Irvine : Panel Prefers UCI as Site for Humanities Institute

UC Irvine has been recommended as a site for a prestigious new humanities institute that is expected to be launched in the fall of 1988, university officials said.

As proposed, the institute will be a place where up to 25 scholars can reside for a year, studying issues affecting the humanities. Four other University of California campuses have been competing to be the home of the new institute.

Stanley Chodorow, dean of Arts and Humanities at UC San Diego, confirmed Tuesday that a committee he chairs has recommended UC Irvine as the site of the institute. His committee has forwarded its recommendation to David P. Gardner, president of the UC system. The idea for such an institute is Gardner’s, and he will make the final decision about its location, a UC spokeswoman said Tuesday.

“No action by President Gardner is expected any time soon,” said UC spokeswoman Lilia Villanueva in a telephone interview from the UC system offices in Berkeley. She added that Gardner must review the site recommendation in conjunction with the forthcoming proposed state budget.

While Gardner hopes to obtain private donations to subsidize the institute, it would still require some state funding and must be considered in conjunction with the state budget, Villanueva said.

Chodorow at UC San Diego said Tuesday that he does not expect the institute to be in operation until the fall of 1988. He said the 10-person faculty committee from throughout the UC system faculty recommended UC Irvine as the site “because of its location, which is on the edge of a large metropolitan area but not in it, and because of the commitment of the UCI campus and its great sensitivity that this (institute) is to serve the whole UC system.”

Villanueva said that while ultimately the proposed institute may involve some new building and other construction, those aspects are still to be worked out. “There is no price tag on this yet,” she said.

Chodorow said his site committee narrowed the applicants to two finalists: UCLA and UC Irvine. The other UC campuses applying for the institute were Berkeley, Santa Cruz and Santa Barbara.