New UC chief is ready for action

Mark G. Yudof, the incoming president of the University of California, says he gets a kick out of his unlikely connection to “Predator,” the 1987 movie pitting action heroes against an alien creature in the jungle.

Two of the film’s muscled stars, Jesse Ventura and Arnold Schwarzenegger, later became governors, of Minnesota and California, respectively. Yudof, a former president of the University of Minnesota, famously tussled with Ventura over education funding in that state.

And on Monday, the distinctly nonathletic attorney who has led the University of Texas for six years heads to Arnold-land at a time when Schwarzenegger is advocating a state budget that would lead to big spending cuts for UC.

“It could be part of my karma, my kismet,” Yudof said of “Predator,” commemorated by a comical photo in which a friend pasted Yudof’s face onto a gun-toting body next to the buff actors. “If Carl Weathers” -- another “Predator” star -- “a few years from now is elected governor of California, then we are really on to something.”

Kismet or coincidence, Yudof becomes the 19th leader of the 10-campus UC system in the midst of much-protested student fee increases and anticipated belt-tightening. Yudof, 63, faces a career-defining challenge at a public university system that even loyal Texas Longhorns concede is the nation’s most prestigious.

Isn’t the timing bad? Not necessarily, Yudof said in his book-lined office in a former 19th-century courthouse in downtown Austin.

“It is a difficult time for the state and certainly for the university, but that is not a reason to decline to get involved in it,” he said. “I have a real appreciation for the sort of problems that they are facing. I’m going to work on it because these are potentially devastating cuts.”

Yudof, a rare outsider in the UC presidency, said it was too early to discuss specific austerities beyond streamlining at the system’s Oakland headquarters. Tougher reductions may come later, including salary freezes, he said.

But he said he hoped to avoid reducing basic classes because that would make it harder for students to graduate on time. “The first obligation is to continue to offer quality and accessible education,” he said.

Whatever policies he pursues, fans and even critics in Texas say the deeply experienced Yudof will tackle the job with political savvy and a wry, self-mocking sense of humor.

His performance at UC will be scrutinized closely, not least because his compensation is among the nation’s highest for public university leaders and double that of his predecessor, Robert C. Dynes. Yudof will receive an annual salary and benefits worth $828,000, along with free housing in the Oakland hills.

Asked about the issue, Yudof was terse. “No one likes to take a pay cut,” he said, and noted that the pay package was set by UC’s regents. His Texas package was worth $742,000 a year.

UT and UC are similar in scale and purpose, though the California university conducts significantly more high-level research. And unlike Texas, where the Austin campus is the clear flagship, UC has more competition among its campuses. It also has more powerful labor unions.

Last month’s increase of $490, or 7.4%, in the annual base undergraduate fee was part of what Yudof called a regrettable national trend: shifting the costs of public higher education from taxpayers to students. He said he would work to limit fee hikes but could not promise that there would be no further increases.

The son of an electrician and a homemaker, Yudof was raised in Philadelphia. He commuted to the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied political science and attended law school. As an attorney, he worked on a major case advocating increased school funding for poor children, handled contracts in the oil industry and became an expert on freedom of expression.

At UT Austin for 26 years, he rose from law professor to law dean to campus provost.

Starting in 1997, Yudof spent five years in Minnesota, winning more state funding for the university after squabbles with Ventura that the St. Paul Pioneer Press termed a “Rock-’em Sock-’em Winter Slam Pitting Two of the Most Popular Bald Guys in Minnesota.” He encouraged campus beautification and pushed out two administrators over a men’s basketball scandal.

Yudof also is remembered in Minnesota for his cook-offs featuring pancakes, a food he favors, along with Tex-Mex and Jewish deli.

“I’m an eater,” Yudof, a stout man unafraid of wearing bright shirts with business suits, declared over beef fajitas at a home-style Austin restaurant. Although his doctors want him to slim down, Yudof said he is healthy and plans to be UC’s president for at least five years.

A self-described type-A personality, Yudof said he relaxes by visiting his Florida vacation home and reading voraciously, from the 12th-century philosopher Maimonides to Donna Leon’s mystery novels.

Judy Yudof, his wife of nearly 43 years, was the first woman elected international president of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism. The family keeps kosher at home but Yudof otherwise does not, except to avoid pork.

The Yudofs have two children in their 30s. Daughter Samara is a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Education. Son Seth, trained as an engineer, is one of the founders of CatHouse, a Las Vegas nightclub that bills itself as “a modern interpretation of a 19th-century French bordello.”

“It’s edgy, but it’s not over the edge,” the elder Yudof said, recalling a parental visit to the sexy club. “His mother went and didn’t stomp out.”

University of Texas Law School professor Jack Sampson, a longtime friend, said Yudof’s populist touches -- such as frequenting pancake diners -- are genuine ties to his blue-collar childhood but also have clear public relations benefits.

Yudof “has been rubbing elbows with the elite of various societies for a long time,” Sampson said. “But it seems to me he’s got this sense of being the man of the people, that he knows how to popularize the institution he’s associated with . . . how it can be regarded as an institution that treats everybody fairly, whether you are upper-class or lower-class or middle-class.”

Since returning to Texas as system chancellor in 2002, Yudof helped win tuition deregulation, in which the state Legislature surrendered fee-setting power to universities. The resulting tuition hikes, while controversial, were the only way UT could support itself, officials said.

But Yudof failed to gain approval for a proposed free ride for all students whose families earn less than about $40,000. Yudof said legislative support was lacking, but critics questioned his commitment.

Austin Van Zant, a UT Austin alumnus who fought tuition deregulation, described Yudof as “charismatic” yet complained that he folded too quickly on the free tuition plan and “really seemed not to care about debate or dissent.”

Claire Harlin, a recent editor of the Daily Texan student newspaper at Austin, said Yudof left “more of a positive mark than negative,” but was “grossly overpaid.”

At UT, Yudof pushed for more public accountability, including disclosing graduation rates even when they proved embarrassing. He said he wants to do that at UC as well.

Scott Kelley, the UT system’s executive vice chancellor for business affairs, described Yudof as “certainly demanding, and he doesn’t suffer fools gladly. But he will listen. He is someone you can push back with.”

Yudof said he will be looking at all ways for UC to save money. “Like any enterprise, whether it’s a newspaper or oil company or department store, universities can always do things better,” he said.

Managing a budget crunch is not pleasant, “but I’ve been through this before,” he said. “It’s not hubris. I think I can do this.”

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larry.gordon@latimes.com