Prepared by
The Academic Planning
Coordinating Committee

Beyond the specific areas of academic strength, the APCC survey of the campus revealed a cluster of distinctive characteristics that together form a campus culture that has contributed greatly to UCSB’s success. Among the many characteristics cited in the interviews and discussions held during the planning process, five emerged as particularly powerful as themes shared by broad portions of the campus. After much discussion, the APCC has concluded that they constitute shared values around which UCSB should continue to structure its planning objectives and around which deans, provosts, department chairs, center and institute directors and other academic leaders should be invited to design strategic plans in consultation with their colleagues.

The atmosphere of interdisciplinary and interdepartmental communication and cooperation so permeates the UCSB campus that colleagues from other campuses have referred to it as the "campus without walls." Interdisciplinarity at UCSB is not merely a catchword, but rather a deeply rooted element of the campus culture. This culture includes a well-established faculty of scholars who have developed research programs and courses that emphasize broadly based interests spanning two or more disciplines. A second cultural element is a deeply rooted foundation of shared governance that is instrumental in bringing faculty from all disciplines into decision making processes. This is one of the strengths of shared governance that is practiced throughout the University of California system, and UCSB is noted for its emphasis on involvement of faculty in guiding campus growth. Faculty are empowered through the Academic Senate to establish and approve new courses and new academic degree programs as well as determine appropriate standards to hire and promote faculty members. Shared governance further brings faculty into consultation with administrative officers regarding budget decisions needed to start new courses and degree programs as well as to hire new faculty. The broad participation of faculty from all areas of the campus in this shared governance helps to assure ongoing development of the strong interdisciplinarity that characterizes the present campus atmosphere.

Research Across Disciplines (RAD) Awards: In 1996 the Vice Chancellor for Research inaugurated the Research Across Disciplines (RAD) awards. This program encourages innovative partnerships among scholars and researchers not only across disciplines, but also across the larger divisional boundaries by encouraging collaborations between scholars in the arts, humanities and social sciences on the one hand with colleagues in the life and physical sciences, mathematics, and engineering on the other. From 1996 to 1999 approximately $550,000 was available for such cross-disciplinary projects. Recent RAD projects have included projects such as Quantitative Studies in the Social Sciences, the Emergence of Communicative Action in the Social Life of Very Young Children, the Research Center for the Study of Virtual Environments and Behavior, and Identifying Mayan Archeological Sites in the El Pilar Region of Belize and Guatemala with Geographic Information Systems, among others.

Bioengineering Research Initiative: The bioengineering initiative at UCSB is a campuswide effort to build interfaces between the engineering sciences and the biological, physical and molecular sciences. The Council for Biomolecular Science, Engineering and Technology (C-BEST), a committee composed of the deans and faculty from College of Engineering and the College of Letters and Science, is coordinating the development of this initiative, which includes plans for a new research institute, the Institute for Biomolecular Science Engineering and Technology (IBSET). Plans are in progress to hire new faculty, initially building on areas of existing strength at UCSB, as well as developing new areas of expertise at UCSB.

Microcosms: Microcosms is an interdisciplinary project that addresses the history, status and future of material objects in the production of knowledge in the modern university. This analysis has several consequences. First, it reveals the extraordinary diversity and number of objects housed in formal and informal collections in universities: the UC system, for example, houses some 40 million objects in its formal collections alone. Second, it reveals the extent to which objects circulate throughout the university, in teaching, research, and performance. Furthermore, it suggests the manner in which objects are part of immense social and disciplinary networks that map the way knowledge is produced and reproduced on a campus, in a department, and in disciplines themselves.

Mitsubishi Chemical Advanced Materials and Solid State Lighting Alliance: Mitsubishi Chemical, headquartered in Tokyo, and UCSB have entered into a $15-million five-year alliance to support research and education in advanced materials and solid state lighting and displays. Mitsubishi’s support will be split between two separate research centers and the majority of that funding will support student and postdoctoral researchers, as well as supplies and equipment for their research.

