Develop New Graduate and Professional Academic Programs

This goal is starting with three concurrent, initial strategies to support faculty in the development of new masters and professional programs from idea through approval. This includes funding for faculty members developing proposals, staffing support in Graduate Studies and incentives for colleges working with Continuing and Professional Education.

Strategy 1: Reduce faculty burden for proposal development. This would include:

• Development of a toolkit for use by faculty in developing new program proposals.
• Providing proposal writing support as a service to reduce burden on faculty time and ensure proposals meet campus and systemwide requirements.
• Staff liaison support to facilitate communication and collaboration among various stakeholders and approval bodies throughout the development and approval process.
• Leveraging of technology investments to automate proposal steps and increase process transparency.

Strategy 2: Leverage key campus partnerships for robust proposal development and streamlining of campus approval processes. This would include:

• Partnering with Graduate Council and the Academic Senate to evaluate and reimagine campus policies and processes to support a more streamlined, efficient process that still maintains integral academic oversight.
• Partnering with Continuing and Professional Education to increase visibility of different pathways to new program development and delivery, including building on certificates and development of online programs.
• Partnering with Budget and Institutional Analysis to provide budget templates and tailored guidance on the various tuition and budget models for academic programs.

• Sustaining and enhancing existing efforts, including consultation for proposals in the pipeline, working closely with Associate Dean of Graduate Studies, support the existing Graduate Professional, Online, and Self-Supporting (GPOSS) Committee, and facilitate administrative review process for new proposals governed by GPOSS.

Investments: Up to $150,000 per year for three years to support faculty proposal development; after consulting with colleges and schools, this amount may be adjusted. Up to $340,000 per year for three years for two staff positions in Graduate Studies. These investments will be evaluated at the end of three years to determine if they should continue. It is anticipated that less staff support may be required after initial support structures and processes are established, but that some enhanced staff support may be appropriate long-term.

Lead: Jasmine Durias Bonite and Erum Abbasi Syed, Graduate Studies

Strategy 3: Support the division of Continuing and Professional Education to advance a new budget model to incentivize academic units to partner with the campus in the development and implementation of online/hybrid graduate professional degree programs and articulating certificates.  The outcome of the initiative will 1) increase access to UC Davis excellence; 2) improve educational equity and quality in digital learning experiences; and 3) contribute to the UC Davis mission. The academic programs included in this model will go through the same academic approval process as any other UC Davis degree.

Investments: Initial start-up costs for new online degree programs covered centrally. Actual amount depends upon degree program design and size.

Leads: Julie Greenwood and Sean Lynch, Continuing and Professional Education

Maximize Undergraduate Programming for Summer Sessions

Strategy: The Dean of Undergraduate Education and the Summer Sessions Office are developing and implementing a comprehensive plan to maximize summer sessions offerings and enrollment, including expanding online courses. This topic is also being addressed in the Student Success and Equitable Outcomes Task Force and Sustaining Teaching and Research Task Force (START).

Investment: An initial investment of $300,000 per year has been made to support development of 10 online courses per year. Of this amount $150,000 is allocated to Undergraduate Education to support faculty course development work and $150,000 is allocated to Continuing and Professional Education to provide instructional design support for these courses. Additional investments will be guided by recommendations of the Student Success and Equitable Outcomes Task Force and START.

Leads: Michael Bradford, Undergraduate Education, and Julie Greenwood, Continuing and Professional Education

Investigate Trademark and Licensing Opportunities

Strategy: UC Davis will hire an independent consultant to review our campus’s trademark and licensing activities to make recommendations that help ensure we are operating at a competitive level for an institution like ours. Next steps and future investments will depend on the outcome of this review.

Investment: Up to $50,000 one-time for the consultant review.

Lead: Karl Engelbach, Office of the Chancellor

Establish a Culture of Continuous Improvement

Strategy: Support leaders and staff in units across campus to engage in ongoing continuous improvement efforts and build upon the existing Lean Six Sigma training and community of practice program. Features of this support would include:

• Leveraging existing staff with Lean Six Sigma expertise in Administrative Innovation and Technology's Office of Business Transformation (OBT) to conduct detailed feasibility reviews of the top efficiency and process improvement ideas reviewed by the Task Force to identify those that are most promising to pursue.
• Use staff members in OBT with Lean Six Sigma Black Belts to provide guidance and support for Lean Six Sigma Green Belts in units to pursue process improvement projects that are supported by unit leadership. These could be locally identified or could be identified as a result of the feasibility review conducted by OBT.
• Lean Six Sigma Black Belts in OBT will lead or provide enhanced support for process improvement projects that cross multiple units that are identified through the feasibility review.
• Sponsor 1-2 staff members from each unit to attend Lean Six Sigma Green Belt training if they have support from unit leader and a project that is expected to save at least $10,000.
• Engage members of the Lean Six Sigma Community of Practice in supporting deans, vice chancellors and vice provosts to identify and implement 2-5 process improvements within their unit over the next year.

Investment: Up to $255,000 to support 1.5 team members who are Lean Six Sigma Black Belt-trained, for one year in these efforts and up to $75,000 per year for two years to send 30 employees per year through Lean Six Sigma Green Belt training. Continued investments will be evaluated after this time.

Lead: Erica Aichwalder, Administrative Innovation and Technology – OBT