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Dear Faculty Colleagues, As of May 9, UC Santa Cruz has raised $29,056,289 in private gifts since the beginning of this fiscal year. This record-breaking achievement reflects the effort of many faculty and deans, in collaboration with our chancellor and others. I invite you to learn more about recent faculty achievements and UR efforts to boost fundraising results, advance alumni fundraising initiatives, build relationships, advocate for the UC budget, showcase faculty in the news, and more. Please click on the headlines to the right to go directly to brief reports. Thank you, as always, for your tireless efforts on behalf of UC Santa Cruz. Best regards, Ronald P. Suduiko
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As of May 9, UC Santa Cruz has raised a total of $29,056,289 in private gifts since July 1, 2003. Among examples of recent major gifts are the following:
- $300,000 from the Compton Foundation for the Global Information Internship Program, led by Professor Paul Lubeck
- $200,000 from the Ford Foundation for Latin American and Latino studies research, led by Professor Manuel Pastor
- $190,000 from the Intel Corporation for electrical engineering research, led by Associate Professor Peyman Milanfar
- $181,000 from the Walter & Elise Haas Fund for the New Teacher Center, led by Director Ellen Moir
- $150,000 from Melanie Mayer, Professor of Psychology Emerita, who contributed one of the largest planned gifts in the history of the University Library. The gift will ultimately benefit history research collections and services in Special Collections.
- $146,500 from the Lou Harrison Estate of gift-in-kind archival materials for Special Collections. Protection and acquisition of the archive was subsidized by two separate $10,000 grants from the "Grateful Dead foundations," the Rex Foundation and the Unbroken Chain Foundation.
- $125,000 from the Walter S. Johnson Foundation for the New Teacher Center, led by Director Ellen Moir
- More than $120,000 from Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, the total of various gifts to the Center for Agroecology & Sustainable Food Systems (Apprenticeship in Ecological Horticulture), the Predatory Bird Research Group, and the Psychology Department
- $79,000 from the Microelectronics Advanced Research Corporation for computer engineering research, led by Professor Wayne Wei-Ming Dai
- $50,000 from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation for the Institute of Marine Sciences, led by Professor Gary Griggs
- $50,000 from Ambassador and Mrs. L.W. Lane Jr. for the Arboretum
- $25,000 from Kanwal and Ann Rekhi, for the Satyajit Ray Film and Study Collection
Telephone Outreach Program (TOP) Achieves Major Milestone
As of May 11, the student callers of the TOP program had raised $1,079,320. This figure represents a $220,463 increase in total giving compared to a year ago. More than 16,500 contacts have been completed, with nearly 7,000 alumni and donors contributing, an increase of 1,119 donors. Funds from this program benefit all divisions and are used for a variety of priorities established by the deans.
Alumni Reunion Gifts Reach Record Level
The Banana Slug Spring Fair in April attracted the largest number of returning alumni and the largest number of participating faculty in the history of the event. (http://currents.ucsc.edu/03-04/04-26/bssf.html) In total, alumni celebrating reunions this year donated nearly $245,000 to support various campus programs. Among the other highlights of the weekend was the Distinguished Faculty Lecture by University Professor Sandra Faber.
Building Connections for Campus Partnerships
Acting Chancellor Martin M. Chemers forwarded a new e-newsletter to approximately 4,000 local alumni, community leaders, and elected officials. It featured examples of the many ways that UC Santa Cruz is an asset to the local community. Included were direct links to Currents Online stories about faculty achievements, including the new book by Professor Terrie Williams; the summer lineup for Shakespeare Santa Cruz, with Paul Whitworth as artistic director; Professor David Evan Jones’s Korean premiere of his first opera; and the research of Professor Deborah Letourneau on the impact of genetically altered plants on Central Coast crops.
Alumnus Joseph DeRisi (Crown '92, Biochemistry), who was instrumental in identifying the SARS virus with a new technology developed in his lab at UCSF, gave a fascinating presentation at a UCSC Alumni Association San Francisco chapter event on April 29. Acting Chancellor Martin M. Chemers, Dean of Physical and Biological Sciences David Kliger, and Chemistry and Biochemistry Chair Joseph Konopelski attended.
Opera Program director Brian Staufenbiel, voice lecturer Patrice Maginnis, and opera students Sheila Willey and Aleksey Bogdanov brought "A Taste of Opera & Wine in the Company of Friends" to a UCSC Alumni Association Los Angeles chapter event on May 15, at UCLA's Royce Hall.
The Film and Digital Media Department, chaired by Professor Chip Lord, and the new master’s program in social documentation in the Community Studies Department, chaired by Associate Professor Mary Beth Pudup, will be highlighted at a Hollywood gathering of influential UCSC alumni and friends. The event is scheduled for July 24, and among special guests are Emmy Award-winning actress and UCSC alumna Camryn Manheim, and Paramount Pictures executive and UC Regent Sherry Lansing.
Alumni Fundraising Supports Campus Needs
A number of Alumni Association programs are targeted to raise funds and recognize faculty and other campus achievements. Here are some examples.
The Distinguished Visiting Professor Endowment awards $20,000 annually to each of the colleges on a rotating basis to enrich undergraduate education by funding the hire of a person of academic distinction for one quarter.