Solid State Lighting and Display Center (SSLDC): This interdisciplinary research group was initially created informally among a group of materials scientists and electrical engineers based on the science and technology of gallium nitride and related wide-bandgap semiconductor materials. Sustained by federal research support, the UCSB group had established itself by the mid-1990s as the premier university team in the world working on these materials. The scientific challenges are to produce reliably, new materials with electronic properties such that they emit green or blue light (red-emitters have long been known); the technological challenge is to make new devices for lighting, display, communications and data storage. SSLDC is designed to interact with industry on fundamental research issues without developing narrow or exclusive arrangements with

Walsin Lihwa Electronics and Photonics Research Alliance: Walsin Lihwa, a leading cable and wire company in Taiwan, has formed a $10 million five-year research alliance with UCSB to establish an Electronics and Photonics Center on the UCSB campus in conjunction with the College of Engineering. Three projects already proposed and formulated by UCSB Engineering faculty will form the initial focus of the Center’s research agenda. All three of these projects focus on the problem of how to manage information in the form of light particles or photons on fiber optic cables better and faster. Walsin Lihwa will also provide research grants for graduate students at UCSB over a five-year period and will fund two Walsin fellows in perpetuity.

California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI): CNSI was established as a proposal in response to the Governor's initiative for California Institutes for Science and Innovation (CISI). The CISI program was designed to accelerate research and technological development in areas that would lead to economic development for the State of California. CNSI is an institute jointly managed by UCLA and UCSB, to pursue the science and engineering of small (of order one-billionth of a meter) scale structures and devices. State funding provides $100 million (36/64, UCSB/UCLA). As part of the proposal preparation process, commitments of approximately $40 million of CNSI funding from industry have been secured. A new building will be built on the east end of campus that will provide facilities for imaging, spectroscopy and scattering, as well as synthesis and fabrication of new materials and devices.

Center for Chicano Studies: Founded in 1969 to support research on the history and contemporary socio-cultural, political, artistic, and economic conditions of Chicanos, Mexicanos and Latinos, the Center for Chicano Studies brings together faculty and students who engage in Chicana/o studies through workgroups, collaborative research, creative projects, publications, conferences, seminars, and exhibits. The Center also supports a Visiting Research Scholar in Chicana/o Studies and, with the Department of Chicano Studies, the Luis Leal Endowed Chair. Having enjoyed dynamic growth in recent years, the Center is positioned to pursue truly interdisciplinary dialogues and projects while drawing on a number of the most accomplished humanists and social scientists in Chicano studies. Most recently, the Center has established a four-year program devoted to researching U.S./Mexico border culture (supported by the Rockefeller Foundation) and an innovative program studying student outreach initiatives. "ENLACE y Avance: Students and Families Empowered for Success" is a collaborative UCSB outreach and research project involving over 30 community based organizations,

Gevirtz Research Center: The Gevirtz Research Center was founded in 1996 as a result of a generous donation by Ambassador and Mrs. Don Gevirtz in order to improve public education in America. It is a collaborative University/Birth-grade12 partnership between the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education, the Santa Barbara School Districts, other districts, and the private sector. The vision of the outreach partnership is to design and implement innovative educational programs that provide students with high-quality learning experiences and to research the effectiveness, sustainability, and expansion of those programs. The Gevirtz Research Center coordinates the research efforts of distinguished UCSB faculty members and graduate student researchers, in collaboration with school district representatives. The multi-method research design incorporates both quantitative and qualitative data that are collected longitudinally with multiple outcome measures. The Center reports research findings to teachers, parents, administrators, education policy leaders, private sector representatives and other researchers.

Institute for Computational Earth System Science (ICESS): The Institute for Computational Earth System Science research provides an environment in which Earth system scientists can closely collaborate and perform computations not possible in many other facilities. The focus is on research and research education in Earth system science, with an emphasis on processes governing the interactions of radiation and Earth. Advances in computer and satellite technology, and the ability to model complex systems, have opened unprecedented opportunities to increase understanding of the Earth as an integrated system. ICESS is on the leading edge of Earth system science research and related computer and data processing technology. It is uniquely positioned to utilize extensive satellite data sets and capabilities from a variety of agencies and organizations.

