Atkinson Cites Lack of Local Appreciation of UCSD

UC San Diego Chancellor Richard C. Atkinson didn’t get around to doing a Rodney Dangerfield imitation Thursday but nonetheless got his message across that, in economic terms at least, his university doesn’t get the respect it deserves.

At a press briefing, Atkinson described UCSD as an economic dynamo that locally is largely unnoticed and unappreciated, even though it employs more than 16,000, annually spends some $800 million in local payroll, goods and services, and maintains an ongoing expansion program that involves about $250 million in building construction.

“UCSD is an institution that San Diegans hardly know about,” Atkinson said.

At the same time, he said the university has steadily built a worldwide reputation as a research hub, attracting internationally renowned scientists in the fields of fusion energy research, Alzheimer’s disease and digital communications, much to San Diego’s benefit in prestige and economic gain, Atkinson said.

Yet, the perception of UCSD among many locals, Atkinson said, hasn’t changed much since the late 1960s when the university was perhaps best known as home to Marxist philosophy professor Herbert Marcuse and radical Angela Davis, and was viewed as an “intellectual center” of the Vietnam protest movement.

In expressing his frustrations with UCSD’s supposed lack of recognition, the educator conceded that he had been miffed recently by a San Diego Economic Task Force report that “didn’t capture the role of UCSD in the economic future of this city.”

Atkinson indicated he also was motivated by the 22% increase in student tuition fees recently approved by the Board of Regents and by the leveling off of state funding the last four years, events he interpreted as signs of diminishing public support for higher education.

“It’s important for people of California to support education, and we do have to worry about the quality of education,” Atkinson said.

As a research hub, Atkinson said UCSD this year will attract some $194 million in federal grants, the fifth highest total among U.S. universities. UCSD’s research has also led to the formation of at least 25 private companies that have been started by current or former UCSD faculty and students.

Those companies include success stories such as Hybritech, Immune Response and Gensia Pharmaceuticals.

As state funding for universities has leveled off because of the budgetary crises of recent years, the university still has been able to expand its medical center, and even finance the construction of a new hospital in the University Towne Centre area, by generating more revenue by admitting more patients.

Atkinson also decried Thursday the absence of a U.S. “industrial policy” to safeguard home-grown technology developed by biotechnology companies and others. He also joined the chorus of local business and civic leaders who warn the city is an increasingly unattractive place for business.

Atkinson said an Iowa delegation of business leaders that was here last month recruiting corporations to relocate was “stunned by how unhappy San Diego companies are with San Diego.”

He mentioned the companies formerly based in San Diego, such as Aerojet, Oak Industries Signal, HomeFed and Great American, that have either left town or gone belly up.

“These huge financial structures have crumbled and are not being replaced,” Atkinson said.

To illustrate the university’s economic muscle, Atkinson said the campus employs 16,000 people, including 3,100 faculty members, putting UCSD among the top three largest employers in the county. Student enrollment now totals 19,000.