University Of California Campuses Research Articles

1239-P: University of California Diabetes Initiative: A Multi-institution Collaboration to Improve Diabetes Care

Background: In Spring 2019, the University of California (UC) health system launched a UC Wide Diabetes Initiative. In response to the growing population of people with diabetes, as well as significant heterogeneity in diabetes care across five UC campuses, the UC Health Diabetes Initiative aims to increase alignment in methods of diabetes care delivery, and to improve clinical outcomes. Methods: The UC Diabetes Initiative joins five financially and operationally independent academic medical campuses - UC Davis, UC San Francisco, UC Los Angeles, UC Irvine, and UC San Diego. Endocrinologists, primary care physicians, pharmacists, and program managers represent each campus, with data scientists and program leaders from the UC Office of the President. Powered by a central EHR data warehouse, we built a Diabetes Dashboard to show demographics, outcome (e.g., A1c) and process measures (e.g., eye exam) for more than 45,000 adults with diabetes cared for by more than 2,000 providers across the UC system. Current Work: Our collaborative identified three focus domains for improvement: 1) Medical Neighborhood 2) Patient Education and 3) Pharmaceutical Use. Within each of these domains, we used a semi-structured approach based on local expertise and experience to narrow our focus. Specific interventions were selected based on potential impact, feasibility, and key stakeholder feedback. We focus on designing and delivering three UC-wide interventions to 1) increase use of A1c point-of-care testing 2) increase reach of diabetes education and 3) utilize a “UC-way” diabetes pharmaceutical algorithm. Implementation will begin in Summer 2020; our ongoing work will be the focus of subsequent evaluation. Conclusions: The UC Health Diabetes Initiative provides a unique model of multi-institution collaboration joining independent health systems around a common mission, and using population-based real-world data to select, implement and measure best practices in diabetes care delivery. Disclosure T. Kompala: None. M. Clark: None. S. Kim: None. L. Kroon: None. T.A. Peterson: None. R.M. Mowers: None. P. Surampudi: None. M. Freeby: Research Support; Self; Abbott, Novo Nordisk Inc. M. Han: None. S. Lambrechts: None. T.M. Offer: None. M. Christian: None. L. Dahm: None. L. Gibbs: None. J. Bouw: None. K. Medders: Advisory Panel; Self; Lilly Diabetes. C. Morn: None. A. Patel: None. R. Sak: None. M. Cabrera: None. A.B. Neinstein: Consultant; Self; Steady Health.

Characterizing the University of California's tenure-track teaching position from the faculty and administrator perspectives.

Teaching faculty are a potential mechanism to generate positive change in undergraduate STEM education. One such type of faculty is the Lecturer with Potential Security of Employment (L(P)SOE), a tenure-track faculty line within the University of California (UC) system. As a foundation for future studies, we sought to characterize individuals in the L(P)SOE position in terms of their background training, job expectations, and resources available for their success. Data were collected through an online survey completed by over 80% of STEM L(P)SOEs across the UC system, as well as interviews with over 20 deans and chairs in STEM departments at three UC campuses. From this work, we found that the majority of current L(P)SOEs were formally trained within their disciplines and not in an education field; however, they possessed substantial education experience, such as classroom teaching or participation in professional development opportunities. Expectations for time spent on teaching, research, and service are aligned between individuals within varying ranks of the L(P)SOE faculty and between L(P)SOEs and administrators. L(P)SOEs and administrators are also in agreement about what constitutes acceptable professional development activities. Interestingly, we identified differences that may reflect changes in the position over time, including increased start-up funds for more recently hired L(P)SOE faculty and a differing perspective on the role of discipline-based education research and scholarly activities between non-tenured and more senior L(P)SOEs. Overall, these data provide a snapshot of the L(P)SOE position that will aid in future work to identify the potential institutional impact of these individuals.

