UC Irvine Vice Chancellor and Dean Resigns : Education: The university’s chancellor says Dr. Walter L. Henry--who headed the College of Medicine--quit after a proposal to divide his two-tiered position was rejected as financially unfeasible.

In a surprise move, Dr. Walter L. Henry on Friday quit as UC Irvine’s vice chancellor of health sciences and dean of the College of Medicine. Chancellor Laurel L. Wilkening said Henry resigned after she rejected his proposals for organizational changes.

Henry had asked that his two-tier position be divided; that he remain vice chancellor but that a separate dean of medicine position be created, reporting to him.

“In this time of budget cuts, I simply could not approve the creation of a new position at such a high level,” Wilkening said.

Henry, 52, who has headed UCI’s College of Medicine for five years, could not be reached for comment.

Wilkening said she wants Henry to continue as vice chancellor and dean until someone is named to succeed him.

“That’s my wish, but I’m not sure if he plans to continue in the position,” Wilkening said.

Henry came under fire in June from some of his faculty because of budget cut proposals he made, after all University of California departments were ordered to reduce spending. Fifty-five professors from the College of Medicine petitioned Wilkening to make an early performance review of Henry. He also came under criticism during a June 22 meeting of the Academic Senate of the medical school.

But Wilkening said Friday that Henry’s resignation came because of their disagreement over his proposal to create the high-level administrative position.

In June, Henry said he was calling for the proposed restructuring of the medical hierarchy to bring more cooperation between the College of Medicine and its teaching hospital. The Academic Senate of the medical school voted its approval of Henry’s idea.

Wilkening, however, said the proposal was not financially feasible. She noted that the UC system is still faced with budget cuts and layoffs because of the state’s continual woes with the recession.

Financial trouble, even in good economic times, has haunted UCI’s medical center and medical school for more than a decade. The central problem has been that the UCI Medical Center, which is situated in Orange, treats more poor patients than any other hospital in Orange County.

Henry’s predecessor as vice chancellor for health services, Dr. Edward J. Qulligan, resigned suddenly in February, 1989, after the medical center’s deficit ballooned to $12 million. Henry took over the job the next month and in his first days appeared before the UC Board of Regents, telling them that the UCI Medical Center was on the brink of financial collapse.

During Henry’s tenure, the medical center climbed out of the deficit and for the past two years has broken even financially.

Wilkening on Friday praised Henry’s service during a time of what she called “enormous economic and social challenges.” The chancellor also credited Henry with successfully pushing for the forthcoming new Center for Health Sciences--a proposed cluster of research and clinical facilities. The first building of the center is scheduled for groundbreaking in early 1995.

“Walter’s vision for the Center for Health Sciences has been embraced throughout Orange County and will continue as a campus-wide priority,” Wilkening said. “Leadership for the center will be housed in my office.”

Henry has been a member of the UCI faculty since 1978. Prior to being named vice chancellor and dean in 1989, he had served as chief of cardiology and president of the medical staff at UCI Medical Center.

He earned an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from the University of Pittsburgh and his medical degree from Stanford University. Henry is a pioneer in new technologies for heart care, including computerized heart imagery.

UCI officials on Friday credited Henry with helping the College of Medicine gain substantially in outside funding for research. Such funding rose from $23 million in 1988 to $37 million in 1992.

Even though deficit problems evened out at the medical center, Henry said in an interview in June that many problems remained.

“There are absolutely a sea of changes going on in health care,” he said. “Everybody has to work together. If we become divided into factions pointing fingers at each other, I think our ability to respond to change is limited.”