Peltason Becomes UC President Amid Protest

Jack W. Peltason was inaugurated Friday as the 16th president of the University of California in a stately ceremony punctuated with references to the system’s economic woes and challenged by a large demonstration of students angry about rising fees.

In his address at UCLA’s Royce Hall, Peltason pledged to work closely with California’s industries, politicians and other educators to ensure a better economic foundation for the nine-campus, 166,000-student university.

“Never in the 125-year history of the university has it been stronger. At the same time, perhaps never has it been in greater peril,” said Peltason, 69, a political scientist who had been UC Irvine chancellor since 1984.

Supporters said Peltason will usher in a more austere, conciliatory era for the UC system, after recent financial controversies and a 10.5%, or $224 million, drop in state support. However, outside Royce Hall, more than 400 students heard speakers raucously denounce Peltason and other UC officials for presiding over, as demonstrators contended, “the death of the university.”

Behind metal barricades on the front steps of Royce, scores of riot-helmeted campus police stopped the crowd from entering the hall. But one UCLA student, who gained entrance with a ticket, interrupted the ceremony by shouting about lavish spending by UC officials. Hustled out by authorities, he was cited for disturbing the peace, the only arrest of the day, a UCLA spokeswoman said.

“To me, it’s a big fraud that they are having this inauguration. They are getting away with business as usual,” Kevin Mireles, the arrested student, said after his release. A senior from Whittier, Mireles said he was hurt by financial aid cuts and fee increases.

Otherwise, the 900 guests inside the gilded auditorium could hear and see nothing of the protests. Instead, to stirring music by the UCLA Wind Ensemble Brass, there was a dignified procession of UC faculty, chancellors and regents in academic robes. Among the marchers were hands-on participants in the state budget crisis that has sent UC into turmoil: Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D- San Francisco)and Lt. Gov. Leo T. McCarthy, both ex-officio regents. Gov. Pete Wilson, also an ex-officio regent, was in San Francisco on other business but sent greetings that were read on stage.

Meredith J. Khachigian, chairwoman of the regents, presented Peltason with the 93-year-old, black academic robe worn by an early UC president, Benjamin Ide Wheeler, at his investiture in 1899, and by other presidents since. Regents vice chairman William T. Bagley draped the UC presidential medal around Peltason’s neck.

Conspicuously absent was David P. Gardner, UC president for nearly nine years until Oct. 1. He was reported to be out of the country on Friday. Gardner announced last year that he would resign because he could not continue in the job after his wife’s death. In the months following, Gardner faced controversy about his large severance package, secretly approved in March by the UC regents. Subsequent reports by the state auditor general and the former legislative analyst criticized spending by and compensation for UC executives.

In his speech Friday, Peltason referred indirectly to such controversies but insisted that UC does not need “major fixing.”

“While no one claims we are perfect or immune from criticism or accountability, the fact is that one of the things Americans in general and Californians in particular have done better than any other nation in the world is to provide the largest possible number of people with the best possible university education,” he said.

Cuts in UC’s general revenue funds from the state have led to staff layoffs, early retirements by professors and a 24% fee hike for students--to $3,036 for in-state undergraduates. At the regents’ meeting Thursday, Peltason warned about further fee hikes of at least $300 to $450. He pledged to make UC more efficient while still recruiting and keeping “a world-class faculty,” which he called his top priority.

Peltason announced the organization of a group called the California Business-Higher Education Forum, which will seek strong ties between leaders of the two sectors.

“Our universities and colleges cannot flourish unless the state prospers, and the state is not likely to prosper without strong universities and colleges,” said Peltason, who was chancellor of the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana from 1967 to 1977. He was president of the American Council on Education from 1977 to 1984, before becoming UC Irvine chancellor.

The new UC chief joked Friday about his age, denying speculation that he will be a short-term, caretaker president. “There has been some concern expressed about . . . a generation gap. I think that concern is exaggerated. I do not have any trouble getting along with older people,” he said.

Outside, protesting students bitterly contrasted their tight finances with Peltason’s $243,500 annual salary. Wearing black clothes as in mourning, demonstrators planted 400 wooden crosses in the grass to symbolize what they said is education’s death. At one point, a small skirmish broke out on the Royce steps as baton-wielding police tried to move the crowd back. A few students said they were roughed up slightly.

“If they don’t give us access to the decision-making process, we have no choice but to push ourselves in!” one of the protest leaders yelled over a bullhorn. Later, at a reception for Peltason on a patio outside Royce, dozens of students climbed down an embankment and shouted up to dignitaries.

“Protests go with being on campus,” Peltason said with a shrug when asked about the commotion. As for the fee hikes, he said: “We’re doing our best. We don’t raise them because we enjoy raising them.”

Peltason requested a modest inauguration, which was timed with the regents’ meeting Thursday at UCLA. The ceremony and reception cost about $10,000, not including security and other staff. Figures for those expenses were not available, a spokesman said. Peltason recently announced that he gave up $41,170 a year in UC allowances he was to receive for his private Irvine house; he will live rent-free at the presidential mansion near Berkeley.

Times staff writer Jeff Kramer contributed to this story.