Chancellor’s “Strategic Planning Council” Takes Charge of Charting Campus Future

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Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla addresses a group at a Town Hall Meeting at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in January.

At a Jan. 14 gathering of campus leaders, Chancellor Pradeep Khosla installed his “Strategic Planning Council,” and he gave the group two charges: help drive the strategic planning process and carry it forward into the greater UC San Diego community.

“Your role is to make sure we are on the right path,” the Chancellor told them.  “I also want you to be the ambassadors who keep reporting what this process is and how various forms of input are being incorporated into it.”

The new Council’s inaugural meeting capped the first month of the planning process, which focused on eliciting stakeholder participation in town hall and focus group brainstorming sessions. Based on that input, a framework will be developed consisting of core strategic planning themes and institutional “enablers” that will ensure future success.

In a wide-ranging discussion of the planning framework, Council members offered these ideas:

  • To heed the Chancellor’s call for “defining our shared aspirations,” the existing culture of “silo” self-interest should give way to a new culture that elevates broader campus-wide goals.
  • UC San Diego should remain focused on its identity and mission as a public university that serves society by providing educational access and enriching human lives.
  • The stakeholder group of “students” should encompass undergraduates, graduate and professional students, and executive and international learners who may participate in off-site programs.
  • The legacy of UC San Diego’s scholarly distinctiveness set by Roger Revelle and other visionary founders must be upheld. Strategic planning should concentrate on areas where UC San Diego is uniquely positioned to define new fields of transformative knowledge and develop new talent.
  • The campus should build on its record of mining “diamonds in the rough” by empowering individuals who have not yet been given the opportunity to achieve their full potential.
  • UC San Diego has stayed at the forefront of global innovation by taking risks on emerging fields and concepts. That risk-taking academic culture should be matched by a new culture of risk-taking administrative practices that seek to eliminate red tape and accelerate results.
  • The campus must concentrate on bolstering its physical infrastructure and its cyber-infrastructure, with special attention given to updating its educational technologies.

Going forward, Chancellor Khosla and Executive Vice Chancellor Suresh Subramani directed the Council to begin rolling out the strategic planning process by scheduling brainstorming sessions in their divisions, departments, and units. Council members and other campus leaders will be responsible for capturing the yield of those discussions in formal reports to the Chancellor in the spring. Two town hall meetings in February will welcome ideas from UC San Diego friends and neighbors in the external community. Cross-campus sessions that bring in two or more units for brainstorming on common issues are encouraged.

As the entire campus engages in this initiative, input from all corners will be collected and consolidated, and outcomes will be shared with the community on the this website. To date, the website has summaries of town hall discussions held in December and January for faculty, staff, and students. Chancellor Khosla reported that, after visiting the website and reading planning updates, “staff members have been writing to us to say, ‘This is really exciting, I want to be a part of it, how can I help?’”

The next meeting of the UC San Diego Strategic Planning Council will take place February 11 from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. During the 5-hour session, the Council will begin an in-depth review and synthesis of feedback reports. “This group will see everything,” the Chancellor told them. “In years to come, we should be able to look back and say, ‘I was part of the group that defined UC San Diego’s future.’”

CHANCELLOR’S STRATEGIC PLANNING COUNCIL

  • Pradeep K. Khosla, Chancellor
  • Suresh Subramani, Executive Vice Chancellor, Academic Affairs
  • David A. Brenner, Vice Chancellor, Health Sciences/Dean, School of Medicine
  • Catherine Constable, Interim Director/Dean/Vice Chancellor, Marine Sciences
  • Sandra Brown, Vice Chancellor, Research Affairs
  • Linda S. Greene, Vice Chancellor, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion
  • Gary C. Matthews, Vice Chancellor, Resource Management and Planning
  • Steven Relyea, Vice Chancellor, External Relations & Business Affairs
  • Penny Rue, Vice Chancellor, Student Affairs
  • Clare M. Kristofco, Associate Chancellor/Chief of Staff
  • Dan W. Park, Chief Campus Counsel
  • Kim Barrett, Dean, Graduate Studies
  • Peter Cowhey, Dean, School of International Relations and Pacific Studies
  • Jeffrey L. Elman, Dean, Social Sciences
  • Juan Lasheras, Interim Dean, Jacobs School of Engineering
  • Seth Lerer, Dean, Arts and Humanities
  • William (Bill) McGinnis, Interim Dean, Biological Sciences
  • Barbara Sawrey, Associate Vice Chancellor and Dean, Undergraduate Education
  • Robert S. Sullivan, Dean, Rady School of Management
  • Palmer W. Taylor, Dean, Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
  • Mark Thiemens, Dean, Division of Physical Sciences
  • Mary L. Walshok, Associate Vice Chancellor, Public Programs/Dean, University Extension
  • T. Guy Masters, Chair, Academic Senate
  • Kit Pogliano, Vice Chair, Academic Senate
  • Brian Schottlaender, Audrey Geisel University Librarian
  • Larry Smarr, Director, California Institute of Telecommunications and Information Technology
  • Michael Norman, Director, San Diego Supercomputer Center
  • Jeanne Ferrante, Associate Vice Chancellor, Faculty Equity, Academic Affairs
  • Alan Houston, Chair, Council of Provosts
  • David Woodruff, Director, Sustainability Solutions Institute
  • Paul Yu, Associate Vice Chancellor, Research Initiatives
  • James Carmody, Chair, Theatre and Dance
  • Shu Chien, Director, Institute of Engineering in Medicine
  • Gordon Hanson, Professor, International Relations and Pacific Studies
  • Valerie Ramey, Professor, Economics
  • Roddey Reid, Vice Chair, Literature Council of Chairs
  • Shankar Subramaniam, Chair, Bioengineering Council of Chairs
  • Allan Timmermann, Professor, Rady School of Management
  • Paul Viviano, CEO, UC San Diego Health System/Associate Vice Chancellor, Health Sciences
  • Matthew Jarvis, President, Graduate Student Association
  • Meggie Le, President, Associated Students
  • LaWana Richmond, Chair, UC San Diego Staff Association
  • Robert (Bob) Neuhard, Director, Strategic Initiatives, Business and Financial Services