Chancellor

Moving Forward

by Robert Grey

Dear Friends:

For those of you whom I have not yet had the opportunity to meet, I want to say what an honor it is to be serving as acting chancellor of UCR. My wife and I have quickly come to feel at home on the campus and in the community. We want to thank everyone who has helped to make us feel so welcome.

From my first day on campus I have said that I do not intend to be a caretaker, but rather that I want to help move the campus forward during my tenure here. With the help of a first-class senior leadership team, I have identified the top priorities on which to focus during the year ahead. Let me say a little about each.

First, we are actively engaged in planning of the medical school. We have developed the curriculum for the third and fourth years (we already teach the first two) and are in the process of developing a "bullet proof" business plan. Our goal is to have the proposal before the Academic Senate early in the new year.

The new School of Public Policy is currently under review by the Academic Senate. We will continue to facilitate this process, with the goal of enrolling our first students as early as fall 2009.

The downtown ARTSblock - consisting of the Sweeney Art Gallery, the UCR/California Museum of Photography and the Culver Center of the Arts - continues to be a priority for both the campus and the community. This year we will launch an exploration for an expanded program of arts and culture, befitting the size of our campus. We can't, of course, create a larger program in just a year, but we can lay a foundation upon which the campus, in collaboration with the city of Riverside, can build.

Under the leadership of Vice Chancellor Al Diaz, UCR will implement recommendations emerging from a staff climate survey and a subsequent series of focus groups. Staff have been actively involved in this process, which centers on issues related to communications, recognition and professional development.

Finally, of utmost importance to UCR in the coming year is the development of a sound plan that addresses future enrollment at the undergraduate, graduate and professional school levels. For that plan to succeed, we will need to further invest in scholarships for undergraduates, fellowships for graduate students, and endowed professorships and chairs for faculty.

So, as you can see, my intent is for UCR to make significant strides in the year ahead. I look forward to working with our faculty, students, staff and community to help achieve these goals.