Strategic Academic Focusing Initiative

Our faculty-focused development of a strategic academic vision

Strategic Academic Focusing must consider where future investments in academic programs and support infrastructure are best made.

As a first step in the process, we want to hear from faculty and campus units.

We need articulation of growth trajectory and evaluation metrics for faculty-identified academic programs. Your ideas or responses are not restricted to the 2009 Strategic Plan.

We ask that you address the five broad questions found in the September 26 memo. Briefly:

  1. Refinements to the 2009 Strategic Academic Vision
  2. Important research problems or questions in your field(s)
  3. Resources that are needed
  4. National programs that are most closely aligned
  5. Important campus metrics that are met
  • Oct 28 - Nov 15: First Round Open Submission Phase
    • We will invite broad comments and encourage collaboration and potential connection to other initiatives.
    • These initial submissions will be the basis for providing input to the "2020 Project" RFQ Process in 2014.
    • You can return and login to update/edit your proposal and/or comment on other submissions at anytime before Nov 15.
  • Nov 18 - Dec 2013: First Round Review
    • Initiatives will be reviewed in preparation for 2020 Project RFQ Process.
  • Dec 2013 - Apr 30, 2014: Open Improvement Phase
    • Continue to build upon ideas, taking advantage of input and expertise acquired through this forum.
    • Update Initiatives, work on more detailed refinements and collaboration opportunities.
  • Deadline May 2, 5:00 pm: Second Round Open Submission Phase
  • May 3 - Summer 2014: Review Phase
    • All initiatives will be reviewed internally and externally, and used to develop a new Strategic Academic Plan for the campus.

Proposals (57 total)

Pages

Arts, Humanities and Anthropology (AHA) in the World at UC Merced

Submitted by Ruth Mostern (UC Merced) on November 15, 2013 - 5:05pm Last revised by Brad Bulger on September 29, 2020 - 6:02pm.
Proposal Status: 
Open
Principal Authors: 

Ruth Mostern, Gregg Camfield, Susan Amussen, Katie Brokaw, David Kaminsky, ShiPu Wang, Christina Lux and Kathleen Hull on behalf of the Humanities and World Cultures Bylaw Group, the Center for the Humanities, and the World Cultures Graduate Group

(The following HTML document is the original Fall 2013 version. The May 2, 2014 revision is attached as a PDF in the Supporting Documents section.) In 2020, UC Merced will be a model for conjoined and interdisciplinary arts, humanities and anthropological (AHA) research and education nationwide.

Political Science Program (Bylaw Unit and Graduate Group) Pre-Proposal

Submitted by Nathan Monroe (UC Merced) on November 15, 2013 - 4:11pm Last revised by Brad Bulger on September 29, 2020 - 6:02pm.
Proposal Status: 
Open
Principal Authors: 
Nathan Monroe Tom Hansford Steve Nicholson Jessica Trounstine Courtenay Conrad Emily Ritter Matt Hibbing Haifeng Huang David Fortunato Alex Theodoridis
The political science program at UC Merced is distinct in two important ways. First, our program is organized in a unique manner. We divide the field into two complementary tracks – Political Economy and Political Institutions and Political Behavior and Cognition. This organization facilitates greater intra- and inter-disciplinary collaboration. Our faculty regularly coauthor with scholars in other fields and publish in general science, interdisciplinary, and other-discipline journals, and our graduate students receive uniquely interdisciplinary training.

Strategic Academic Vision for Quantitative and Systems Biology

Submitted by David Ardell (UC Merced) on November 15, 2013 - 4:09pm Last revised by Brad Bulger on September 29, 2020 - 6:02pm.
Proposal Status: 
Open
Principal Authors: 

David Ardell, Miriam Barlow, Michael Beman, Jessica Blois, Wei-Chun Chin, Jinah Choi, Michael Cleary, Fabian Filipp, Carolin Frank, Ajay Gopinathan, Linda Hirst, Karin Leiderman, Andy LiWang, Gabriela Loots, Jennifer Manilay, Victor Muñoz, Kara McCloskey, Clarissa Nobile, Rudy Ortiz, Nestor Oviedo, Ramendra Saha, Suzanne Sindi, Axel Visel, Fred Wolf, Zhong Wang and Jing Xu

UC Merced Mission priorities include discovery of new knowledge and cross-disciplinary inquiry. The best strategic expression of these core values within biology is Quantitative and Systems Biology (QSB). QSB is well-poised to convert UC Merced investments in interdisciplinary science into biological advances. QSB must revamp from an umbrella group for the life sciences with a renewed and sharpened mission to accelerate biological discovery through innovation.

Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) Undergraduate Program

Submitted by Christopher Viney (UC Merced) on November 15, 2013 - 3:47pm Last revised by Brad Bulger on September 29, 2020 - 6:02pm.
Proposal Status: 
Open
Principal Authors: 

Christopher Viney (Lead Author)

Valerie Leppert, Jennifer Lu, Vincent Tung, Lilian Davila

This initiative is being replaced by "Materials Science and Engineering: a focus on energy, sustainability, and manufacturable devices"

2020 vision for Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at UC Merced (Revised Version)

Submitted by Stefano Carpin (UC Merced) on November 15, 2013 - 3:42pm Last revised by Brad Bulger on September 29, 2020 - 6:02pm.
Proposal Status: 
Open
Principal Authors: 
Stefano Carpin, Miguel Carreira-Perpinan, Alberto Cerpa, YangQuan Chen, Dan Hirleman, Ariel Escobar, Sungjin Im, Changqing Li, Marcelo Kallmann, Paul Maglio, Shawn Newsam, David Noelle, Erik Rolland, Florin Rusu, Mukesh Singhal, and Ming-Hsuan Yang.
Establishing Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) as a strategic focus area at UC Merced will: 1) expand the research excellence the University already has in these increasingly important fields; 2) allow the campus to achieve its goal of enrolling 1,000 graduate students by 2020; and 3) benefit the Central Valley through economic stimulation and highly employable undergraduate educational programs. The foundation to achieve these goals already exists in the form of the EECS graduate emphasis area and Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) undergraduate program.

Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) Graduate Group

Submitted by Christopher Viney (UC Merced) on November 15, 2013 - 3:27pm Last revised by Brad Bulger on September 29, 2020 - 6:02pm.
Proposal Status: 
Open
Principal Authors: 

Christopher Viney (Lead Author)

Valerie Leppert (MSE), Jennifer Lu (MSE), Vincent Tung (MSE), Lilian Davila (MSE), Min-Hwan Lee (ME), Ashlie Martini (ME), Tao Ye (CHEM), Kara McCloskey (BIOE)

This initiative is being replaced by "Materials Science and Engineering: a focus on energy, sustainability, and manufacturable devices"

Center for the Study of Comparative Inequalities

Submitted by Tanya Golash Boza (UC Merced) on November 15, 2013 - 2:55pm Last revised by Brad Bulger on September 29, 2020 - 6:02pm.
Proposal Status: 
Open
Principal Authors: 

Tanya Golash-Boza, Zulema Valdez, Sean Malloy, David Torres-Rouff, Mario Sifuentez, and Nigel Hatton.

We are a group of SSHA Faculty and are proposing the development of a Center for the Study of Comparative Inequalities that will be global in scope, unique in the country, and directly serve the interests of the Central Valley. There are Centers around the world that focus on immigration, race, ethnicity, gender, class, and sexuality. We are proposing a center that focuses on the intersection of these matrices of inequality. Although most scholars of inequality today claim to be intersectional, most academics are trained in primarily one area: race or gender, for example.

Spatial Analysis and Research Center (SpARC) and Spatial Science Initiatives (revision)

Submitted by Erin Mutch (UC Merced) on November 15, 2013 - 2:44pm Last revised by Brad Bulger on September 29, 2020 - 6:02pm.
Proposal Status: 
Open
Principal Authors: 

 Ruth Mostern, Shawn Newsam, Qinghua Guo, Erin Mutch

The Spatial Analysis & Research Center (SpARC) at UC Merced fosters interdisciplinary research in the spatial sciences and supports education through training and curriculum development.  SpARC is the campus-wide hub for spatial science research, analysis, education, visualization, spatial data archiving, and access to spatial science software and equipment for UC Merced and its partners.  SpARC leads faculty and community partner grants for research and other activities with a spatial aspect and collaborates on ongoing projects.

Pages