Hey guys, this is hopefully /sci/ related enough for you. Recently, the Chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley submitted a plan which would involve dissolving (no pun here) the College of Chemistry, currently independent administratively and admissions wise, into the college of Letters and Science and College of Engineering (pure chem would be folded into L&S and ChemE would go to CoE).
However, this would be destroying a major part of the University, both historically and academically. CoC utilizes its independence to limit undergrad humanities requirements and maximize undergraduate research, giving them a competitive edge for grad school, as well as keeping Berkeley the best undergrad Chem program in the world.
The CoC is also the college with the most Nobel Prizes out of any department at the university.
What do you think would be the best course of action for halting this administrative bungle, and what do you guys think about it? (there's a change.org petition I won't bother linking since they're worthless anyways, but curious how to prevent a scientific travesty)
>>7913725
Bump
>>7913748
/sci/ is slow, you don't need to bump after a few minutes
The administration has no credibility at all when making statements on how much money there is, how it is spent, etc.
The state audit revealed that the UC could not provide any accounting for 6.6 billion in a five year period. That was ~4.5% of the annual budget at the time, for five years running.
That said, I don't see a reliable means to stopping the administration from doing as it pleases.
"Shared governance" between the faculty senate and campus administration at Cal was exposed as a sham after the campus administration agreed to make DIA self-funding and went behind the FS's back to fund athletics to the tune of $10 million/year for seven years. When publicly called out, they merely reduced the impermissible payments to $5 million/year, and refused to fire Birgeneau, Barbour, or Brostrom (the persons most responsible for the breach of the administration's promise to the faculty).
>>7913766
(I bump when it hits page 2 on homepage, usually)
That seems like we should be fighting this even more, then. It seems to me that blame lies on all sides- Napolitano, Dirks mismanaging UC, and Brown refusing to allocate the proper funds to fulfill the university's original mission.
>>7913725
Chem majors barely take any courses.
>>7913780
That's like 16 units a semester, bruh.
>>7913777
>Brown refusing to allocate the proper funds to fulfill the university's original mission.
The state provides something like 11% of the UC's overall budget (out of a ~27 $billion annual budget across 10 campuses).
Is Brown supposed to propose restoring funding to 50% (as it was decades ago)? Do you think that will be approved by the State Assembly? Where are those billions supposed to come from?
UC is fucked, I have little love for the administration, that said the problems we face now are not solely the making of the current crop of administrators.
At Cal, Dirks is talking about pension obligations driving a $150 million/year budget deficit.
While I am not willing to take that statement at face value w/o further investigation, it is the case that UC stopped both employer and employee contributions to retirement plans for a 20 year period b/c someone hired to oversee institutional investments was a moron.
>>7913790
California has been running a healthy budget surplus for years. Even jumping from 11 to something like 30-35 would make a massive difference. Increasing the funding to the best educational institution in the state would be a definite net benefit to the state.
>>7913780
Enrollment in gen chem (1A/L and 1B/L) and organic for non-majors (3A/L and 3B/L) is much higher.
The department is meeting a need for other departments (pre-reqs for a bunch of biology majors for example).
I don't have a good grasp of how the money is handled - either between the various colleges, the departments or between Cal and the UC.
It may be the case that revenue is accruing to CoC that would go to L&S under the proposed restructuring.
>>7913725
Well you see, with chancellors everything is left to chance, that's why they're called that way. So there's not much you can do.
>>7913793
>Increasing the funding to the best educational institution in the state would be a definite net benefit to the state.
I agree, although it isn't that simple.
This is less than a year old
http://www.mercurynews.com/california/ci_28056793/californias-budget-surplus-soars-new-heights-schools-benefit
Everybody wants a piece of the pie, the rainy day fund is mandatory, other earmarks are mandatory under propositions, the political battle between the Regents and the Assembly has to be dealt with and at the end of the day there's only a billion to parcel out at will which falls well short of your proposal.
>>7913803
Yeah, that's fair.
I would argue, however, that there is a strong case for scaling back prop 19, or eliminating it entirely.
>>7913783
4 course are like the bare minimum. Also free elective aren't required
>>7913725
No one gives a shit about a dying major in a special snow flake department.
>>7913876
No, it really isn't. And yes, they kind of are.
>>7913884
>no one gives a shit about the dept. that led to the discovery of 12 elements and produces some of the best grads in the world
>>7913884
>dying major
>special snow flake department
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UC_Berkeley_College_of_Chemistry
>US News and World Report has ranked its chemistry and chemical engineering programs first and second in the U.S., respectively, while the 2014 QS World University Rankings has ranked both its chemistry and chemical engineering programs second best in the world.[4] Its faculty and graduates have won numerous awards, including the Wolf Prize, the National Medal of Science, the National Medal of Technology, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, as well as thirteen Nobel Prizes.
The Department of Chemistry is one of the largest and most productive in the world, graduating about 80 doctoral students per year[1] while maintaining the world's highest citation-per-faculty score.[citation needed] It hosts 6 of the top 100 chemists worldwide by citation impact for 2000–2010, tied with MIT for the most of any institution.[5] Scientists affiliated with the department and the nearby Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory are responsible for the discovery of sixteen elements.
>>7913725
>$150 million deficit
>Bad
lmao get on my shitty school's level http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/31298652/uh-proposes-tuition-hikes-to-deal-with-maintenance-backlog
But yeah that sounds like a bad move, and I don't see how it would save much money in the first place.
