Top-Level UCI Administrator Resigns Post : Education: M. Anne Spence, vice chancellor of academic programs, will resume teaching and researching genetics.

Adding her name to a growing list of high-level administrators who have stepped down from their posts at UC Irvine, Vice Chancellor of Academic Programs M. Anne Spence has announced she is resigning to resume teaching and research in genetics.

Spence’s position will be eliminated when she leaves her post May 1, university officials said Tuesday.

Spence was the first and will be the only vice chancellor of academic programs, a position created in early 1992 to help shape student affairs during lean budget years.

However, two university task forces studying cost-cutting measures recently recommended eliminating Spence’s job and two other vice chancellor posts--a factor in Spence’s decision to resign, but not the overwhelming one, UCI officials said.

“The uncertainty about the position was taken into consideration,” UCI spokeswoman Karen Newell Young said. “She is eager to return to research full time, but it’s also clear that both task forces recommended that the position be abolished.

“The timing worked out this way because of commitments Anne Spence was facing in terms of meeting grant proposal deadlines” in genetics research, Young said.

The university said Spence will resume teaching and research full time in the pediatrics department at the UCI College of Medicine.

Spence, who did not return telephone calls Tuesday, said in a prepared statement:

“My interest is and always has been in human genetics. I have enjoyed my sojourn into administration immensely, but I now have a number of exciting opportunities to expand my work with UCI’s outstanding genetics research team.”

Among other things, Spence, an accomplished genetic counselor working in pediatrics, conducted research that looked for the genetic origins of pre-adolescent schizophrenia, said UCI spokeswoman Linda Granell.

*

Young said that Chancellor Laurel L. Wilkening and Executive Vice Chancellor Spencer Olin decided after Spence submitted her resignation that eliminating her position “was the best decision at the time.”

Since Wilkening took over the helm of UCI, three other high-level administrators have stepped down, left for other jobs or were let go.

In March, engineering dean William A. Sirignano was ousted after a review. Dr. Walter L. Henry, vice chancellor of health sciences and dean of the College of Medicine, resigned in December. And L. Dennis Smith left UCI and his executive vice chancellor position to become president at University of Nebraska.

When Spence leaves her post, one female vice chancellor--Kathleen Jones, in charge of university advancement--will remain. Granell said UCI still has several other women in top positions, including police chief, head librarian and dean of biological sciences.

“It’s nice to have some women who are vice chancellors--and now there’s going to be one less,” commented Paula L. Goldsmid, director of the Women’s Resource Center on campus.

Granell downplayed the drain of top administrators. “A few changes do not necessarily influence the day-to-day activities of this campus,” she said.

The departures come at a time when upper management is also dealing with budget strains.

UCI’s Academic Planning Council, during the next two months, will discuss cost-cutting proposals by two university task forces and the campus community’s response to them. Wilkening will announce which programs, departments and managers will be eliminated after June 1.

One of the task forces suggested that the six current vice chancellors be cut to three. New positions would address education, administration and research and advancement.

Granell said officials would have decided what to do about Spence’s position during the review process.

*

“There’s $10 million to cut from the budget next year,” Granell said. “The timing wasn’t ideal, but the chancellor and Spence Olin have determined it was a decision that probably would have been made.”

As vice chancellor, Spence supervises academic programs--parts of the university that don’t fall into specific schools, such as University Extension, the library and interdisciplinary programs such as Asian American studies.

The creation of her vice chancellor’s position in 1992 brought opposition from several deans, said sources who did not want to be named. Some saw her as an additional, unnecessary manager meant to be “politically correct” and filling a job that was not well-defined.

Granell declined to comment on Spence’s standing among her peers but noted that she was responsible for many internal faculty recruitment and retention matters. Those included promising Asian American students in 1993 that the university would hire four professors to teach Asian American studies.

Others believe her position was set up with too many demands.

“At the time the position was created, a number of women faculty were somewhat skeptical,” said Judy Rosener, senior lecturer in the Graduate School of Management. “We felt it was going to be given a lot of very difficult responsibilities, and a woman was definitely going to be slotted, and it was set up to fail.”

Rosener said Spence came in with a professional and businesslike demeanor at “a time of great chaos.”

An Oklahoma native, Spence earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Grinnell College in Iowa in 1966 and a Ph.D. in human genetics from the University of Hawaii. She joined UCLA in 1970.

Those Who Have Left

These UC Irvine administrators have stepped down since November:

M. Anne Spence

* Position: Vice chancellor of academic programs.

* Action: Resigned, effective May 1.

* Circumstances: Will return to research and teaching human genetics at the College of Medicine. Uncertainty surrounding her administrative position in two university cost-cutting task force recommendations might have played a role.

* Background: Became a vice chancellor in 1992, assuming responsibility for academic programs; supervised University Extension, interdisciplinary programs and the library. Joined UCI pediatrics department after serving as associate dean of the UCLA graduate division since 1988.

* Replacement: Position will be eliminated.

William A. Sirignano

* Position: Dean of the School of Engineering.

* Action: Removal from position announced in March; effective Sept. 1.

* Circumstances: Was not reappointed after a chancellor’s review of his work as dean. Chancellor’s office will not comment on personnel matters.

* Background: Served as dean for nearly a decade. Research funds for engineering increased eight times during his nine years.

* Replacement: Position still vacant. Decision on an acting dean is pending.

Dr. Walter L. Henry

* Position: Vice chancellor of health sciences and dean of the College of Medicine.

* Action: Resigned December, 1993.

* Circumstances: Quit amid controversy over his proposed organizational changes. Had come under fire from some of his faculty because of his budget cut proposals.

* Background: Became vice chancellor of health services in 1989. Holds degrees in electrical engineering and medicine.

* Replacement: Tom Cesario, chairman of the department of medicine, is acting vice chancellor.

L. Dennis Smith

* Position: Executive vice chancellor.

* Action: Announced departure in November, 1993.

* Circumstances: Left to assume University of Nebraska presidency, which he accepted March 1. Had served as acting UCI chancellor for nine months, until Laurel L. Wilkening was appointed in July, 1993.

* Background: A developmental biologist, Smith assumed tenure as executive vice chancellor--UCI’s chief budget officer--at a time when the UC system began undergoing severe fiscal restraints. While acting chancellor, Asian American students held several protests and demonstrations, charging UCI was slow in establishing an Asian American studies program.

* Replacement: Dean of Humanities Spencer Olin is acting executive vice chancellor.

Sources: UCI; Times reports; Researched by ALICIA DI RADO / Los Angeles Times