March 16, 2017

On Thursday, March 16, 2017, The California Aggie published in print an article titled “ASUCD proposes system to give GE credit for AP classes taken in high school,” subtitled “Emails from two administrators show alleged obstruction of proposal by administration.”

I would like to correct the facts to show that neither I nor administrative partners obstructed the proposal. In fact, the proposal is already in the Senate’s consultation queue.

On February 27, 2017, I emailed outgoing ASUCD President Alex Lee to confirm that I had received ASUCD’s GE proposal and that it would be placed in the Senate’s consultation queue. In subsequent emails (the emails relayed in the article) regarding the Senate’s consultation process, I chose my words and tone poorly—I apologize for my ill-conceived choices and the resulting miscommunication. Moving forward, I will ensure there is better communication between myself and the ASUCD president.

On March 13, 2017—three days before The Aggie published its article—the Davis Division of the Academic Senate sent an official consultation timeline for the GE proposal to outgoing President Lee and incoming President Dalavai. You can view the official timeline here. (In addition, the ASUCD Executive Office posted the timeline on its Facebook page on March 14, 2017). The Senate will begin reviewing the proposal on April 3, 2017.

Thus, the Senate is in no way unwilling “to cooperate with student requests for GE/AP reform.” As noted in the article and consultation timeline, I very much appreciate the concrete proposal from ASUCD and think it is well worth considering, particularly since issues of time-to-degree are very important to the Senate and the UC at large.

The Senate looks forward to discussing ASUCD’s proposal and to an ongoing positive working relationship between the Senate and ASUCD.

Sincerely,

Rachael Goodhue
Chair, Davis Division of the Academic Senate
Professor and Chair, Agricultural and Resource Economics