A Good Choice to Fill Some Big Shoes : University of Washington provost will replace Peltason as UC Irvine chancellor

Laurel L. Wilkening, a planetary scientist and provost at the University of Washington, is an excellent choice as new chancellor of UC Irvine. She will have a hard act to follow in succeeding Jack W. Peltason, who was named president of the University of California system last October. He provided fine leadership for UC Irvine as it grew in numbers and stature as a research institution, especially in the areas of biology and neurology.

Wilkening’s first task must be to make sure the university stays on its strong course. Her familiarity with the University of Washington’s large biomedical research program makes her a good fit, especially in view of UC Irvine’s ambitious plans in this area.

Among Wilkening’s challenges also will be to address the university’s shortcomings in hiring and promotion of women faculty members--a problem, by the way, throughout the University of California system. The new chancellor might start with UC Irvine’s medical school, where a task force recently determined that women lagged far behind their male counterparts in both tenure and salary. It should help to have a woman in the top post, one of two female chancellors in the nine-campus UC system.

In addition, Wilkening must map out a strong plan to respond to the university’s changing demographics. UC Irvine--like so many other universities in California--now has a widely diverse student body. In particular, there are many more students of Latino and Asian heritage whose needs, interests and talents must be more fully accounted for.

Wilkening has an opportunity to make UC Irvine an example for other universities throughout the state on how to be sensitive to diversity while maintaining academic excellence.

The incoming chancellor is a welcome new leader for the 17,000-student UC Irvine and for the University of California system as well.