SUBJECT:

CREATE Outreach Action Plan

Dear Colleagues:

At President Atkinson's request, I am forwarding to you his statement about
a major new initiative of the University of California aimed at redoubling
outreach efforts to California's K-12 schools.

The Outreach Action Plan, recently approved by the UC Regents, calls on
each campus to develop strategies for working with schools, families and
community to increase the academic achievement of students in disadvantaged
circumstances so that more will be eligible for admission to the
university. As President Atkinson says in his letter, your help is needed
in the effort to reach this goal.

At UCSD, the Center for Research on Educational Equity, Assessment and
Teaching Excellence (CREATE) has been established to coordinate such
efforts. Its activities will include research and assessment, outreach and
recruitment, teacher education and professional development, a model school
on campus, and, above all, partnerships with the public schools. If you
want to help, please volunteer for one or more of these activities by
contacting Paul Drake, who is the Interim Director of CREATE. He can be
reached at the Dean's Office, Division of Social Sciences 0502, 534-6073,
or pdrake@ucsd.edu.

Along with President Atkinson, I want to emphasize the importance of the
Outreach Action Plan for the university and for our state. Please join us
in working to accomplish the goals it sets forth.

Robert C. Dynes Chancellor

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  ATTACHMENT

  UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

  BERKELEY - DAVIS - IRVINE - LOS ANGELES - RIVERSIDE SAN DIEGO SAN
  FRANCISCO SANTA BARBARA - SANTA CRUZ

OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT 300 Lakeside Drive Oakland, California 94612-3550 Phone: (510) 987-9074 Fax: (510) 987-9086 http://www.ucop.edu February 1998

   MEMBERS OF THE UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY

Dear Colleagues:
At the January meeting of the University's Board of Regents, I
announced a major initiative, the Outreach Action Plan. This
initiative represents my highest priority for the University and the
next step in The Regents' mandate to develop new paths to diversity.
I am writing to ask you to join me in implementing it.

In essence, the Outreach Action Plan calls on the University community
to redouble its outreach efforts--that is, to work with the K-12
schools to prepare more students from throughout California's diverse
society for admission to UC. As you know, in enacting new policies on
graduate and undergraduate admissions in July 1995, The Regents called
for a task force on outreach to help us develop new directions and
increase funding for outreach. The Outreach Task Force has finished
its work and The Regents have approved its recommendations. The
Outreach Action Plan is UC's strategy for implementing these
recommendations.

There are three elements to the Plan:

1. Provost King and I have asked Chancellor Emeritus Pister to
coordinate the many activities coming out of the Task Force report.

The Task Force's recommendations focused on four principal
opportunities for action:

  Working in partnership with selected schools to improve their
  ability to educate and motivate students;

  Increasing our activities to work directly with students to
  strengthen their academic preparation;

  Providing better and more timely information about UC programs to
  students, families, teachers, and counselors; and

  Expanding our research directed toward understanding the root
  causes of disparities in achievement, and how these disparities can
  be addressed.

In recent months the Office of the President, under the leadership of
Provost King, has begun the work of implementing the Task Force
recommendations, and campuses have established new programs and
activities consistent with the Task Force report. Dr. Pister,
reporting directly to the Provost and to me, will be responsible for
seeing that UC's vast array of outreach activities is coordinated
across the University, overseeing our strategies to acquire the funds
needed to implement the Task Force recommendations, and assisting
Provost King and me in accelerating work on all aspects of UC's
outreach efforts, including implementation of the Task Force report's
recommendations.

Dr. Pister's record of experience and achievement in outreach, and his
thorough knowledge of the University, make him superbly qualified for
this special assignment. In particular, he has earned widespread
respect among the faculty, whose energy and enterprise are essential
to this effort. Provost King and I are grateful to him for his
willingness to serve UC in this important role.

2. We have defined a strategy to secure additional funding for the
implementation of the Task Force recommendations.

The Outreach Task Force estimated that reaching its goals over the
next five years would require an investment of new money totalling $60
million annually. This would roughly double the amount currently
being spent on programs like those the Task Force recommends.

Funding this initiative should be a shared responsibility among the
State, the Federal government, the K-12 system, and the University.
We will work in partnership to secure the funds we need to achieve our
common goals in outreach. In addition, we will seek private funding
as a way of leveraging our support from public sources. I am
committing an additional $2 million from University funds for outreach
and school improvement programs. I am also pleased that Governor
Wilson's proposed budget for next year includes a $5 million increase
for the University's outreach efforts.

3. The University's strategies for achieving the goals of the Outreach
Task Force report will involve not only the president and the
chancellors but the entire UC community.

I invite the members of the UC community to contribute their energy,
time, and ideas to our efforts to reach the goals set by the Outreach
Task Force. If you wish to help, please get in touch with the
individual designated to coordinate this effort at your campus or
laboratory.

The specific aim of the Task Force's recommendations is to work with
schools, students, and families to increase the number of students in
disadvantaged circumstances who quality for admission to UC. But our
efforts, if they are successful, will have a far broader impact. In
raising the level of educational achievement in our schools, we expect
to put college within the reach of many more California students of
every background, whether they choose UC or some other institution.
Our intent is to create opportunities to learn for many thousands of
young people who would not otherwise-have them, and thus to change
lives throughout this state.

The Task Force has proposed that we improve the educational
experiences and preparation of California's young people on a scale
never attempted before. This is an extraordinarily ambitious goal.
Yet it is also entirely consistent with California's history and
traditions. This has always been a state with bold aspirations for
its citizens, especially the aspiration to offer the widest possible
spectrum of educational opportunity. And if any university can
succeed, it is the University of California, working with our partners
in the schools, business, community organizations, and the State and
Federal governments.

Of all the ways in which the University serves California, none is
more important than our efforts to offer UC's outstanding education to
young people of every race, ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic
background. The Task Force has given us a plan that can lead UC's
outreach activities into the next century, and I look forward to
working with all of you to accomplish its goals.

Sincerely, Richard C. Atkinson Presidente