SUBJECT:  Managing Future Growth through External Relations

Dear Colleagues:

Our series of internal communiqués on campus growth continues with this message from James Langley, Vice Chancellor for External Relations. In this message, Jim outlines the steps UCSD can take throughout this growth decade to strengthen its bonds with the external community. When I became Chancellor five years ago, I pledged that UCSD would have a greater impact on our neighbors and constituents. A public university must be responsive to the public. We must articulate our vision to those who support us, and we must contribute significantly to the world outside our gates. Our first major campaign presents a remarkable opportunity to achieve both goals. If we seize this opportunity, we will raise more than financial support and our institutional profile -- we will raise the caliber of our intellectual endeavors.

                                                Robert C. Dynes
                                                Chancellor

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Yet, for all the talent that comprises UCSD, we cannot afford to see ourselves as the sole shapers of a singular destiny. If there was ever a time to communicate, to build productive coalitions, and to develop strategic alliances with our key internal and external constituencies, it is now. Much of that responsibility falls on External Relations.

External Relations is composed of Alumni Relations, Development, Governmental & Community Relations, Information and Financial Services, Science & Technology Policy, Special Events & Protocol, University Communications, and the UCSD Foundation. This grouping of functions allows us to manage external relationships in a coordinated, holistic and strategic manner, and to pursue a mission of:

1. Raising key constituents' awareness of UCSD's mission, vision, unique accomplishments and greater potential;
2. Transforming that greater awareness to deeper personal and/or professional engagement and involvement with the campus;
3. Converting greater awareness and engagement into specific commitments; and
4. Serving as conscientious stewards of support received to build trust and expand our base of moral and financial support.

In the next ten years, UCSD seeks to accommodate another 10,000 students and enhance its quality in the face of an uncertain economy. Though daunting, those goals can be achieved if we project a clear and compelling vision and demonstrate that we can and will deliver a higher quality of life to more people of ever increasing diversity.

One of the best ways for UCSD to communicate those purposes and demonstrate that potential is through the discipline of a university advancement campaign that stems from UCSD's academic and educational goals. While one of the major goals of such a campaign is to secure considerable financial support, we would be shortsighted to restrict our efforts to only raising private dollars. The campaign also presents the opportunity to identify and interact with opinion leaders in the public and private sector, to demonstrate how private funds can be used to leverage public funds and vice versa, to engage larger numbers of alumni leaders in the life of the university, to create a stronger national and international identity for UCSD, and to strengthen our ties with the community.

Indeed, we are now in the "quiet phase" of such a campaign. In this phase, we are test-marketing our vision for the university with those most likely to provide the greatest support. It behooves us to take this approach to make sure we are communicating effectively and considering all viewpoints. The quiet phase is scheduled to conclude at the end of 2002. By then, we should have secured a number of "leadership gifts" representing approximately one-third of what we hope to raise in the entire campaign. At that point, we will stage a number of events that will publicly declare the formal launching of the campaign, its goals, and the amount of support we have secured to date. The public phase will persist for almost five years. While it is far too early to announce the overall goals, we believe we have the ability and opportunity to secure more support than any university in its first major campaign.

Given UCSD's relative youth, we cannot assume that such support will come easily. Although alumni support continues to grow, it cannot be termed as either broad or deep at this time. Significant enhancements to our alumni programs are being planned to foster deeper, more widespread and sustained relationships. In the meantime, our best chance to compete for major support, in the public and private sector, is to compete in the marketplace of ideas. Our ideas cannot be merely as good as those of other major universities. They must be more imaginative, bolder, more relevant to public needs and more responsive to emerging opportunities.

At the outset of the public phase of the campaign, our priorities must be clear enough to show that we have made difficult decisions, that we know who we are and where we are going, but not so rigid that we fail to adjust and adapt to changing realities and fast breaking opportunities that will arise in the next five to six years.

We have a remarkable story to tell and an impressive history of converting investment in UCSD into significant and sustained intellectual, cultural and economic value. We are expected to continue to demonstrate the audacity and verve of our founders as we move forward.

Growth presents us with a great opportunity. We can demonstrate that our needs are real and pressing. We can show that we are growing to fulfill our mandate as a public university while making it evident that we will not grow in a passive or reactive manner. We must explain that we are capitalizing on the strategic opportunities imbedded in growth - in the students we recruit, in the faculty and staff we hire and in the new programs we offer. If we can do all those things, we cannot only manage growth, we can use it to build a stronger campus community and a much broader and deeper base of sustained support.

                                                James Langley
                                                Vice Chancellor
                                                External Relations