The Sexual Assault Crisis in the University of California

According to a report by the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, it is estimated that 1 in 5 women and 1 in 16 men will experience sexual violence during college. Applying these numbers to the total undergraduate student population throughout the University of California system will equal more than 20,000 undergraduate UC students who will potentially be victims of sexual assault. This research paper aims to examine the current state of sexual assault at the University of California campuses and the standard policies throughout each campus. Specifically, there is an emphasis on the nine different colleges within the University of California system, comparing their approach to the issue of sexual harassment and ultimately recommending the best alternatives.

The College Access and Choice Processes of High-Achieving African American Students: A Critical Race Theory Analysis

This study explored the college access and choice processes of high-achieving African American students who were admitted to University of California (UC) campuses but elected to enroll elsewhere. Employing critical race theory as an interpretive framework, the study found that many of these students were denied access to their priority UC campuses and were cascaded down to the least selective campuses. A small portion were not admitted to flagship UCs—Berkeley, Los Angeles, and San Diego—but were admitted to elite non-UC institutions. Moreover, these students decided to attend selective colleges and universities that demonstrated a commitment to admitting and financially supporting them. This study also discovered that these high-achieving students researched and experienced a range of racial climate issues at UC campuses, including racist activities and lack of compositional diversity, which contributed to their decisions not to enroll. The article includes recommendations for UC campus leaders and others committed to creating equitable postsecondary pathways for African American students.

A Review of Tobacco Policies on University of California Campuses.

College and university tobacco control programs have historically neglected cessation. In 2012, the University of California Office of the President (UCOP) released a Smoke and Tobacco Free policy that became effective in January 2014. The policy provided for a comprehensive education and outreach campaign that included resources and referrals for cessation. We sought to determine whether all University of California (UC) campuses met UCOP standards. We reviewed the Smoke & Tobacco Free policies created by UCOP and posted at ten UC campuses, searched the tobacco free websites of each campus for cessation resources, and contacted tobacco-free task forces. We found that all UC campuses met the UCOP standard by addressing tobacco cessation in their campus policies. The provision of cessation services and resources was limited and varied substantially by campus, and no campuses reported collecting data on the use of cessation programs. Consistent with concerns that college and university tobacco policies neglect cessation, UC campuses mentioned tobacco cessation resources and programs but did not provide consistent services. These campuses also did not report on the use of tobacco cessation resources, making it difficult to assess the effects of offering different types of cessation programs.

African American students’ college choice processes in a post 209 era

High-achieving African American students in California are not attending University of California (UC) campuses. Due to hyper-implementations of Proposition 209, which limited UC campuses’ ability to use race as a significant admission criteria, the UC system and individual UC campus policies have scaled back their efforts to recruit high-achieving African American students from California. This article presents findings from the qualitative portion (n = 74) of a convergent mixed-method study of over 700 African American college-going students. Findings convey the critical role that access, outreach, diversity, and climate plays in the college choice process of African American high achievers. Drawing upon higher education and critical race literature, the findings further reveal the challenges and opportunities for states and elite universities in retaining its brightest students from diverse backgrounds. This research also conveys the potential of research to inform state, systemic, and institutional policies to increase access to selective public universities.

What’s behind OA2020? Accelerating the transition to open access with introspection and repurposing funds

In 2017, four University of California (UC) campuses took a public stance on accelerating the transition to open access (OA) by endorsing the Open Access 2020 (OA2020) initiative’s Expression of Interest (EOI). OA2020 is an international effort to convert the existing corpus of scholarly journals from subscription-based access to OA. In March 2017, when the first three UC campuses—UC-Berkeley, UC-Davis, and UC-San Francisco—endorsed,1,2 there had been only one U.S. signatory institution (California State University-Northridge, having endorsed in July 2016). Six months later in September 2017, another UC campus, Merced, added its affirmation. As of this writing, these five California universities remain the only OA2020 EOI signatories from the United States.3

