UCI Throws a Party to Greet New Chancellor

Laurel Wilkening’s first hours Thursday as the new chancellor of UC Irvine roller coastered from the mundane to the surreal.

In a typical Southern California start, the former provost at the University of Washington at Seattle found herself crawling through traffic on the way to work. On campus, she got her parking permit and filled out forms to ensure that she gets her $179,000-a-year salary. She unpacked boxes in her jumbled office. Later, a huge, furry anteater escorted her through a press of well-wishers at an ice cream social.

“This has been quite a day,” Wilkening said with a big smile and a sigh during a brief break from a dizzying series of meet-and-greet appointments with administrators.

It was quite a day on the 17,000-student campus, where signs at the entrances welcomed Wilkening, the third chancellor in UCI’s 28-year history. The student center patio became a party ground for the 48-year-old planetary scientist, with bunches of red, white and blue balloons blowing in the breeze, music by a faculty blues band and free ice cream cones.

As hundreds of faculty, students and staff applauded, Wilkening made her entrance into the crowd on the fuzzy brown arm of Peter the Anteater, the campus mascot. She chuckled and smiled, then took the stage and addressed the crowd.

Wilkening said that despite the financial troubles in California, in the UC system and at UC Irvine in the last few years, there is nowhere else she would rather be.

“We’ve had some hard times, and we may have a couple more hard years ahead,” Wilkening said. “But I think if we work together, things will work out famously for us.”

Then, in another show of her well-known humor, Wilkening asked acting chancellor L. Dennis Smith to step forward from among the band members who had been playing on stage behind her.

Smith, who had headed the campus since October, when Chancellor Jack W. Peltason left to become president of the UC system, stood next to Wilkening, trombone in hand. She handed him a golden, Academy Award-like statuette, saying he deserved “an Oscar for best acting chancellor.” The patio spectators burst into applause again.

The gathering then reassembled into huge lines, one for ice cream and another for handshakes with Wilkening. In a conservative gray suit, she stood in the hot sun, chatting with people from all walks of campus life, from bookstore employees to professors emeritus. She seemed friendly and at ease, and listened closely to each person, touching the arms of many and taking the time to squeeze the fingers or toes of a few babies.

“I do like people, and I really am very enthusiastic about the campus,” Wilkening said in an interview. “There are so many people who are so loyal who work very hard. It’s so nice that they came out and stood in the sun to say hello.”

As she has before, Wilkening declined to talk of her plans for the campus, saying she would spend her first few months in a study-and-learn mode before making specific proposals.

She did say, however, that she is “very committed” to having a strong Asian studies program on campus. Asian-American students demonstrated on campus recently for such a program.

Wilkening said she viewed her most important role at UCI as “being a bridge, to bring people together.” She wants to function as a catalyst for projects among different groups on campus, as well as between the university and the private sector.

As the No. 2 officer at University of Washington, Seattle, Wilkening was known for her talent at building consensus, and made priorities of upgrading research facilities, improving life for undergraduates and hiring more women and minorities. Known for her frank, forthright style, Wilkening also won national recognition for serving on a federal commission to study the future of the U.S. space program.

Wilkening seemed to make a good impression on many who gathered to greet her on the patio Thursday. Many said they already had a good feeling about her, based on stories they have heard and on their brief chats with her.

F. Sherwood Rowland, professor of chemistry, said he was most impressed by a tale of Wilkening wading into a crowd of University of Washington students who were demonstrating against the not-guilty verdicts in the Rodney King beating case in 1992. Unnoticed in the din, she took off her shoes, climbed onto a table they had been using as a battering ram, quieted them down and brought them into the foyer of the administration building.

“It was a positive act of leadership,” Rowland said. “It indicates someone who’s willing to take responsibility.”

Ralph Purdy, a professor of pharmacology, said he admires Wilkening’s reputation as a “consensus-builder, someone who listens.”

“With California and the UC system in this state (of financial stress), you need to be creative, and I think she’s that kind of person,” Purdy said.

Several people said they were elated that a scientist of Wilkening’s caliber would head the university.

“I’m so excited because you’re a scientist, not a political scientist, but a real scientist,” Charles Ribak, professor of anatomy and neurobiology, told Wilkening as he shook her hand.

But her scientific background isn’t a source of excitement for all.

“It’s frustrating,” said Xanthi Soriano, 24, who has a bachelor’s degree in drama and is pursuing another in history. “Everybody is putting so much emphasis on science. We need a little on the fine arts and humanities.”

Some women in the crowd said they were happy to see the campus headed by a woman, only the third ever to head a UC campus.

“I think it’s wonderful, the fact that UCI has recognized that the position like this can be handled by a woman,” said Jacqueline McInnis-Conyers, who is pursuing her doctorate in gerontology. “She certainly is dynamic, and she can do the job.”