UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, ACADEMIC SENATE January 26

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, ACADEMIC SENATE

BERKELEY

• DAVIS • IRVINE • LOS ANGELES • MERCED • RIVERSIDE • SAN DIEGO • SAN FRANCISCO

SANTA BARBARA • SANTA CRUZ

Susan Cochran Chair of the Assembly of the Academic Senate

Telephone: (510) 987-0887 Faculty Representative to the Regents

Email: susan.cochran@ucop.edu

University of California

1111 Franklin Street, 12th Floor

Oakland, California 94607-5200

January 26, 2023

HAL S. STERN

PROVOST AND EXECUTIVE VICE CHANCELLOR

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE

Re: Approval of Pre-Proposal for UCI School of Population and Public Health (SPPH)

Dear Provost Stern:

In accordance with the Universitywide Review Processes For Academic Programs, Units, and

Research Units (the “Compendium”), the Academic Senate solicited input from the Coordinating

Committee on Graduate Affairs (CCGA), the University Committee on Planning and Budget

(UCPB), and the University Committee on Educational Policy (UCEP), regarding the UC Irvine

pre-proposal to establish a School of Population and Public Health (SPPH).

The Senate’s three Compendium committees agree that UCI’s pre-proposal is worthy of

continued development. The committees also made suggestions in their attached reviews for

improving and clarifying the proposal. We look forward to reviewing the full proposal in the

future.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have additional questions.

Sincerely,

Susan Cochran, Chair

Academic Council

Cc: Provost Newman

UCI Senate Chair Striedter

IRAP Analyst Procello

UCI Senate Executive Director Kim

Executive Director Lin

COORDINATING COMMITTEE ON GRADUATE AFFAIRS (CCGA) ACADEMIC SENATE

Erith Jaffe-Berg, Chair University of California

erithj@ucr.edu 1111 Franklin Street, 12

Floor

Oakland, California 94607-5200

December 13, 2022

ACADEMIC SENATE CHAIR SUSAN COCHRAN

Dear Chair Cochran,

On December 5, CCGA reviewed a pre-proposal from the Irvine campus for a new School of

Population and Public Health. After discussion, the committee approved the proposal 10-0-1.

The establishment of this school aligns with UCI’s long-term strategic priority to build the Susan

& Henry Samueli College of Health Sciences into the premier choice for interprofessional

education. The Program in Public Health is strong and already operating like a school in most

respects. Transitioning formally into a recognized school will signal UC’s commitment to the

health of culturally diverse communities in southern California and around the world, and will

substantively contribute to the growth and renown of UCI.

UCI is unique among UCs in being designated as a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) and an

Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution (AANAPISI). The

Program in Public Health is currently ranked thirty-first on the U.S. News & World Report 2023

list for public health schools in the nation, and No. 1 in the nation among public universities for

“best value,” according to Forbes.

Reviews by CCGA, UCPB and an expert reviewer were all positive, but led to the following

suggestions: (1) The estimated increase in indirect cost return growth seems larger than expected for

the planned faculty growth; that should be addressed. (2) Financial support for staff should be given

serious consideration with both staff and faculty welfare issues in mind. (3) A diversification of

concrete DEI efforts would be appreciated, e.g., given the demographics of UCI, will efforts parallel

to the Black Thriving Initiative be pursued for Hispanic and Asian individuals? (4) Concrete

examples of how faculty have achieved health equity in the Orange County area could be highlighted.

The report reflecting the committee’s deliberations is attached. Please do not hesitate to contact me if

you have any questions or need additional information.

Sincerely,

Erith Jaffe-Berg

Chair, CCGA

c: James Steintrager, Academic Senate Vice Chair

CCGA

Monica Lin, Academic Senate Executive Director

Michael LaBriola, Academic Senate Assistant Director

Chris Procello, Academic Planning and Research Analyst

Gillian R. Haynes, UCI Vice Provost for Graduate Education

Jisoo Kim, UCI Senate Executive Director

Thao Nguyen, UCI Senate Analyst

DATE: December 5, 2022

TO: Erith Jaffe-Berg, CCGA Chair

FROM: Dean J. Tantillo, CCGA Vice Chair

SUBJECT: CCGA Review of the pre-proposal to establish the UCI School of Population and

Public Health (SPPH)

The Coordinating Committee on Graduate Affairs (CCGA) reviewed the proposal to establish the UCI

School of Population and Public Health (SPPH). After careful consideration, CCGA unanimously

supported the pre-proposal at its meeting on December 5, 2022.