Site in a box: Improving the Tier 3 experience

The Pacific Research Platform is an initiative to interconnect Science DMZs between campuses across the West Coast of the United States over a 100 gbps network. The LHC @ UC is a proof of concept pilot project that focuses on interconnecting 6 University of California campuses. It is spearheaded by computing specialists from the UCSD Tier 2 Center in collaboration with the San Diego Supercomputer Center. A machine has been shipped to each campus extending the concept of the Data Transfer Node to a cluster in a box that is fully integrated into the local compute, storage, and networking infrastructure. The node contains a full HTCondor batch system, and also an XRootD proxy cache. User jobs routed to the DTN can run on 40 additional slots provided by the machine, and can also flock to a common GlideinWMS pilot pool, which sends jobs out to any of the participating UCs, as well as to Comet, the new supercomputer at SDSC. In addition, a common XRootD federation has been created to interconnect the UCs and give the ability to arbitrarily export data from the home university, to make it available wherever the jobs run. The UC level federation also statically redirects to either the ATLAS FAX or CMS AAA federation respectively to make globally published datasets available, depending on end user VO membership credentials. XRootD read operations from the federation transfer through the nearest DTN proxy cache located at the site where the jobs run. This reduces wide area network overhead for subsequent accesses, and improves overall read performance. Details on the technical implementation, challenges faced and overcome in setting up the infrastructure, and an analysis of usage patterns and system scalability will be presented.

A multisite study of performance drivers among institutional review boards.

The time required to obtain Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval is a frequent subject of efforts to reduce unnecessary delays in initiating clinical trials. This study was conducted by and for IRB directors to better understand factors affecting approval times as a first step in developing a quality improvement framework. 807 IRB-approved clinical trials from 5 University of California campuses were analyzed to identify operational and clinical trial characteristics influencing IRB approval times. High workloads, low staff ratios, limited training, and the number and types of ancillary reviews resulted in longer approval times. Biosafety reviews and the need for billing coverage analysis were ancillary reviews that contributed to the longest delays. Federally funded and multisite clinical trials had shorter approval times. Variability in between individual committees at each institution reviewing phase 3 multisite clinical trials also contributed to delays for some protocols. Accreditation was not associated with shorter approval times. Reducing unnecessary delays in obtaining IRB approval will require a quality improvement framework that considers operational and study characteristics as well as the larger institutional regulatory environment.

Chan Zuckerberg plans Bay Area biohub

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, created by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, have pledged $600 million to create a new California bioscience hub. Involving Stanford University and the University of California campuses in San Francisco and Berkeley, the Biohub will have locations in San Francisco’s Mission Bay district and at Stanford. Funds for the Biohub will come out of $3 billion the initiative is pledging over 10 years to fight disease. It has a goal of curing, preventing, or managing all diseases by the end of the century.

University Differences in the Graduation of Minorities in STEM Fields: Evidence from California.

We examine differences in minority science graduation rates among University of California campuses when racial preferences were in place. Less prepared minorities at higher ranked campuses had lower persistence rates in science and took longer to graduate. We estimate a model of students' college major choice where net returns of a science major differ across campuses and student preparation. We find less prepared minority students at top ranked campuses would have higher science graduation rates had they attended lower ranked campuses. Better matching of science students to universities by preparation and providing information about students' prospects in different major-university combinations could increase minority science graduation.

“Bringing DNA into the Neighborhood” in San Francisco

Based primarily on personal experiences, this article aims to illustrate the troublesome relationship between the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), and its adjoining neighborhoods from the 1960s to the present. Like other University of California campuses, UCSF was not required to conform to local land uses and zoning laws. Only its periodic and mandatory Long Range Development Plans provided clues about future research initiatives and expansion plans. The story, punctuated by indifference to neighborhood concerns, depicts the protracted legal wrangling between a world-renowned medical institution and local civic organizations fearful of its impact on the environment, residential life, and real estate. The featured focus of these disputes centered around UCSF’s hasty purchase in 1984 of a large facility located in the Laurel Heights neighborhood of San Francisco to alleviate crowding at the main campus on Parnassus Heights. Confusion, misunderstanding, and outright distrust concerning UCSF’s planning for the new research location ensued. In fact, fear of potential chemical emissions and radioactive contamination prompted stiff local resistance. Eventually, after a decade of litigation, the protracted case forced UCSF to redefine and restrict its mission at Laurel Heights. The article argues that the Medical Center’s subsequent leadership learned an important lesson from this costly lawsuit. In its subsequent efforts to expand locally, UCSF created mechanisms designed to prevent opposition and litigation by systematically engaging with San Francisco communities and their leaders. By the early twenty-first century, such partnerships and alliances paved the way for a successful institutional expansion, thus consolidating UCSF’s role as a leader in biomedical research, teaching, and practice.

