Public Service
Helping the Capitol Community tap into UC expertise.
The UCCS Public Service Program provides expert speakers and briefings on current California issues.
Helping the Capitol Community Tap into UC Expertise
The UCCS Public Service Program provides the Capitol Community with an effective way to tap UC expertise. The program provides California policymakers with short-term technical assistance such as arranging expert witnesses for legislative hearings and briefings on key state issues.
Other activities include sponsoring speakers and roundtables on policy issues and preparing and briefing VIP visitors to the State.
UC Expertise
An important goal of the UCCS Public Service Program is to connect UC expertise with the needs of California policymakers in Sacramento for short-term technical assistance. Arranging for expert witnesses for legislative hearings and policy experts to brief policymakers on key issues are two common ways in which the program has served the Capitol. For example, UC experts have testified at hearings on state tax policy, anti-trust policy, and air quality (asthma). Other UC experts have provided briefings on water issues, flood risks, land conservation, and tax policy.
Health Policy Speaker Series
The UCCS Public Service Program is currently co-sponsoring, with the Senate Office of Research and the UC Davis Center for Health Services Research, a speaker series featuring health policy research conducted at the UC Davis Medical Center. Presentations for state policymakers and staff are held at the Capitol or at UCCS. To date, two presentations have been held: "Direct-to-Consumer Advertising," by Dr. Richard L. Kravitz and "Public Reporting of Health Care Quality Data," by Dr. Patrick Romano.
Fellows Program
In conjunction with CPRC, the UCCS Public Service Program helps to identify opportunities and placements for the CPRC Fellows Program, which provides financial support for faculty members or graduate students placed in state government or legislative offices on pre-determined assignments. In 2006, for example, Dr. Alberto Manetta, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Senior Associate Dean at the UC Irvine School of Medicine, spent six months of his sabbatical as a Faculty Fellow in the office of Senator Sheila Kuehl.
California Tax Policy Roundtables
At the request of the Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee, the UCCS Public Service Program arranged a series of five roundtable discussions on various aspects of California's tax system. The roundtables—which were co-sponsored with the Senate Office of Research, CPRC, and the Center for California Studies at CSUS—brought together UC tax experts, legislative staff, and Sacramento tax lobbyists to review the state's personal income tax, corporation tax, sales tax, and property tax. A fifth plenary session was arranged to draw lessons and recommendations for state policymakers to consider.
Digital Library
As an academic unit of the UC system, UCCS provides access to the California Digital Library (CDL), a valuable research tool for UC students and faculty. Through the public service program, staff from state offices and the legislature are also able to access the CDL portal at UCCS in furtherance of their own policy research work.
International Visitors
As the capitol of what is often billed as the 6th largest economy in the world, Sacramento and the State Capitol attract visitors and officials delegations from all over the world. State officials and legislators frequently call upon UCCS to arrange meetings and provide briefings for some of the distinguished visitors. The public service program has hosted at UCCS delegations from a variety of countries, including Italy, Japan, and Argentina, for briefings on California's higher education system, on UC itself, biotechnology and water quality.
Forums
UCCS sponsors and co-sponsors occasional forums on matters of broad interest.
On March 26th and 27th, Climate Change was the subject of such an event. Some of the procedings of that Forum can be found here.