Institute for Social, Economic, and Behavioral Research (ISBER): The Institute for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Research is the campus Organized Research Unit for sponsored research in the social sciences and, to a lesser extent, the humanities and other units of the university. In 1999-2000, ISBER's 125 PIs and co-PIs, many operating through ISBER's 14 Centers, submitted 81 proposals totaling $14.1 million, and were involved in 123 projects, totalling $9.4 million in contracts, grants, gifts, royalties, and other awards. ISBER's fourteen Centers encompass a wide range of social science research concerns, including Centers for the Advanced Study of Individual Differences, Communication and Social Policy, East Asia, Evolutionary Psychology, Global Studies, Health Data Research, Information Technology and Society, MesoAmerican Research, Middle East Studies, Sexual Minorities in the Military, Spatially Integrated Social Science, the Study of Discourse, the Study of Religion, and Survey Research.

Interdisciplinary Humanities Center (IHC): Founded in 1987 with the express purpose of fostering innovative research and teaching across traditional disciplinary boundaries, the IHC supports interdisciplinary research, conferences, and guest lectures as well as

National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS): NCEAS was created in 1995 with funding from the National Science Foundation, the State of California, and UCSB. The Center supports the use of collaborative and synthetic approaches to solve fundamental ecological and environmental problems, and emphasizes application of upto- date analytical tools to existing data sets and development of new modeling approaches. Core research areas include complex population dynamics, interactions within and between ecological communities, analysis of broad biogeographical patterns, projects relating to resource management, and ecological informatics.

Ethnicity Requirement: All undergraduate students in the Colleges of Letters & Science, Engineering, and Creative Studies take at least one course that concentrates on the intellectual, social, and cultural experience of an American ethnic minority. Students may select from approximately one hundred courses that focus on the history and the cultural, intellectual, and social experience of one of the following: Native Americans, African Americans, Chicanos/Latinos, or Asian Americans. Alternatively, students may take a course that provides a comparative and integrative context for understanding the experience of oppressed and excluded racial minorities in the United States.

Chancellor's Outreach Advisory Board (COAB): COAB was established to provide program coordination, information-sharing, encouragement of new initiatives and fiscal oversight for the legislatively-mandated permanent outreach funds that the campus receives annually from the Office of the President. COAB is comprised of a broad representation of UCSB faculty, administrators, staff, graduate and undergraduate students. Either as members or consultants, virtually all those who actively participate in campus outreach are represented on COAB.

Faculty Outreach Grants Program (FOG): The Chancellor charged COAB with the promotion of faculty outreach initiatives. As a response, COAB established the Faculty Outreach Grants program. Created in 1999, the FOG program addresses the faculty role in the effort to increase the eligibility and enrollment rates of California's educationally disadvantaged students. Following the UC Outreach Task Force Report, FOG promotes campus initiatives that can transform student academic experience and/or classroom approaches, curricula, school climate, or educational equity, and thus affect significantly the aspirations and achievement of students in low-performing schools. COAB developed the FOG program to stimulate the creativity and enrich the quality of K-12 campus outreach programs, to strengthen a sustained faculty commitment to K-12 outreach, and to enrich the collaborative relations between UCSB faculty and the UCSB partner schools. Through the FOG Program the COAB awarded over $700,000 in faculty grants for 1999-2000.

Library Resources: UCSB’s Libraries have achieved unusual distinction in providing unique resources supporting research and teaching in ethnic studies, foreign area studies,

Multicultural Center: The Multicultural Center provides a focal point for scholarly and artistic events promoting an awareness of cultural diversity and currently serves over 50 student organizations on campus. Established in 1987, the MCC offers a broad range of events including lectures, panel discussions, films and videos, poetry readings, art exhibits, and musical, dance, and dramatic performances, all of which are open to the general public. Its primary mission is to promote cultural awareness and understanding, to create an environment that will foster a sense of belonging among students of diverse cultures, as well as international students at UCSB, and to serve as a setting for meaningful cross-cultural interaction.

Resource Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity: The Resource Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity at UCSB is designed to be a safe and supportive environment for all students, staff and faculty, emphasizing resources for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) community, as well as allies and those who are questioning their sexual and/or gender identity. The Center welcomes a diversity of racial, ethnic, religious, political and cultural values while advocating for the welfare of those who have historically been marginalized because of their sexual and/or gender identity. The Director and staff are committed to serving the campus and larger community with professionalism and respect. The Center provides educational programming, social activities, advocacy and consultation with the goal of enhancing safety, tolerance and quality of life in the UCSB community.