The proposed school would be focused on improving health equity through research, service and

teaching, with a focus on the Orange County area. The school would be built on four existing

departments – the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, the Department of Environmental

and Occupational Health, the Department of Health, Society and Behavior, and the Department of

Population Health and Disease Prevention – and their associated existing undergraduate and graduate

educational programs. Financial support for the program would come in part from the campus, revenue

from a professional degree program, and philanthropy. DEI-focused programs are in-place and more

are planned.

Reviews by CCGA, UCPB and an expert reviewer were all positive, but led to the following

suggestions: (1) The estimated increase in ICR growth seems larger than expected for the planned

faculty growth; that should be addressed. (2) Financial support for staff should be given serious

consideration with both staff and faculty welfare issues in mind. (3) A diversification of concrete DEI

efforts would be appreciated, e.g., given the demographics of UCI, will efforts parallel to the Black

Thriving Initiative be pursued for Hispanic and Asian individuals? (4) Concrete examples of how

faculty have achieved health equity in the Orange County area could be highlighted.

Overall, CCGA considers this to be a strong proposal in an important area.

If you have any questions or any concerns about the review of this proposal, I would be happy to

address them.

Sincerely,

Dean J. Tantillo

CCGA Vice Chair

Professor, Department of Chemistry, UC Davis

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

BERKELEY

• DAVIS • IRVINE • LOS ANGELES • MERCED • RIVERSIDE • SAN DIEGO • SAN FRANCISCO

SANTA BARBARA • SANTA CRUZ

UNIVERSITY COMMITTEE ON PLANNING AND BUDGET (UCPB) Assembly of the Academic Senate

Donald Senear, Chair 1111 Franklin Street, 12

Floor

dfsenear@uci.edu Oakland, CA 94607-5200

Phone: (510) 987-9466

Fax: (510) 763-0309

November 4, 2022

SUSAN COCHRAN, CHAIR, ACADEMIC SENATE

RE: UC IRVINE PRE-PROPOSAL FOR A SCHOOL OF POPULATION AND PUBLIC

HEALTH

Dear Chair Cochran

UCPB has reviewed the Pre-proposal for the establishment of a School of Population and Public Health

at UC Irvine. The new school would be formed from four existing departments that comprise the current

Program in Public Health. The Program is in many ways already functioning as a school, with an

undergraduate enrollment of about 1,300 in two undergraduate majors, and at the graduate level four

master programs including a recently accredited Master’s in Public Health (MPH), and enrollment of

about 90 students in three academic Ph.D. programs and two joint graduate degree programs.

The establishment of the School is expected to bolster the ability to compete for recruiting the best

faculty and brightest students, particularly at the graduate level, to allow the faculty to compete for

large-scale funding opportunities and to enhance opportunities for philanthropy. Our understanding is

that school status is also necessary to maintain accreditation of the MPH program, which is critical to

the financial viability of schools of public health. Finally, school status will enhance both the public

health infrastructure of Orange County and UCI’s capacity for training a large and diverse public health

workforce for the State of California.

The proposal outlines an ambitious plan for growth that includes the addition of ten ladder-rank

faculty FTE lines over five years to a current faculty of 36. This is a major area of cost increase for

the new school that will add roughly $2.5M in faculty salaries and staff costs. Additional revenue

growth will be generated from Professional Degree Supplemental Tuition (PDST) for the MPH

program, which is projected to grow from 58 to 150 students over three years. However, this also

requires additional non-ladder rank faculty who must be hired in advance of the revenue growth.

The new school enjoys considerable support from the UCI campus. It will be housed in a building

within the new health sciences complex whose opening is imminent. The campus has also promised

permanent fiscal support, rising to $3.7M by FY 25-26. The promise of this support in an uncertain

future campus budget climate reflects a campus priority to build out the health sciences.

UCPB noted only a few minor concerns. While the salary cost for faculty growth is budgeted, set-

up costs are not. This concern is somewhat mitigated by the strong campus support for the new

school. The second concern is estimated ICR growth, from $300K to $1.4M, which is significantly

greater than the rate of faculty growth. Greater clarity of this discrepancy is needed. Third, the

budget anticipates significant revenue from endowment commitments for faculty and students, and

a potential school naming gift, both under discussion but not yet announced.

With these few concerns noted, UCPB is very supportive of the new school and looks forward to

reviewing the full proposal.

