July Discussion?

As blog readers will know, the systemwide Academic Senate is embarking on a study of admissions practices - including the idea of reintroducing the SAT - known as the "roadmap." Although the announcement of the roadmap appeared after a petition by STEM (and later non-STEM) faculty to return to the SAT, the plan for the roadmap was developed before the petition made the news. So it was not responsive to that petition.

When the roadmap was announced, UC President Milliken issued a statement:

University of California President James B. Milliken today (June 11) issued the following statement on the UC Academic Senate plan to review admissions policies:

The Board of Regents and University leadership take very seriously the critical issue of college preparedness, and the UC Academic Senate has proposed a comprehensive, data-driven review to support its recommendations to strengthen student readiness and success at UC. There are few things more important on our agenda. The faculty review will focus on both preparation and admissions, including whether standardized testing should be required. It’s important that UC gets this right. The UC Board of Regents and I will receive an update on the Academic Assembly’s work in July, and we look forward to considering the recommendations that emerge from this important work.

Source: https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/press-room/uc-president-milliken-statement-academic-senate-plan-review-admissions-policies.

As blog readers will know, yours truly has suggested that an appropriate response to the faculty petition would be to do an accelerated study over the summer and have discussion with the Regents at their September meeting. That approach would have been truly responsive. Saying that the topic will be discussed in July sounds like a super-acceleration. But in fact, all that will be said in July is that there is a (non-responsive) roadmap in place that will require a full year of study. Realistically, what else could be said at a Regents meeting only a month away? Nothing will have happened other than the announcement of the (slow) roadmap.