Center for Entrepreneurship & Engineering Management (CEEM): The mission of CEEM is to train students in the fundamentals of entrepreneurial, business, and

Management Practices: The Graduate Program in Management Practice offers Ph.D. candidates in science and engineering disciplines a solid and essential introduction to the fundamentals of business management in preparation for successful careers beyond the research university. Students enrolled in the Program take courses in management, finance, interpersonal and organizational communication and intern 160 hours in the private sector to gain firsthand experience in a non-academic enterprise. If budgetary support becomes available, the Program will be broadened to serve Ph.D. candidates in humanities and social sciences disciplines. In addition to the extant courses and internship, the Ph.D. candidates in humanities and social sciences enrolled in the Program will be expected to fulfill one of three new course requirements: Computer Technology, Bio-Technology, or Material Science. These will be comprehensive and non-technical courses, designed for students without any formal training in mathematics and physical sciences. They aim to familiarize students with the scientific and technological issues and agenda in computer technology, bio-technology and material science. The purpose is to make a humanity/social science Ph.D. an attractive, non-technical employment prospect for the high-tech industry.

Media Arts and Technology Program (MATP): MATP is an interdisciplinary and interdepartmental graduate degree program that offers the Master of Science and Master of Arts degrees in Media Arts and Technology. MATP serves as a focal point for multimedia education, engineering, research, and artistic production. Its distinguishing features are: (1) arts and entertainment focus, (2) interdisciplinary approach based on a core set of skills and knowledge that all MATP students will master, and (3) emphasis on group projects in multimedia software development and artistic production. Students emerging from the MAT Program will have interdisciplinary breadth but will also focus on an area of emphasis, according to their background and career interests: Multimedia Engineering, Electronic Music and Sound Design, Visual and Spatial Arts.

The Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management: Within the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management, the flagship master's degree in Environmental Science & Management (MESM) program is unique among its peers in that it provides a balanced core curriculum as between environmental science and management, with law, economics and information technology management. The capstone in this curriculum is the MESM Group Project, a year-long faculty-assisted project--often done on behalf of a client organization--that emphasizes the articulation of,

Digital Competence Program: Currently in its developmental stages, this program seeks to insure that all students have the technological skills and abilities necessary to succeed both in the university environment and in their future careers. This program is primarily aimed at low-income, first generation, and underrepresented students in order to narrow the "digital divide" which threatens students from disadvantaged high schools. Once in place, the Digital Competence Program will offer a series of opportunities for students to gain competence in a wide range of technological skills including: word processing, desktop publishing, email management, web design, data base management, money management, internet research, digital animation and digital presentations. The Program contains various competency levels so that students can initiate, develop, and further hone their skills in each of the areas offered over the course of their academic career at UCSB.

Voice of the Shuttle: Begun in 1994, Voice of the Shuttle (VoS) is one of the oldest and largest Web sites devoted to humanities research. It consists of 70+ pages of annotated

The "Digital Library": Over the last six years, the UCSB Libraries have made significant accomplishments in the integration of networked and digital information technologies, for the delivery of scholarly content, the provision of information services to the campus, and the improvement of internal operations. An achievement of international renown is the Alexandria Digital Library (ADL), begun in 1994 and now fully deployed with digitized content and customized searching and visualization software. Currently, the ADL includes 1.5 terabytes of data (maps and satellite images) and a unique gazetteer of almost 5 million records. The Libraries have developed other digital archives of locallyowned scholarly resources related to faculty or systemwide projects. Notable examples are materials from the California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives, and state and local government publications related to environmental sciences. As part of the UC California Digital Library (CDL), the UCSB Libraries have contributed hundreds of documents to the Online Archive of California. The Library’s gateway to the CDL brings the campus an extraordinary level of access to full-text digital scholarly sources; more than 4000 journals and 150 reference databases are now available online.

Office of Information Technology: The Office of Information Technology provides leadership in information technology matters. It develops plans for UCSB's information technology infrastructure and for the integration of information technology into research and instructional activities. The Office has overall responsibility for the campus-wide information technology infrastructure, including the wiring plant, the operation of campus-wide data, video and voice networks, and their external connections. It provides a number of networking services, and coordinates those information technology services for which it does not have operational responsibility. Priorities and policies for information technology are set by the Information Technology Board, which is composed of senior administrators, faculty, students and staff. Technical advice and support are provided by the Information Technology Planning Group, which includes senior technical staff from throughout the campus.

