UCI Exodus Continues as Another Dean Leaves Campus : Education: The head of University Extension becomes the 6th dean to step down in a year. Some feel faculty is being courted at a time of budgetary crisis.

An East Coast university has hired a UC Irvine dean, who becomes the sixth dean on campus to step down in a year, officials confirmed Tuesday.

Melvin E. Hall, dean of University Extension, will leave July 31 to become the dean of continuing education, summer and special programs at the University of Maryland, a UCI spokesman said. Hall had worked at UCI since 1989, and was its first and only African American dean.

“I have enjoyed my time at UCI and consider it a good foundation for whatever I encounter next,” Hall said Tuesday.

Spencer C. Olin, UCI acting executive vice chancellor, said Hall will be missed.

“He’s been a very persuasive and outspoken promoter of a university extension program,” Olin said.

Hall’s departure adds to a growing list of deans who have stepped down from posts at UCI.

Three deans announced their retirements through a voluntary early retirement incentive plan in May: Robert Hickok, dean of the School of Fine Arts; Harold Moore, dean of the School of Physical Sciences, and Michael Butler, dean of Undergraduate Studies.

Dr. Walter L. Henry, dean of the College of Medicine, resigned in December. Officials announced in March that the dean of the School of Engineering, William A. Sirignano, was removed from his position after an academic review.

Hall, of Irvine, moves to a university with nearly twice UCI’s enrollment. University of Maryland, College Park, is the flagship campus in Maryland’s higher education system and enrolls about 33,000 students, a University of Maryland official said.

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Daniel Fallon, vice president for academic affairs and provost for the University of Maryland, College Park, said Hall was chosen from 125 candidates.

“We were looking for the best qualified person, and he’s it,” