SUBJECT:

Vice Chancellor for Research

Chancellor Marye Anne Fox, Vice Chancellor for Research Arthur Ellis, and I have listened to and benefited from a wide range of feedback from other Vice Chancellors, the Academic Senate, Deans, Chairs, Organized Research Unit Directors, and faculty about a proposed switch of the VCR's main reporting line from the SVCAA to the Chancellor. Many people expressed concerns about the possible reorganization's implications for governance, operations, and budgeting. After extensive consultation and consideration, we have decided not to go forward with that proposal. Instead, the VCR will retain a solid reporting line to the SVCAA and a dotted line to the Chancellor. This arrangement will sustain close collaboration between the VCR and Academic Affairs as well as the Chancellor, the Health Sciences, and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

Under this continuing organizational structure, all budgetary and resource decisions for the VCR will be made as in the past, through the office of the SVCAA. In the same way, evaluations of general campus ORUs, including their establishment or disestablishment, will be carried out by the VCR with the full involvement and final approval of the SVCAA. By the same token, the impending report of the Joint Senate-Administration Task Force on ORUs will be thoroughly reviewed by the Academic Senate and the SVCAA, as well as Deans, Chairs, ORU Directors, and faculty, prior to any implementation.

The Chancellor, Vice Chancellor for Research, and I believe strongly that this integrated structure will maintain collegial and productive communication, consultation, and cooperation between the administration and the faculty on research activities and initiatives. This plan reflects the tradition of shared governance. The success of our mutual efforts on behalf of research is crucial to the mission and future of UCSD. Along with the Academic Senate, all three of us would welcome any further comments, questions or suggestions about these issues and their resolution.

Paul W. Drake Senior Vice Chancellor - Academic Affairs