Talking Signs: Information is the currency of the 21st Century. It is essential not only for databases of local or global proportions, but also for undertaking everyday activities in an effective manner. Knowing where things are ("georeferencing") is one such important everyday use of information. Locational knowledge is fundamental to successful wayfinding, particularly for those unfamiliar with an environment (e.g. visitors), or for

Education Abroad Program (EAP): The University of California's Education Abroad Program provides international experiences, coursework, and training for UC students, as well as international research and teaching exchanges for faculty. In 2001-2002, approximately 2,500 UC students studied at over 130 host institutions in 34 countries worldwide. Through reciprocity agreements, EAP's partner institutions sent about 1,000 students to study at UC. UCSB, specifically, sent 454 students on EAP programs and hosted about 110 reciprocity students in 2001-2002. EAP augments the academic programs of UC students by providing programs, courses, and experiences that they cannot obtain at UC which often have life-changing effects on participants by changing their perspectives. EAP also facilitates a wide variety of academic collaborations and exchanges. Most EAP participants take regular courses at host universities, but other options include specialized courses in a particular field (e.g., Costa Rica Tropical Biology, Australia Marine Sciences).

Global Studies: Established in 1998, the BA degree in Global Studies has become the single fastest growing undergraduate major on the UCSB campus, increasing from zero to 500 majors in less than three years. Global Studies is an interdisciplinary major that is distinctive for its emphasis on transnational processes and interactions. It is one of the first programs in the nation to offer a degree in international studies with contemporary globalizing trends as the central organizing theme. Students specialize either in "Culture and Ideology" or "Socioeconomics and Politics." They must also develop an emphasis in one region of the world, including an appropriate foreign language, while at the same time taking a variety of courses on global and transnational issues. The major prepares students for graduate study or professional careers in international affairs, international business, peace and world order studies, and area studies.

Office of International Students and Scholars (OISS): OISS serves over 1,500 international students and scholars who study, teach, and engage in research each year at UCSB. OISS assists academic departments in their efforts to bring visiting foreign faculty and scholars to the university and initiates program and projects that will add to the international dimensions of the university. Its programs and services include immigration assistance, assistance with work authorization, Social Security, and Internal

Revenue Service paperwork, orientation programs, conversation programs, the President’s Work Study program, the OISS Newsletter, an international speakers bureau, workshops for students, and student activities such as the International Coffee Hour. Scholarly Exchange Programs: Many faculty and students from other countries visit UCSB each year to participate in meetings, workshops, and conferences; to collaborate and interact with researchers; and to take courses and obtain training in their areas of expertise. Some of these scholars and students visit UCSB under the auspices of UCSB agreements with foreign institutions that encourage and facilitate educational and research exchanges. Such agreements assist UCSB researchers and students in working overseas and encourage visits and collaboration by foreign researchers. Because interest in such agreements is expanding, the campus is currently developing a clear, coherent process for developing, reviewing, and approving exchange agreements that includes all campus units with an interest in such exchanges.

World Literature: In a recent initiative to promote the study of world literature, the Comparative Literature program redesigned the requirements for its undergraduate degree so that students must study at least two courses in non-western literatures and have the opportunity to focus primarily on a non-western literature or literatures. UCSB hosts a rich variety of courses on non-western literature (in the UC system, only Berkeley and Los Angeles offer more languages) including literature courses in such languages as Arabic, Aramaic, Chinese, Coptic, Hebrew, Hindi, Japanese, Punjabi, Sanskrit, and Tibetan.

World Religions: One of the distinctive features of UCSB that has contributed greatly to its prominence in the field of Religious Studies, and also stands as a mark of the campus’ commitment to the study of cultures around the globe, is the existence of 7 endowed chairs devoted to the study of the world’s great religious traditions. These include chairs in Islamic, Shinto, Sikh, and Tibetan traditions, as well as chairs for the study of American Religions, Comparative Religions, and Religion in Society. An eighth chair, in Catholic Studies, is anticipated in the near future. Separate endowments support programming and/or graduate fellowships in Catholic, Jewish, and Islamic Studies. This amount of long-term endowment support for the study of global religions is unmatched by any other university in the nation.