Peltason Named as President of UC System

Jack W. Peltason, chancellor of UC Irvine since 1984, was named president of the nine-campus UC system Friday, a move met with great praise for his academic and administrative abilities but also with questions about his age and compensation package.

In announcing what they said was their unanimous decision to appoint the 68-year-old Peltason, UC regents sought to refute speculation that he would be an interim president or that he was a compromise choice to succeed David P. Gardner, who steps down Oct. 1.

“Jack Peltason’s age had no bearing on his selection as president--nor should it. He is not an interim president. We hope to have Jack Peltason’s service for as long as he wishes to serve,” Meredith Khachigian, chairman of the Board of Regents, told a news conference after a closed-door meeting of the UC governing panel.

Peltason, a political scientist and past president of the American Council for Education, addressed the age issue with wry humor. “I serve at the pleasure of God, my wife and the Board of Regents, in that standing order. I will continue to serve as long as those three want me to,” he said.

At the news conference and during a interview, Peltason indicated that he does not advocate any radical changes for the 165,000-student system. The university is a vast and complicated institution with a $6.5-billion annual budget and programs that range from intramural soccer to nuclear weapons research.

Peltason said his main task will be to continue Gardner’s efforts to protect the prestigious system from further budget cuts and a decline in quality. Like Gardner, he said he prefers enrollment limits to faculty layoffs or increased teaching loads.

“The University of California isn’t broken. It does not need to be fixed. It needs to be preserved and enhanced,” Peltason said.

In 1990, Peltason was granted an open-ended extension to serve at Irvine past the mandatory retirement age of 67 for top UC executives. His new contract as president is for three years, specifying Sept. 30, 1995, as his retirement date. Officials said that could be extended and does not imply a three-year term.

The contract continued the controversy over retirement packages for UC leaders. Peltason’s annual salary will be $243,500, the same as Gardner’s but higher than his $162,500-a-year chancellor’s salary. He will live free of charge in Blake House, the official residence that UC maintains for the system chief near Berkeley.

Peltason also will receive $41,700 a year to support the Irvine house he owns privately. In addition, he will receive at least $68,000 a year in deferred income and supplemental retirement benefits.

UC Regent Jeremiah F. Hallisey, who on Thursday attacked Gardner’s hefty retirement benefits, also blasted Peltason’s as “outrageous” at a time when faculty pay raises have been canceled and students face a 24%, or $500, fee increase.

In a rare public display of dissension, Hallisey and other regents bickered before reporters Friday. Hallisey called on the board to rescind its decision to give Gardner more than $737,000 in lump sums as well as $130,000 annual retirement pay. Other regents defended the packages as being in line with national standards and said they will not reduce them.

Peltason’s selection was boosted, Khachigian and others said, by his knowledge of state and national politics, especially in the tough budget climate. Also cited was his even-keeled personality.

“He has known when to say yes to proposals and when to say no, and how to do so with grace and good humor,” said W. Elliot Brownlee, who headed the faculty advisory panel on the UC presidency.

Sources said the regents’ search committee had been divided between Chancellors Charles E. Young of UCLA and Richard C. Atkinson of UC San Diego and turned to Peltason as a compromise. After straw votes and much politicking, the search panel voted 8 to 1 to nominate Peltason, with one vote for Young by Ralph M. Ochoa, president of the UC Alumni Assn.

Peltason confirmed reports that he at first did not want the presidency and had lobbied for Young. “I did not seek the job. It was not in my plan. But I am not coerced to stand before you here today. I take it with enthusiasm,” he said.

Atkinson and Young pledged their support to Peltason. Young, who was at the San Francisco meeting Friday, conceded that he was disappointed in being passed over but that he had no plans to quit his UCLA post he has held for 23 years.

Young’s supporters said his more outspoken style probably hurt him during the selection process. Atkinson did not do as well as expected during his final interview, insiders said.

Peltason was president of the American Council on Education, a lobby group for higher education, from 1979 to 1984. Before that, he was chancellor of the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana for nine years. An expert on constitutional law and co-author of classic textbooks on American government, he has undergraduate and master’s degrees from the University of Missouri and a doctorate from Princeton University.

(Orange County Edition) Challenges for the New President

The University of California’s new president, Jack W. Peltason, takes over at a time of financial crisis for the nine-campus system. State funds are shrinking as a percentage of the overall budget, forcing UC officials to raise student fees and limit enrollment. While UC has promoted diversity, the number of eligible African-American students has grown by only 14% since 1986. Drop in State Funding: Total budget: $7,067,537 State share: $2,112,388

Ethnic Changes Enrollment between 1986 and 1991: White: --7% Asian: +5% Latin: +4% Black: +1.5%

Source: University of California