Big Ideas Workgroups – Finance, Operations, and Administration

Compiled Recommendations Summary

Prepared: October 2025

Marketing and Recruitment, e.g. invest in a welcome center; expand advertising efforts in key domestic and international regions; utilize career outcomes to demonstrate strong return on investment post-graduation.
Retention, e.g. develop an intentional first and second year experience.
Student Life & Housing, e.g. specialty living-learning communities.
Academic Programs and Pathways. e.g. encourage more interdisciplinary collaborations between undergrad and graduate divisions to develop programs to better align w/current job market; increase international dual degree partnerships.

College models to integrate academic, residential, and social experiences, esp. first- and second-year students.
First-year experience 2025-26 working group. Redesign first-year experience and support retention and student success by coordinating orientation, core courses, advising, and residential learning.
Align responsibilities among UE, DSAS, and the academic disciplinary divisions.

Leverage AI to reduce administrative workload.
Harmonize advising roles, structures, and processes across units.
Have Office of Campus Advising Coordination coordinate aligning advising roles with student success outcomes.
Strengthen the connection between first-year college advising and divisional major advising.
EAB/Slug Success: Establish Power Users Group and EAB Implementation Committee to oversee platform use, onboarding, and advisor competency. A central, well-supported advising infrastructure will enhance communication, early academic intervention, and overall advising quality.

Expanding professional master’s education in professionally relevant and strategically aligned fields is an opportunity to broaden participation, sustain offerings, generate revenue, and strengthen the graduate enterprise. The three program types are academic MA/MS programs, supplemental professional degree programs, and self-supporting programs.
To support departments, UCSC could establish guidelines and a financial template to walk departments through the financial planning and budget development process of offering SSGPs.
UCSC would need to assemble a cross-functional team to handle admissions, marketing, student services, compliance, and instructional design.

Undergraduate revenue in Silicon Valley: residential research university experience, target 1-year experiences, primary education will always be at main campus, commuter options for students, reduce the cost of a UC education through reduced housing costs.
Found a UCSC Silicon Valley Internship Center.
Form a Baskin Engineering Department of Interactive Intelligence. Graduate-only department, with a focus on PhD and MS education, generating significant revenue. Select undergraduate courses and certificate programs could be offered without the overhead of a full undergraduate degree program.
Form College 11 in Silicon Valley as a stepping stone to offering undergraduate programs in Silicon Valley, generating significant new revenue for UCSC.