Schwartz--Pitts Exchange on Lack of Open Discussion At UCOF

Knocking on the Door of the UC Commission on the Future
by Charles Schwartz, UC Berkeley, March 12, 2010

Email correspondence with Lawrence Pitts
Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs
University of California, Office of the President

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December 4, 2009
Larry;

In an earlier conversation you mentioned that many people come before the University leadership to complain, but have no proposals to offer.

Attached is my latest work, A Better PLAN for the Future of the University of California, which was formally submitted to the Commission Working Groups yesterday. I hope you will find it worthy of serious consideration.

Best,

Charlie
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December 14, 2009
Lawrence Pitts,
Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs
University of California Office of the President

Dear Larry;

With the previous email (below) I sent you a copy of my proposal submitted to the Gould Commission: "A Better PLAN for the Future of the University of California." I would now like to request that this be posted on the Commission's web site at www.ucop.edu for all interested people to find and read.

There is now a page for "Presentations", where it might fit in; or you could create a new page for "Proposals Received". In any case I do not ask this as a singular privilege but rather as a proper means of fulfilling the stated purpose of that Commission - namely, to solicit creative ideas from all across the University.

Sincerely,

Charlie
Charles Schwartz
Professor Emeritus
UC Berkeley
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December 14, 2009
Charlie - thanks for sending me the proposal previously - I've shared it with some of the staff of the working groups to put before their chairs, and the whole working groups if they choose.

And I agree that we need a place for proposals such as yours - and think a new spot would be better than adding it to "presentations". I'll work on that and let you know.

Thanks for keeping me in the loop.

Happy Holidays. Larry
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January 22, 2010
Larry;

A little while ago I asked whether substantial proposals submitted to the UC Commission on the Future (such as my own "A Better Plan..") might be posted on the Commission's ucop web site, for all to see. You replied that you would look into this idea. Has there been a decision?

Charlie
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January 28, 2010
Charlie - thanks for reminding me. Your earlier query got lost in the murk of past e-mails, and my memory is limited. We are indeed creating a place on the Commission website for "external submissions" (for lack of a better name) and will be pleased to put on that site. So please send me what you'd like to have put there.

Best wishes. Larry
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January 28, 2010
Larry;

Attached is the piece you asked about.

Regards,

Charlie
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January 28, 2010
Charlie - thanks. We'll post it as soon as the Communications people get the web site addition active. Larry
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Subject: Re: the Commission
Date: Tue, 16 Feb 2010 15:19:00 -0800
From: Charles Schwartz
To: Lawrence Pitts
CC: gshafir@ucsd.edu, lmlowe@ucsd.edu

Provost Lawrence Pitts
Dear Larry;

I hope you will be able, soon, to implement the idea of posting significant independent contributions on the web site of the UC Commission on the Future.

There has recently appeared a paper by two faculty members at UCSD (G. Shafir and L. Lowe) which is undoubtedly worthy of being placed up there, too.

Best,

Charlie Schwartz
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March 11, 2010
Larry;

Is it still your plan to have these other papers posted on the
Commission's web site, or has that idea been squashed?

Charlie
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March 11, 2010
Charlie - I think the plan is for any submissions that someone (you) wants to send to the "Commission web site" will be sent on to the appropriate workgroup(s). Larry
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March 11, 2010
Larry;

Thank you for clarifying that there will be NO posting of such external submissions on the Commission's web site.

That is indeed a change from your earlier responses. It shows that the Commission is much more tightly controlled from above than was implied in the earlier pronouncements (from Yudof and Gould) about openness and welcoming of broad discourse.

Regards,

Charlie
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