Provost Communication, Monday, February 5, 2024

Hello! I hope you all had a nice weekend. I can’t believe it’s February already. Where has the time gone?

Shout Out- Pelican Bay Bachelor’s Program

I wanted to give a shoutout to the following folx: Steve Ladwig, Tony Wallin-Sato, Maxwell Schnurer, and Mark Taylor, our partners in the registrar, financial aid, and at the College of the Redwoods as Cal Poly Humboldt has successfully launched a bachelor’s in Communication at Pelican Bay. Additionally, Cal Poly Humboldt is the FIRST university in the United States to be approved for Pell eligibility for people who are incarcerated seeking this education. This is a big deal! Providing access to education to people who are incarcerated makes families healthier and communities safer and doubles down on Cal Poly Humboldt’s commitment to defining ourselves by who we include and not who we exclude. Way to go! 

You may have noticed that I am on a campaign so to speak to really lean into our values of communication and shared governance. As such, there were several presentations and requests for feedback in the last few weeks on two key areas: budget, and the low degree conferring action planning process. Here is some additional information about those topics. 

Budget

Last week I partnered with the Division of Administration and Finance and specifically with the University budget office as well as the University Resources and Planning Committee (URPC) to offer presentations about the state of the university budget and plans to explore reduction scenarios of between three to eight percent to align our university revenue and expenditures. Presentations were provided at the University Senate, Academic Affairs Leadership, the Provost Council of Chairs Meeting, and at the Information Exchange meeting. A copy of the slide deck can be found attached to this email. 

Low Degree Conferring Academic Program Metrics and Action Planning

Over the last few weeks, I have been collecting feedback about metrics and evaluation criteria to inform action planning for the 32 academic degree programs that were identified as low degree conferring by the Chancellor’s office as defined as graduate programs conferring five or fewer degrees in the last year and 10 or less undergraduate degrees in the last year. Exceptional conversation and feedback have been gleaned from the Academic Affairs Welcome Back, University Senate, Senate Executive Committee, Academic Affairs Leadership, Provost Council of Chairs, Integrated Curriculum Committee (ICC), and CFA. 

You can find both the slide deck and the Chancellor’s Office Action Plan document attached. A final decision about which metrics will inform action planning will occur by the end of this week and communicated to Academic Affairs shortly thereafter. Deans, associate deans, and/or I will then meet with department chairs and/or program leads of programs identified on the low-degree conferring list to begin action planning. Thank you all for your robust engagement in this process. 

Have a wonderful week,

Jenn Capps

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Jenn Capps, PhD 

Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs 

Cal Poly Humboldt