International Education in the 21st Century: The Importance of Faculty in Developing Study Abroad Research Opportunities

United States institutions of higher education are under increasing pressure to “internationalize”, which entails expanding curricula to overseas contexts, accepting international students, and sending significant numbers of Americans to study abroad. Despite such initiatives, as well as its assumed value in the undergraduate curriculum, less than ten percent of U.S. students currently study abroad, with STEM participation traditionally lagging behind that of social sciences and humanities students. Unfortunately, study abroad enrollments have not expanded in the desired magnitude(s), despite the explosion of shorter-term programming. With this in mind, what kinds of programs might leverage STEM disciplinary research interests to facilitate growth in these majors? How would these programs distinguish themselves from traditional ones, which are usually course-based? And finally, how would they incorporate STEM faculty to ensure that they are sufficiently integrated into the curricula? This paper argues that a reimagining of study abroad programming may be necessary – one that begins and ends with local disciplinary faculty, especially those in the STEM (sciences, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields, to develop undergraduate study abroad research opportunities. In doing so, it asserts that STEM disciplinary interests towards internationalization are fundamentally different than faculty in the humanities and the social sciences, and it is necessary to leverage these distinctions to create high-quality undergraduate programs oriented towards research. The argument is supported with examples from several University of California campuses and some private universities.

Do Babies Matter?: Gender and Family in the Ivory TowerMaryAnn Mason, Nicholas H.Wolfinger, and MarcGoulden. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2013.

Do Babies Matter?: Gender and Family in the Ivory Tower Mary Ann Mason, Nicholas H. Wolfinger, and Marc Goulden. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2013.While debates over whether women can it all rage through the popular media, Mary Ann Mason, Nicholas H. Wolfinger, and Marc Goulden offer a thorough analysis of this issue in a very specific context: the American university. Do Babies Matter? opens with the important observation that while more women than men gain doctorates today, far fewer women reach the top of the academic ladder, and these women are less likely to be married parents than their male counterparts. Relying on empirical data gathered over a decade, the authors find-albeit unsurprisingly -that babies do indeed matter and suggest policy reforms to increase gender equity in the academic workplace.Conveniently devoting one chapter to each stage in the academic career, Mason, Wolfinger, and Goulden identify factors that influence women's reproductive decisions and their effects on career developments. As graduate students, many women are discouraged from having children by the lack of positive role models, access to quality childcare, and health insurance as well as a fear of being perceived as uncommitted. The logistics of job interviews and campus visits pose extreme challenges for nursing mothers applying for tenure-track positions. If married, women are also less likely to get hired when their husbands are presumed unwilling to relocate (31).While women with young children struggle early in their academic careers, marriage and parenthood are found to be beneficial to both male and female scholars when they are up for tenure, especially when the children are six years or older. Uncritically assuming that marriage makes people happier, healthier, and more productive, the authors argue that married tenuretrack faculty tend to have longer publication lists to support their tenure cases than single colleagues. Later in the career, marriage and children seem to have less of an effect on professional development, even though gender still plays a role. For instance, women tend to be assigned more service work, preventing them from producing the research necessary for promotion. Finally, the authors find no statistically significant difference in retirement age.As the authors explain in the appendix, their findings derive from two primary sources: one is the Survey of Doctorate Recipients, conducted by the National Science Foundation, the other is a set of surveys the authors administered themselves on nine University of California campuses. …

Public universities and regional growth: insights from the University of California

Public Universities and Regional Growth examines evolutions in research and innovation at six University of California campuses. Each chapter presents a deep, historical analysis that traces the dynamic interaction between particular campuses and regional firms in industries that range from biotechnology, scientific instruments, and semiconductors, to software, wine, and wireless technologies.The book provides a uniquely comprehensive and cohesive look at the University of California's complex relationships with regional entrepreneurs. As a leading public institution, the UC is an examplar for other institutions of higher education at a time when the potential and value of these universities is under scrutiny. Any yet, by recent accounts, public research universities performed nearly 70% of all academic research and approximately 60% of federally funded R&D in the United States. Thoughtful and distinctive, Public Universities and Regional Growth illustrates the potential for universities to drive knowledge-based growth while revealing the California system as a uniquely powerful engine for innovation across its home state.

