Updated Nov. 8, 2011: UC Provost Larry Pitts has postponed his planned UC Davis visit Wednesday (Nov. 9), to attend to pressing university matters. Pitts’ visit will be rescheduled.

Larry Pitts, provost of the UC system, says he is looking for “an active dialog” with members of the campus community when he spends a day at UC Davis the second week of November.

“I don’t plan on being a talking head,” the UC system’s highest-ranking academic officer told Dateline UC Davis by e-mail.

His visit, part of his fall tour of the UC system a few months before his retirement, is scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 9, and includes an open forum from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. in King Lounge, second floor of the Memorial Union.

The topics might vary a bit depending on who ends up coming to the forum, Pitts said, but could easily include UC’s budget status, student fees (undergraduate and graduate) and UC’s online course initiative.

“I’ll talk briefly about any or all of these topics and have an active dialog with the people who come to listen and/or talk. More fun for me and for them,” he said.

Pitts, a professor of neurosurgery, became provost and executive vice president of Academic Affairs in February 2009, first on an interim basis and then permanently. Upon his appointment, he was already an emeritus (UC San Francisco) and indicated that he would serve as provost for only three years.

He is sticking to his plan, leading to UC President Mark G. Yudof’s memo to the Board of Regents on Sept. 6 saying that Pitts “will step down in the new year to return to the well-earned retirement and family time that he interrupted to take this position.”

Pitts has agreed to remain as provost until his successor takes office.

His UC Davis schedule also includes meetings with Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi, Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Ralph J. Hexter, the Council of Deans, the Academic Senate and the Academic Federation, on such topics as off-scale salaries and UC Davis’ 2020 Initiative.