UCI to Go Ahead With Center Plans : Education: Chancellor reassures board of her support for health sciences facility in wake of vice chancellor’s resignation.

Trustees of the UC Irvine College of Medicine on Tuesday declared their commitment to proceed without delay to develop a Center for Health Sciences despite the surprise resignation last month of Vice Chancellor and Dean Walter Henry.

UCI Chancellor Laurel L. Wilkening, who met with the trustees for more than two hours in a closed-door session, reassured them of her support for the long-term plan of creating a $350-million medical research and clinical complex on 40 acres on the west side of campus.

The trustees rejected the suggestion that the board should temporarily rescind its decision to loan $3 million for construction of the first phase of the center, a neuroscience research institute, because of Henry’s resignation.

Henry resigned after a dispute with Wilkening over a proposed restructuring of the administration of the university’s health sciences programs.

One of the trustees, Susan Meister, had predicted that the project would suffer a gap in leadership after the resignation of Henry, who had conceived the center as an interdisciplinary project that could be developed in partnership with the county’s burgeoning biotechnology industry.

In an interview after Tuesday’s meeting, Wilkening said she had told the trustees that she will hire someone to take charge of completing plans for the neuroscience institute in February. By the end of the year, she said, she expects to seek bids for construction of the institute, which may cost between $20 million and $30 million.

Wilkening also said she would appoint an interim dean of the medical school next month, although she added that “the search will take months for a permanent dean.”

Henry Segerstrom, co-chairman of the board of trustees, said after the meeting that Wilkening was convincing.

“After a lot of discussion, the board has confidence in the (Center for Health Sciences) project and that it will move ahead. It is important for Orange County and its future.”

Segerstrom said the board adopted a resolution of appreciation for Henry’s “vision” in campaigning for the Center for Health Sciences and his contributions as “an individual and a professor in the field of medicine and a leader in Orange County.”