Did I Miss Something?
In the latest issue of the Senate Source Henry Powell makes explicit what many of us already suspected--that while the UCOF process is ongoing, President Yudof has told the working groups that their participation will no longer be needed. Admittedly, this announcement is no great surprise. But it does raise at least one question. At the first round of recommendations in March (back when we still pretended that the process was being driven by the labor of the working groups) the Working Group on Education and Curriculum noted that they had put off any firm recommendations about educational quality but indicated that these recommendations would be forthcoming. (49) Now that promised discussion has been short-circuited. (Although as Anonymous points out below in comments that short-circuit is not the fault of the working-group which did deliver a fuller discussion.)
In other words, the UCOF process (purportedly discussing the future of the UC) has proceeded without any meaningful university wide discussion of the educational aims of the institution. From one perspective that might seem a justifiable reluctance on the part of UCOP and the Regents to get involved in academic and intellectual decisions best left to faculty and staff. But that would be more persuasive if it were not for this summer's actual UCOF recommendations: on the one hand taking the Academic Council's agreement to tentatively explore a pilot sample of online courses as if that granted the Administration authority to oversee the organization of an online UC structure (86) while on the other hand proposing new mechanisms for academic units to be judged by essentially economic standards. (69, 75)
Once again, and despite all the lip-service about the importance of the faculty and the Academic Senate, faculty concerns have been cast aside by the Regents and the Administration. Or did I miss something?
In other words, the UCOF process (purportedly discussing the future of the UC) has proceeded without any meaningful university wide discussion of the educational aims of the institution. From one perspective that might seem a justifiable reluctance on the part of UCOP and the Regents to get involved in academic and intellectual decisions best left to faculty and staff. But that would be more persuasive if it were not for this summer's actual UCOF recommendations: on the one hand taking the Academic Council's agreement to tentatively explore a pilot sample of online courses as if that granted the Administration authority to oversee the organization of an online UC structure (86) while on the other hand proposing new mechanisms for academic units to be judged by essentially economic standards. (69, 75)
Once again, and despite all the lip-service about the importance of the faculty and the Academic Senate, faculty concerns have been cast aside by the Regents and the Administration. Or did I miss something?
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