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July 19, 2000 To: Campus Community From: M.R.C. Greenwood, Chancellor Re: Progress on the UC Santa Cruz Silicon Valley Center Dear Colleagues: As you may already know, on June 30, Governor Davis signed legislation for a state budget that includes $1.1 million to support continued planning for the UC Santa Cruz Silicon Valley Center. With this significant investment in place, the UC Regents requested a progress report on planning for the Center. I am providing that update at the meeting of the Regents today, and I want to give you a brief summary of that report now, before it appears in the news media. Building on the Millennium Committee Report and on the Regional Center Task Force Report published last year, the Academic Planning Task Force for the Silicon Valley Center examined potential academic programming. Co-chaired by Professor Bill Ladusaw and Professor Gary Glatzmaier, the task force concluded that there is tremendous opportunity for teaching and research in Silicon Valley. Simultaneously, a site planning study examined a number of potential locations in Silicon Valley. Criteria included visibility, accessibility, and alignment with the teaching, research, and service goals for the campus. As I will relate to the Regents, the NASA-Ames site fulfills these criteria and is emerging as the preferred location for our Silicon Valley Center. Co-chairs Ladusaw and Glatzmaier concur, based on their discussions with faculty. Our Center is being considered as part of an innovative plan for development of a NASA R&D park at Moffett Field. The next steps in the process include developing the details of the academic program and continuing with site planning. It is planned that a member of the UCSC faculty will be named soon as interim director of the Center. That person will facilitate faculty discussion leading to recommendations for undergraduate and graduate academic programs appropriate to offer at the Center. Of course, normal faculty consultation processes will be followed. Once planning processes are finalized, the UC Regents will consider a formal proposal to establish the Silicon Valley Center. That proposal could be in spring 2001. A web site is posted to chronicle Center planning; that address is svcenter.ucsc.edu. There you will find a summary of the vision for the Silicon Valley Center, related news releases, and various university planning documents, including the recently completed Academic Planning Task Force's Final Report. The steps taken toward development of the Silicon Valley Center to date are very positive, and I am optimistic about the potential for UC Santa Cruz. I will welcome your comments on the topic, and I look forward to working with you on this important endeavor.
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