Stepping up campus efforts to help improve, K-12 education, UC Davis administrative and Academic Senate leaders have asked a new committee to explore possible creation of what, in the interim, they have dubbed "New College."

Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Robert Grey and Academic Senate Chair Jeff Gibeling will co-chair the 11-member planning committee.

"The Davis campus has a special opportunity to expand our contributions to the critically important areas of youth development and K-12 education," Grey wrote in a June 6 letter to campus deans.

"As part of this charge, we are asking the planning committee to identify ways to engage existing faculty from throughout the campus in this enterprise, as well as define the ways in which new resources can best be used to develop ‘New College.’"

Grey said the committee’s recommendations, due this fall, will be widely shared and discussed. He added that the intent is not to reorganize existing departments into "New College" but to create a structure "in which a wide range of new and existing faculty across the campus can make contributions in ways that are meaningful to them."

The Chancellor’s Fall Conference in late September will focus on similar themes.

Other committee members are: John Bruno, vice provost for information and educational technology; Patricia Gándara, associate professor of education; Cristina Gonzalez, dean of graduate studies; Kevin Johnson, associate dean of the law school; Beth Ober, chair of the human and community development department; Thomas Rost, associate dean of biological sciences; Phillip Shaver, psychology professor; Patricia Turner, vice provost for undergraduate studies; and Jon Wagner, education professor.