Quick Take
UC Santa Cruz says its college provost reorganization is about investment and efficiency. But UCSC professor and current provost of Oakes College Marcia Ochoa says the changes were made with little consultation, will weaken students’ sense of belonging on campus and might actually cost the university more money. Ochoa is being pushed out of their provost position in the restructuring, but says it’s the students who will lose the most.
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The recent reorganization of the college provost positions at UC Santa Cruz is one of a series of crisis-based changes that have eroded the foundation of the university’s commitment to our students.
Over the past two years, UCSC administrators have ostensibly put an end to the era of residential provosts in the seven college provost houses and gutted staffing in the 10 residential colleges, turning positions that served one college and its students into combined positions in sister college pairs. This change to our academic model for the colleges follows drastic cuts on the advising, residential and college student life side.
Oakes College once counted on full-time staff. Many of these positions have been combined with our sister college, Rachel Carson, and these staff are now spread thin across two or sometimes even four of the colleges. The consolidation of the provosts happened abruptly, without the sort of open discussion we would expect for such sweeping change.
In mid-February, the nine current college provosts received an email informing us that our contracts would end on June 30 and that we could apply for the restructured positions. We were given a little less than two weeks to reapply for our jobs.
Over spring break, the Division of Undergraduate Education announced the list of new provosts and their college assignments. The faculty senate, made up of the university’s 650-plus ladder (tenured or tenure-track) faculty, has not received a notice of this change apart from an email announcement to all faculty. This falls outside the regular faculty senate consultation processes.
Two of us were not selected to continue in our roles. I am heartbroken to be leaving Oakes College, the programs I’ve stewarded and built since 2019, and most of all, the students, faculty and staff with whom I’ve built trust and shared purpose. I’m saddened that as the only Latinx provost and the only native speaker of Spanish, I won’t be around to connect with our families who are sending their students to a Hispanic Serving Institution.
Many people assume the changes that have been proposed are cost-saving measures, but the restructuring of the provost positions will, as I calculate it, cost more money. Provosts who go along with the reorganization are being incentivized by a hefty compensation package that ends up costing more per college than the current structure. This includes a 25% increase in salary for remaining provosts and a role that moves from nine to 12 months.
The changes also take provosts out of their role as faculty represented by a union, putting them into 100% administrator roles. Provosts, like the rest of the senate faculty, are currently paid for nine months, and our appointments are for one college at 50% time.
The language of this change – being an “investment” in the colleges – is only true if you accept the lack of consultation and the severing of relationships between provosts and our students, staff and faculty.
We are also seeing a devastating reduction in student-facing staff and lecturers at UC Santa Cruz, as administrative positions continue to grow.
The reorganization, said to be a “pilot project,” is making substantial changes to the relationship between provosts and the students, faculty and staff of the colleges, without involving the people most affected by these changes. It comes on the heels of an announcement in 2024 that the seven college provost houses would over the next three years cease to house provosts. Decades of deferred maintenance have left some of the seven residences in bad shape, but not all of them.
I am the current resident of the Oakes provost house; I have served as provost of Oakes College since 2019 and I love my job.
I connect with the students of Oakes College whenever I step out my front door. I check in with the Garden Collective and say hi to students and staff at the Oakes Café. I hear students practicing their folclorico steps, stomping on the Lower Lawn stage. Many students made friends with my chihuahua, Flor, when I would walk her around the campus. I’ve participated in town halls with the Oakes senate, and sat with students during strikes and shutdowns. I help students accused of academic misconduct advocate for themselves, learn and recover from bad decisions. The restructuring ends much of this kind of day-to-day engagement.
As provost of Oakes College, I preside over commencements. Oakes College commencement 2024 was a combination of exuberance and unease due to the administration’s use of police force to dismantle the Gaza protest encampments and arrest protesters. Toward the end of the ceremony, Chancellor Cynthia Larive and Campus Provost/Executive Vice Chancellor Lori Kletzer broadcast a video message to the graduates to confer the degrees, a departure from the usual practice of conferring degrees in person. Graduates booed loudly, drowning out the video recordings. The tone began to turn hostile and the crowd gathered continued to express its anger.
The reason we were there – to celebrate our graduates – began to fade away.
We college provosts are trained to respond. We have a connection with our students and they know we understand them. We had been instructed to call security if the crowd wouldn’t respond. I thought about the legacy of Oakes College, and about what the college’s founding provost, J. Herman Blake, would do.
Blake built a community centered on supporting Black and brown students and faculty at the height of California’s investment in higher education. “Whose university?” I shouted.
“OUR UNIVERSITY,” cried the students. We repeated the chant until the energy returned to our purpose that day.
Our university. The ultimate expression of belonging, of ownership for students. We remembered in that moment that our students are the reason we are here. That this is their university as much as it is the university of every Californian.
This principle is now at risk, eroded by well-paid administrators taking advantage of budget rationales to circumvent the shared governance of the University of California and consultation with students and staff. The outgoing vice provost and dean of undergraduate education introduced this profound change late in the year, just before he departs and leaves his successor to handle the fallout. Jennifer Johnson-Hanks, our incoming executive vice chancellor, won’t start until Jan. 1, so this change will also rock the college system just as our leadership shifts.
The bottom line: This reorganization costs the university more money and turns student-facing faculty roles into more exclusively administrative appointments. That takes senate faculty out of service to our departments, teaching and research. Provosts will soon become faculty who prefer to devote themselves to administration, not necessarily to the kinds of personable, open professors who welcome interaction with undergraduates and dedicate themselves to developing our students holistically.
What the chancellor, executive vice chancellor and vice provost and dean of undergraduate education have actually done is:
- End the era of residential provosts.
- Increase the salaries of the provosts who sign on to the plan.
- Hand-pick college provosts who most suit administrative aims, not necessarily those who are connected with and recommended by the students, staff, and faculty of the colleges.
Credit: Marcia Ochoa
I’ve participated in and run college provost searches. All stakeholders in the college were given an opportunity to meet the candidates, ask questions and weigh in on who they thought was the best person for the job. This collaborative process was the basis for the connections between college provosts and their constituents.
The reorganization of the college provost positions engages in unilateral, top-down change. It has imposed a different way of governing the colleges, in which upper administrators make changes at their sole discretion, with no consultation and no democratic process.
Since the time of Provost Blake, we have seen an erosion of California’s investment in higher education as the University of California swells with administrative bloat. The student-facing staff and faculty along with the students pay the price.
Marcia Ochoa has served as provost of Oakes College since 2019, and will end their term June 30 of this year. They are a professor of performance, play & design and critical race and ethnic studies at UC Santa Cruz.