- 2002-03 recipient, College Ten
- 2003-04 recipient, Cowell College
- 2004-05 recipient, Stevenson College
- 2005-06 recipient, Crown College
Membership Dues Support UC Santa Cruz. Every annual membership in the UCSC Alumni Association supports our campus. The UCSC Alumni Association sets aside 30 percent of annual membership dues to provide a unique funding source for special projects and activities at the colleges. Almost $40,000 has been awarded this year.
Scholarships and Other Awards Bring Cash Recognition. Each year, the UCSC Alumni Association gives awards to outstanding faculty, staff, students, and alumni.
- College Service Awards 2003-04 granted $4,500 (nine awards of $500 each) to recognize students’ contributions to college life.
- Alumni Association Scholarship Fund 2003-04 provided 34 needs-based awards totaling $69,000.
- Major UCSC Alumni Association Award Recipients 2003-04. Diane Gifford-Gonzalez, Professor of Anthropology, received the Distinguished Teaching Award. The Outstanding Staff Award went to Carol Douglas-Hammer, Assistant Director, Student Housing Services, Colleges & University Housing Services; the Alumni Achievement Award was presented to John Laird, Stevenson College, ’72, B.A. Politics, California State Assemblymember. Each recipient received a $500 check, in addition to the honor.
Faculty, alumni, parents, and others have contributed to an unprecedented systemwide advocacy effort to inform the legislature and the governor about UC budget issues. As one indication of the advocacy effort, among other factors, no new UC cuts were included in Governor Schwarzenegger’s revised budget issued on May 14.
The UC Santa Cruz Government and Community Relations Office sent 9,000 invitations to UCSC alumni, offering the opportunity to join the GetActive Campaign. Within days, 126 individuals agreed to participate. As a result, nearly every member of the California Legislature received contact from UC supporters. Systemwide, more than 6,500 individuals signed on. The advocacy effort continues with encouragement to support the higher education agreement, reminding legislators about the value UC provides to the state.
Long Range Development Planning for 2020
Many faculty and staff are involved in the campus effort to create a Long Range Development Plan (http://planning.ucsc.edu/lrdp/), based on the recommendations of the Strategic Futures Committee (http://planning.ucsc.edu/sfc/), chaired by Earth sciences professor Gary Griggs. Among the work groups participating in the process is a campus and community group, cochaired by Vice Chancellor Ron Suduiko and Santa Cruz City Council member and UCSC alumna Emily Reilly.
The group is issuing a white paper that examines the key issues of transportation, housing, infrastructure, economics, and open space and recreation. Other members of the work group are economics professor Carl Walsh; American studies professor Michael Cowan; planning director for the City of Santa Cruz Gene Arner; John Barnes, director of UCSC Campus Planning; Donna Blitzer, UCSC director of Government and Community Relations; Neal Coonerty, owner of Bookshop Santa Cruz; Harriet Deck, UCSC Foundation trustee and area realtor; Kaitilin Gaffney, attorney and member of the City of Santa Cruz Planning Commission; and Mardi Wormhoudt, Santa Cruz County supervisor.
Advances in Strategic Communications
Division and department web sites have been updated with use of a new template designed by UR staff. Use of the new template provides a consistent and user-friendly appearance to enhance web communications. Focusing on key messages, the template directs site visitors to department highlights and news. The Community Studies Department site is an example of this new approach: http://communitystudies.ucsc.edu/. Improvements to the home page and other top-level pages also are in the works.
All of the sites will benefit from an expanded photo inventory taken to reflect strategic communication themes. The photos, which will be used in web sites as well as in printed materials, feature faculty and students intensely engaged in teaching, learning, and living in our unique campus environment.
These efforts are part of the ongoing strategic communications effort being led by University Relations’ Public Affairs unit.
Showcasing Faculty in the News
Faculty achievements are regularly chronicled in Currents Online (http://www.ucsc.edu/currents/) and via news releases produced in UR’s Public Affairs unit. A report of faculty featured in the international, national, state, and regional news media is posted every month at http://www.ucsc.edu/news_events/media_highlights/
Here are a few examples of recent major media coverage of faculty research:
- Craig Haney, professor of psychology, has been quoted extensively in major outlets such as NPR and CNN regarding the Iraqi prisoner scandal, showcasing his expertise on prisons and their effect on behavior.
- Chip Lord, film and digital media professor and department chair, was featured in the San Francisco Chronicle, New York Times, and Los Angeles Times regarding the Ant Farm, the innovative architecture collective he cofounded, which was recently honored with a retrospective at the UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive.
- Michael Dooley, economics professor, was featured in a Financial Times column about the U.S. dollar in the global economy.
- Robert Meister, politics professor, was quoted in a story about whether U.S. aid to Iraqi insurgents bred future terrorists.
- Lori Kletzer, economics professor, made the front page of the Wall Street Journal in a story about the outsourcing of jobs.
- L. S. Kim, assistant professor of film and digital media, was featured on National Public Radio's On Point program and also in a New York Times article about the cultural impact of popular television.
- Lisa Sloan, professor of Earth sciences, and her graduate student Jacob Sewall were featured in news stories about their findings that the melting of Arctic sea ice may lead to reduced rain and snowfall in the American West. Stories appeared in New Scientist magazine and in the San Jose Mercury News, among other major outlets.