Sincerely,

Donald Senear, Chair

UCPB

Attachment

cc: CCGA, UCEP

To: UCPB

From: Kevin Mitchell

Re: UC Irvine Preproposal for a School of Population and Public Health

Comments on the UC Irvine Preproposal for a School of Population and Public Health.

The preproposal is for the transition from a Program in Public Health to a School of Population and

Public Health. The new school will be composed of four departments, about 1300 undergraduate

students (initially), and 36 faculty. This transition has the nearly unanimous

support of the faculty in the proposed school. In many ways, the program is already functioning as

a school. The rationale for the new school seems to be primarily that the school structure will

allow the proposed school to further grow and mature into the future. For

example, it will allow the faculty to compete for large-scale funding available only to schools,

We focus our review mostly on the resource implications of the school.

We received the UCI CPB report for the revised proposal dated May 12, 2022. They approved the

proposal unanimously, with little discussion. There was likely more discussion in the CPB memo

from the original pre-proposal, but that was not made available to us.

Since this is the natural evolution from a program to a school, there are no major changes to the

budget associated with the school, with a few exceptions noted below. Overall, the budget looks

reasonable and the new School appears to be financially viable. Below are some general

observations about the School budget.

1. There is some considerable cost associated with growing the number of faculty FTE lines, 10

FTEs over 5 years (an extra $2.5M in faculty salaries). There is a somewhat smaller relative growth

in the number of staff, which seems reasonable (an extra $400k or about a 27%

increase in salaries).

2. There is a rather large growth in estimated ICR ($300k to $1.4M). It is not clear why the ICR

growth is so much faster than the rate of faculty growth.

3. There is large growth in PDST ($400k to $1.2M) from the associated large growth in the

professional masters program (Masters in Public Health), from 58 t0 150 students enrolled.

4. There is considerable "Permanent Campus Support" (roughly $3.7M by AY 25-26) allocated to

the School from the EVC.

5. There is an anticipated initial drop in reserves as the School gets off the ground.

6. It is not clear exactly how "PROJECTED OPERATIONS BALANCE (w/o Core Campus Support)" is

calculated. It would help to have a brief comment in the budget narrative.

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

BERKELEY

• DAVIS • IRVINE • LOS ANGELES • MERCED • RIVERSIDE • SAN DIEGO • SAN FRANCISCO

SANTA BARBARA • SANTA CRUZ

UNIVERSITY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATIONAL POLICY (UCEP) Assembly of the Academic Senate

Melanie Cocco, Chair 1111 Franklin Street, 12

Floor

mcocco@uci.edu Oakland, CA 94607-5200

Phone: (510) 987-9466

December 7, 2022

SUSAN COCHRAN, CHAIR

ACADEMIC COUNCIL

RE: UCI School of Population and Public Health Pre-Proposal

Dear Susan,

UCEP discussed UCI School of Population and Public Health Pre-Proposal during our December 7

videoconference. This is a large and thorough proposal to establish a new School of Population and Public Health

(SPPH) at UCI. The current proposal has been very responsive to extensive and exhaustive feedback from internal

UC Irvine stakeholders and the various UC systemwide committees. The proposed new school will include four

major Departments: Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Department of Environment and Occupational

Health, Department of Health, Society and Behavior, and Department of Population Health and Disease Prevention.

There will be immense value-added to Public Health at UCI by having it become an actual School of Population and

Public Health. This will allow Public Health to become a more prominent member of the Health Sciences community

at UC Irvine and within the University of California.

The committee reviewed and endorsed the previous revised proposal at its May 9, 2022 meeting and UCEP’s

feedback for the current proposal focuses on two areas: i) attention to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) matters

and ii) funding for MPH students.

i) Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Promotion of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) was generally mentioned in the proposal in great length. We

often talk more about DEI efforts and yet fall short in practice. The proposal mentions the immense diversity of

the UCI undergraduate student population. Does the existing Public Health program student population reflect

this diversity at undergraduate and graduate levels? We are interested in how ‘inclusive’ your programs are

relative to the broader diversity at the UCI campus? For example, how do you conduct Admissions in your

multiple programs to ensure historically under-represented and under-opportunities students are successfully

being admitted across the areas/departments?

ii) Funding

We are curious about financial support for students in the MPH program. Are there tuition, stipends and/or

financial support opportunities for these students (recognizing that students in academic Masters/PhD programs

tend to have greater support)?

The committee’s discussion was very positive and the committee voted to approve the proposed program. UCEP

appreciates the opportunity to comment on this matter. Please contact me if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Melanie Cocco, Chair

UCEP