared to 69 percent just four years earlier.

It is clear that we are – increasingly – a destination campus for the brightest students.

Nearly 60,000 students have applied for fall 2011 admission to UC Davis, which is a record for us.

And for the second year in a row, applications from transfer students have jumped more than 20 percent.

At the same time, we continue to offer access to education at UC Davis. Forty percent of our freshmen classes continue to be first-generation college students.

This year, we have enrolled a record number of low-income undergraduates who are eligible for Pell grants.

Nearly 21,000 students received an estimated $264 million dollars in grants and scholarships last year, an increase of $48 million dollars – or about 23 percent – compared with the previous year.

Distinctions

We are now the leading publisher of scientific research on agriculture and the environment.

We are 5^th among all U.S. universities in the number of international scholars

We are now ranked 6^th in the nation for contributions to society.

Growth

We have opened our newest professional school, The Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing.

The School of Law opened a $30 million expansion of Martin Luther King Jr. Hall.

And UC Davis just opened the world’s greenest winery, brewery and foods facility.

Comprehensive campaign

In October, we launched our first-ever $1 billion dollar comprehensive fundraising campaign that will help us support our students, faculty and programs. We have already raised more than $652 million. We will announce a new vice chancellor for development next week.

Moving forward

We will focus on innovation to reduce costs and generate new revenue — and continue to maintain our standards of excellence and academic integrity.

As we move into the future, we must be bold and creative.

We will redesign our structure and accelerate change to adapt to our new reality.

We are moving forward with the conviction that the era of heavy state investment in higher education is behind us.

Going forward, we will be more entrepreneurial. We will be a strong economic driver, pushing our ideas from the lab to the marketplace. We will more actively pursue research funds, public-private partnerships, and private and corporate giving.

Remaining in place means compromising quality – and that is not an option.

Change is painful, but it can also be liberating.

At UC Davis, we will hold on to what we believe in.

We will remain a land-grant institution.

We will remain committed to access to excellence and improving quality of life for all.

We will remain a vibrant community of learning and scholarship, and we will continue our upward trajectory.

We are ambitious. Our vision is bold. And we are doing all of this in the midst of a devastating financial crisis in the state, the nation and the world.

Our greatest strengths

We are making lives better every day – through society, energy, water, environment, food and health. In closing, I urge you to continue. Continue to be creative and collaborative. Take risks. Innovate.

Worldwide competition will only intensify.

We want to be at the forefront – because of our vibrant, intellectual and interdisciplinary culture.

Now is the time.

We want to be there:  saving lives, answering the world’s needs for food security, solving global water challenges, making breakthroughs in energy efficiency and clean tech and helping societies better understand each other.