$250,000 Pledged for UCI Peace Center : Couple Follow Seed Money With Funds to Endow Academic Chair

UC Irvine has received an endowment pledge of $250,000 from a Newport Beach couple that should further its quest to establish an international peace research institute.

In October, Thomas and Elizabeth Tierney put up $100,000 seed money to be used by UCI to study the feasibility of a peace institute. University officials announced Monday that the Tierneys have committed an additional $250,000 to endow an academic chair for peace research.

“What we are about is creating a more certain world for our children--one which has as its focus peace for all mankind, rather than pieces of mankind,” the Tierneys said in a letter to UCI Chancellor Jack Peltason in announcing their gift. “We believe peace research is a significant area of human endeavor which will lead us away from acts which have potential to undo creation.”

Strength in Chair

The Tierneys said they hope that the chair will strengthen UCI’s Global Peace and Conflict Studies, an interdisciplinary concentration open to students majoring in social ecology and to those in the schools of social sciences and humanities.

Although the proposed endowment was not tied to any particular discipline, the Tierneys said they hoped that it would bring to UCI a scholar working toward “a stable world peace and conditions of global well-being.”

John Whiteley, a professor of social ecology, is studying possible directions for an Irvine campus peace institute, using the Tierneys’ original grant. His three-man committee, which also includes representatives from the history and physical sciences department, is formulating a “clear, distinct mission statement” for the institute.

A catalogue entitled “Peace Resource Book,” printed by Ballinger Publishing Co. in Cambridge, Mass., for the Institute for Defense and Disarmament Studies, lists 107 U.S. colleges and universities offering peace-related study programs. The book recognized programs at five University of California campuses: Berkeley, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz and San Diego.

Systemwide Program

There is actually a UC systemwide peace research program called the Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, Whiteley said, and Irvine is attempting to establish its own formal research unit.

He said Irvine’s program would be distinctive because it is seeking a variety of campus perspectives, including philosophy, history, law, psychology and political science.

Whiteley said an endowment was a top faculty priority in establishing that kind of research center.

“The Tierneys want to facilitate research on pathways to peace. That’s one area the faculty is very interested in,” Whiteley said. “There are a lot of good ideas out there that need careful study.”

The Tierneys outlined a plan which they hope will result in recruitment for the position to begin next fall, with the person selected beginning his work at UCI in the 1987-88 academic year.

“We will start recruiting after we’ve defined the job description and we’ll look for the best scholar in the world in the area of peace,” Whiteley said.

Two Approvals Needed

An endowed chair at the University of California must be approved by the campus faculty and the Board of Regents to ensure that its purposes are consistent with university curriculum and policies. A minimum of $250,000 is required by the regents to establish an endowed chair, with at least a third of that submitted at the time of the pledge.

Whiteley said this would be the first chair in UCI’s history to be completely funded by a single family. Thomas Tierney is president of a Tustin-based food supplement firm.

The university uses such chairs to attract top researchers who can utilize endowment interest for any research and teaching purposes they see fit, within university guidelines.

The Irvine campus now has four approved chairs, the most recent being the Grace Beekhuis Bell chair for biochemistry. That chair went into effect Jan. 1 and is held by Masayasu Nomura, whose ribosomal research follows a trend in biological studies to look for solutions to health problems on the molecular level.

Bell, a retired faculty member and former dean of the California College of Medicine, which moved to the Irvine campus in 1967, put up $250,000 for the endowment, with another $80,000 raised by alumni.

In addition, the W.M. Keck Foundation recently made a $225,000 grant to UCI for equipment and furniture in its Image Engineering Research Center laboratories. The center will be headed by Jack Slansky, a professor of electrical engineering.