Townsend Working Groups

Making UC Futures

There is a surfeit of big, conceptual questions facing the University of California, yet there is also a deficit of formats in which such questions can be discussed openly, critically, and with intellectual rigor. The UC’s future, whatever it is, will be brighter if envisioned with widespread, energetic faculty participation. The UC has some of the best, brightest, and most innovative faculty in the world. What would it mean for its faculty to be at the center of devising a new future for higher education? By what process might faculty from a wide range of disciplines be brought together in a way that would utilize their specific research expertise to address our complex challenges and result in viable, innovative ideas?

The Making UC Futures Working Group will host a range of speakers and workshops aimed at envisioning new paradigms for higher education in the present dynamic and volatile context. While sessions will involve critique of present practices, they will also move beyond opposition to imagine new futures for public higher education in California and beyond.

Coordinators:
Catherine Cole, Sara Beckman, and Clark Kellogg

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