| Overall Rating | Gold - expired |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 76.34 |
| Liaison | Elida Erickson |
| Submission Date | March 1, 2019 |
| Executive Letter | Download |
University of California, Santa Cruz
PA-3: Participatory Governance
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
2.25 / 3.00 |
Ellen
Vaughan Water & Climate Action Manager Sustainability Office |
Do the institution’s students have a representative body through which they can participate in governance (e.g. a student council)? :
Do the institution’s students have an elected representative on the institution’s highest governing body?:
A brief description of the bodies and mechanisms through which students are engaged in governance, including information to support each affirmative response above:
UCSC's student council is called the Student Union Assembly (SUA) https://sua.ucsc.edu/
Each college has representatives on SUA and all students are eligible to run for a position on SUA.
SUA's "Student Committee on Committees" (https://sua.ucsc.edu/committees/scoc/how-to-apply.html) appoints students to committees consisting of students, University faculty, staff, and/or administration. These committees deal with campus-wide issues and make recommendations for the University regarding issues such as academic policies, budget, sustainability, campus services and more.
Graduate student governance is through the Graduate Student Association (GSA) https://gsa.ucsc.edu/home
There is not one clear governing body of UC Santa Cruz, there is a shared governance structure between academics and administration. In that system there are key committees:
Academics:
1) The Graduate Council which has student representation appointed by the Graduate Student Association
2) Committee on Education Policy (for undergraduate education) which has student representation appointed by SUA.
Administration:
1) Committee on Planning and Stewardship (CPS) which has two undergraduate representatives and one graduate representative.
The UC Board of Regents, UC's highest governing body, includes elected student representatives. The Student Regent is a voting member at all Board of Regents meetings, which review and approve a wide range of governance actions throughout the UC system. The student is appointed, not elected.
On the UC Board of Regents: http://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/about/members-and-advisors/student-regent.html
Do the institution’s staff members have a representative body through which they can participate in governance (e.g. a staff council)?:
Do the institution’s non-supervisory staff members have an elected representative on the institution’s highest governing body?:
A brief description of the bodies and mechanisms through which staff are engaged in governance, including information to support each affirmative response above:
Staff Advisory Board - open to all staff members by nomination (including self-nominations). https://sab.ucsc.edu/
The mission of the UC Santa Cruz Staff Advisory Board (SAB) is to support both the educational goals of the University and the welfare and diversity of the staff. The Staff Advisory Board serves in an advisory capacity to the Chancellor and all senior officers, management and other campus parties or organizations seeking staff consultation, in accordance with California laws and UC Regent policy. The board is dedicated to promoting better communication and relations among UC Santa Cruz employees and administration.
The UC Board of Regents, UC's highest governing body, includes two staff advisors (but not official members) to foster communication between the governance and staff. The candidate selection process involves a Selection Committee composed of staff peers (2 previous staff advisors plus the current staff advisor) and other University staff who consider self-nominated candidates. The recommendation of the Selection Committee is then forwarded to the UC President, who makes the final appointment.
http://staffadvisors.universityofcalifornia.edu/apply/selection-process.html
On the UC Board of Regents: https://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/about/members-and-advisors/index.html#staff-advisors
Do the institution’s teaching and research faculty have a representative body through which they can participate in governance (e.g. a faculty senate)?:
Do the institution’s teaching and research faculty have an elected representative on the institution’s highest governing body? :
A brief description of the bodies and mechanisms through which teaching and research faculty are engaged in governance, including information to support each affirmative response above:
Academic Senate is a forum for all campus faculty, instructors, and adjuncts to participate in campus governance.
Locally, the Academic Senate chair sits on the Chancellor's Cabinet and there is faculty representation on each of the three main governing bodies already described above: The Graduate Council, Committee on Education Policy, and Committee on Planning and Stewardship (CPS).
https://senate.ucsc.edu/
In the UC system, each chair of the local Academic Senate sits on the UC Academic Council which meets regularly with the UC system president. Two faculty representatives from the UC Academic Senate sit on the UC Board of Regents as advisors (but not official members). The UC Academic Senate has influence over career advancement and the quality of UC's faculty through its recommendations to the chancellors, deans, and chairs on appointments and promotions.
http://senate.universityofcalifornia.edu/
On the UC Board of Regents: https://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/about/members-and-advisors/index.html#faculty-reps
Does the institution have written policies and procedures to identify and engage external stakeholders (i.e. local residents) in land use planning, capital investment projects, and other institutional decisions that affect the community?:
A copy of the written policies and procedures:
The policies and procedures:
UCSC's outreach during the CEQA process is governed by the CEQA Guidelines and we also have a UC Procedures for Implementing CEQA, adopted in 1989, which requires a public hearing for every EIR (see attached). Also, we do distribute all of our CEQA notices to a list of approximately 500 people, that includes everyone who has submitted a comment on one our CEQA documents as well as people who signed up at a meeting or otherwise requested to receive the notices. The distribution also includes leaders of student organizations and local newspapers. We advertise the public meetings for EIRs in the Sentinel, Good Times and City on a Hill. If there is a lot of community interest in the project, we hold information meetings on campus and in the city as we've done throughout 2018 in regards to our Student House West development.
Does the institution have formal participatory or shared governance bodies through which community members representing the interests of the following stakeholder groups can regularly participate in institutional governance?:
| Yes or No | |
| Local government and/or educational organizations | Yes |
| Private sector organizations | Yes |
| Civil society (e.g. NGOs, NPOs) | Yes |
A brief description of the bodies and mechanisms through which external stakeholders are engaged in institutional governance (including information about each stakeholder group selected above):
Civil society - In 2018, UCSC formed a Community Advisory Group (CAG) for the purpose of getting community participation and feedback related to our next Long Range Development Plan. More information about the membership of this group (which is very broad across many community groups), can be viewed on the CAG website: https://lrdp.ucsc.edu/2020/involved.html
Local government - UCSC has a variety of formal and informal planning meetings with city and local stakeholders. As part of our current Long Range Development Plan and our Comprehensive Settlement Agreement we have regular (bi-monthly) meetings with city agencies to talk about mutual planning and coordination efforts. In these meetings we talk about water conservation projects, ways to conserve resources, transportation projects including coordination of things like our Zipcars, bus routes, and JUMP bikes. Those meetings also cover housing projects both on and off campus with a focus on density, sustainability, and mitigation of traffic impacts.
Private sector - UCSC has also developed a Workforce Housing Task Force that is made up of the City, County agencies and the area’s largest employers to talk about employee housing and potential areas of collaboration on workforce housing projects.
The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.