Many universitywide programs take root on a single UC campus. Although we left our IGS quarters in 1990, the California Policy Seminar appreciates the opportunity to reflect on a unique relationship with the Institute that contributed significantly to our growth and success.
The California Policy Seminar (CPS) is a joint program of the University of California and state government that applies faculty expertise to public policy concerns. Convened by the governor, the president pro tempore of the Senate, the speaker of the Assembly, and the president of UC, CPS conducts two programs and an active dissemination effort. Through its Policy Research Program, CPS funds research by UC faculty on state priority issues. Research findings are published as CPS Reports and Briefs and discussed in briefings for policymakers in the state capitol. Through its Technical Assistance Program, CPS responds to requests from legislators and executive branch officials by convening meetings, briefings, and round table discussions, and commissioning data analyses and policy papers.
CPS grew out of IGS? efforts to strengthen the university?s commitment and ability to address California?s complex problems. The seminar?s first director, John Cummins, was hired by IGS in 1974 to inventory UC Berkeley faculty research on topics relevant to state policy. This effort coincided with an increased commitment on the part of IGS, supported by former Chancellor Albert Bowker and systemwide administrators, to enhance its relationship with state agencies and undertake research on state problems.
The public service inventory led to a series of seminars between UC faculty, legislative and executive branch officials and staff that provided an opportunity for informal discussion on topics of interest to both state and university representatives. This seminar series prompted Berkeley campus and universitywide officials, including former IGS Director Eugene Lee, to develop a proposal to expand research on California policy issues; in 1977 former UC President David Saxon provided initial funding to create the California Policy Seminar.
Although CPS has always been a UC systemwide program, it was nurtured by IGS, especially by Eugene Lee, Todd La Porte, and Stanley Scott, and owes much to the generosity of IGS in hosting the program from its founding until 1990. Gene, Todd, and Stan were engaged in all aspects of the program, from identifying fruitful areas of research, to describing the CPS model to representatives of academic institutions interested in establishing similar activities throughout the U.S. and abroad, to disseminating CPS research findings in a series of monographs and Public Affairs Reports. The seminar collaborated with IGS on a range of activities, including a series of briefings for California?s congressional delegation in the late 1970s and early 1980s; a conference on research needs in California government and politics; and a symposium of American government specialists, coordinated by Nelson W. Polsby in 1984.
To enhance the seminar?s profile as a systemwide program in the late 1980s, administration of CPS was transferred from IGS to the Division of Academic Affairs in the UC Office of the President. And when program growth necessitated expanded space, and needs within IGS for additional space of its own expanded, CPS relocated to UC-leased space in downtown Berkeley. Despite the transition, CPS staff retain close ties with colleagues in IGS and continue to explore opportunities for collaboration. Currently, CPS is co-sponsoring the California Constitution Project directed by IGS Associate Director Bruce Cain and Roger Noll of Stanford, and worked closely lwith Bruce and Assistant Director Tom Cordi on their recent conference.
The outstanding IGS Library staff provide valuable assistance as CPS develops new activities and expands its audience among all levels of government and those in other public and private institutions. CPS has sponsored the work of IGS Visiting Scholars such as LeRoy Graymer of UCLA, and has benefited from the superb skills of many affiliated graduate students, such as Sandra Bass and Craig Thomas.
IGS and CPS have collaborated on publications; the results of recent research sponsored by CPS and conducted by UCB legal scholar Franklin Zimring were simultaneously published as a book by IGS and summarized in an issue of the CPS Brief. We value these continued ties as well as the support IGS generously provided to help establish our program, and are confident that future collaboration will enhance both our missions.