In Age-Old Rites, Peltason Installed as Chancellor of UCI

In an age-old ceremony of Latin music, medieval academic gowns and flowing banners, the University of California on Friday installed Jack Walter Peltason as the second chancellor of the Irvine campus.

An overflow audience of about 2,500 people ringed the outdoor stage in UCI’s Aldrich Park as Peltason, in his inaugural address, declared that the 20-year-old Irvine campus is on the threshold of greatness.

Peltason pointed out that he was among those who helped launch UCI in 1964, as the founding vice chancellor of academic affairs. He said he is now proud to return as UCI’s chancellor, and he pledged to continue its development.

“We want to take our place among the handful of superb universities that have been built in this world during the last several centuries,” Peltason said.

”. . . That we will be successful in building an important university is not in doubt; whether we will build a world class one remains to be seen.

“The probability that we will do so is very high because we have the right people in the right place at the right time and under the right auspices.”

Peltason said the “right people” are the “faculty, students, staff, alumni, friends and neighbors” of UCI. The “right place at the right time,” he said, is now in booming Orange County.

“Certainly not last in significance, we are located in Orange County, California,” Peltason said. “. . . We have great aspirations. And we have the good fortune of being in a community that has grown with us and shares our dreams of the future: a community of innovation, one that has the highest per capita patent rates in the nation and is one of the high tech capitals of the world.”

Peltason, 61, was named by the UC Board of Regents in March, 1984, to succeed the Irvine campus’s founding chancellor, Daniel G. Aldrich Jr., when Aldrich retired in mid-summer. Peltason assumed his duties in late August but as is customary in universities the formal inauguration was delayed several months.

The inaugural ceremonies Friday coincided with a meeting of the UC Board of Regents on the Irvine campus. The regents, who govern all nine campuses of the UC system, took part in the colorful installation ceremony and marched in UCI’s central greensward--Aldrich Park.

Other educational dignitaries who took part included Harvard University President Derek C. Bok and Robert H. Atwell, who succeeded Peltason last summer as president of the American Council on Education in Washington, D.C.

Bok and Atwell described Peltason as an educational leader of national reputation. Bok, who gave the major address of the convocation, said Peltason during his seven years as head of the American Council on Education managed to harness the 3,200-member universities and “make them speak in one harmonious voice” in lobbying Congress for better treatment of education.

But Bok said that Peltason is first and foremost a scholar. “He’s never lost his zest for teaching,” Bok said.

Atwell, in praising Peltason’s leadership abilities, told the UCI faculty and students: “For me, and I know for you, this man will always be ‘the coach.’ ”

Former UCI Chancellor Aldrich took part in the ceremonies. He received a spontaneous wave of cheers and applause from the audience--about half of whom were students seated on the grass--when he was introduced.

In praising Peltason, Aldrich said, “How sweet it is for UCI to have this outstanding talent.” Aldrich, who had planned to retire last summer, instead has been serving as interim chancellor of UC Riverside since leaving UCI. The Board of Regents on Friday morning named Theodore Hullar to become permanent chancellor at Riverside effective July 1.

Surrounded by Trees

The outdoor ceremonies took place in a bowllike area of the park, surrounded by evergreen trees. In between classical music performed by the UCI Brass Ensemble, birds in the nearby trees sang and chirped. A gentle breeze billowed the blue and yellow banners--the UC colors--flanking the outdoor stage.

For all its pomp and majesty, the ceremony had a “university family” type of atmosphere, most notably marked by the voluntary attendance of more than 1,000 students--on a Friday afternoon.

Another leaven to the ceremony was frequent humor. Most of the speakers had jokes and light-hearted comments--rare for academic convocations.

Harvard President Bok, for instance, drew guffaws from the audience when he told a true anecdote that lightly jested at the pomposities of college officials.

Bok said that an acquaintance, visiting a new college campus, noticed that the gleaming restrooms all had hot-air machines for use in drying hands. The acquaintance, Bok said, also noticed something written over the machine: “Press button below for another inspiring address from our local university president.”