Thank you, Chair Anguiano.
I want to add my welcome to our new Academic Senate Vice Chair Dr. Nuru-Jeter, and Regent Scott Galloway. I know all of us appreciate your willingness to serve the University and look forward to working with you.
The Chair has outlined several important priorities for the coming year that call for our attention. I support the agenda enthusiastically. Each of the priorities advanced by the chair and the Board will help us answer some fundamental questions before the University of California.
First, how do we prepare for an uncertain future?
Artificial intelligence has brought new urgency to that question. It is changing the way we work, the way our researchers make discoveries, and the way our students learn faster than any other technology. As this pace of change accelerates across higher education and society, we must continue to think about how the University will fulfill its mission.
We often talk about preparing our students for that future. For these students, multiple career changes will be the norm. Our alumni will need to continue learning long after they leave campus.
Preparing students for the future has never been just about preparing them for their first job. It has prepared them, we hope, for lives of learning, leadership, and meaningful contributions. That kind of University of California education has never been more important.
The traditional collegiate experience at UC and elsewhere remains one of the greatest strengths of this University. It provides extraordinary opportunities for intellectual growth, research, mentorship, and community. However, we have never been able to provide that experience for everyone who would benefit. And, increasingly, Californians are seeking education at different stages of their lives and in different ways.
Our alumni will need new skills and expertise as they move through careers and life. To meet these needs we must think beyond the educational models that have served us so well in the past and adapt to continue to provide Californians the educational opportunities they will need in the future.
At the last meeting we discussed the value of a UC education in terms of alumni outcomes, and the annual Accountability Report on the agenda further examines key metrics that further show our value and impact. But the past and present performance is not a guarantee of future results, and we should always consider carefully how we contribute and deliver value for our students and the state moving forward.
As we navigate tremendous change, there are key elements of a university education that will only become more valuable. Intellectual curiosity, the ability to critically evaluate evidence, being able to consider issues from a variety of vantage points and exercising sound judgment: These are not soft skills, these are durable skills that will only become more valuable in the age of AI. I’m not sure AI will help our students discover what it means to lead a good life. I hope a UC education will.
So what does the University need to do; what choices do we have in front of us that will help meet the needs of California tomorrow?
This will sound familiar. First, we need to continue to invest in what has always been our greatest asset – that’s our people – our faculty, our staff, and our students. Their talent, their creativity, their ambition will, to a great extent, determine how successful we are.
Second, we need to continue to invest in the infrastructure of this University that will allow UC to lead the world in research, including in artificial intelligence.
Finally, we need to continue examining how we best fulfill our mission. We need to regularly ask whether our approaches are the right ones, the best ones, to meet the needs of students and the people of California as those needs evolve.
I’ve spent the last year traveling the state, visiting campuses, meeting with faculty, students and staff. I am impressed at every stop. The University of California is even better than I thought it was. I am confident that with the talent that we have throughout the University, we will continue to be in the lead in our education for life, in our research, in our preparation of Californians, I look forward to the discussion today and tomorrow, in advance, of the goals that the Board has set for this year, I think they’re appropriate and I look forward to the work ahead. Thank you.