Asymmetric Expectations: Faculty Research Policy and Practice in California's Master Plan for Higher Education

• In Event: Exploring the Role and Impact of State- and System-Level Policies

Abstract

California’s Master Plan for Higher Education (1960) contains language embedded in statute that authorizes the California State Colleges (now California State University (CSU)), to engage only in research consistent with their instructional mission. The University of California is designated the primary, and state-supported, academic agency for research. This paper reviews the negotiations leading to this unique policy, considers why the language remains in place after 60 years, and analyzes its impact on current CSU faculty practice. I blend theory from history, sociology, organizational behavior, and political science to analyze historical and current data, concluding with an analysis of whether sufficient change in California’s higher education ecosystem has occurred to warrant revisiting the Master Plan’s differentiation of function constraints on research.

Author

• David Earwicker, University of California - Berkeley
  Presenting Author