A Transparent Oversight Policy for Human Anatomical Specimen Management

The authors describe the development and implementation of a University of California (UC) system of oversight, education, tracking, and accountability for human anatomical specimen use in education and research activities. This program was created and initially implemented at UC Davis in 2005. Several incidents arising out of the handling of human anatomical specimens at UC campuses revealed significant challenges in the system for maintaining control of human anatomical specimens used in education and research. These events combined to undermine the public perception for research and educational endeavors involving anatomical materials at public institutions. Risks associated with the acquisition, maintenance, and disposal of these specimens were not fully understood by the faculty, staff, and students who used them. Laws governing sources of specimens are grouped with those that govern organ procurement and tissue banking, and sometimes are found in cemetery and funeral regulations. These variables complicate interpretations and may hinder compliance. To regain confidence in the system, the need to set appropriate and realistic guidelines that mitigate risk and facilitate an institution's research and educational mission was identified. This article chronicles a multiyear process in which diverse stakeholders developed (1) a regulatory policy for oversight, (2) a policy education program, (3) procedures for tracking and accountability, and (4) a reporting and enforcement mechanism for appropriate and ethical use of human anatomical specimens in university education and research.

The Effect of Banning Affirmative Action on College Admissions Policies and Student Quality

Abstract Using administrative data from the University of California (UC), we present evidence that UC campuses changed the weight given to SAT scores, high school GPA, and family background in response to California’s ban on race-based affirmative action, and that these changes were able to substantially (though far from completely) offset the fall in minority admissions rates. For both minorities and nonminorities, these changes to the estimated admissions rule hurt students with relatively strong academic credentials and whose parents were relatively affluent and educated. Despite these compositional shifts, however, average student quality (as measured by expected first-year college GPA) remained stable.

The Effect of Banning Affirmative Action on College Admissions Policies and Student Quality

Using administrative data from the University of California (UC), we present evidence that UC campuses changed the weight given to SAT scores, high school GPA, and family background in response to California’s ban on race-based affirmative action, and that these changes were able to substantially (though far from completely) offset the fall in minority admissions rates. For both minorities and nonminorities, these changes to the estimated admissions rule hurt students with relatively strong academic credentials and whose parents were relatively affluent and educated. Despite these compositional shifts, however, average student quality (as measured by expected first- year college GPA) remained stable.

Partial Compliance with Affirmative Action Bans: Evidence from University of California Admissions

Even under an affirmative action ban, there remains scope for universities to offer minority applicants less overt admission preferences since such practices would be difficult to detect. This paper finds that the majority of University of California campuses reduced, though did not fully eliminate, the use of admission preferences for minority applicants after California’s ban on affirmative action. By comparing estimates from alternative fixed effect strategies for dealing with applicant unobservables, the paper also demonstrates how one can effectively sign the bias of OLS estimates of minority admission preferences. These results suggest that OLS estimates are likely to be downward biased.

Were Minority Students Discouraged from Applying to University of California Campuses after the Affirmative Action Ban?

This paper uses student-level data to investigate how the college application behavior of underrepresented minorities (URMs) changed in response to the 1998 end of affirmative action in admissions at the University of California (UC). We show that all URMs experienced a drop in their probability of admission to at least one UC campus. However, the relative decline in URM SAT score-sending rates—our proxy for application rates—was small and concentrated at Berkeley and UCLA among underrepresented minorities who experienced the largest relative drop in their predicted probability of admission. In addition, we find some evidence of a shift toward less-selective UC campuses rather than out of the UC system. Overall, our paper highlights the stability of URM application behavior in the face of substantial declines in their admission rates.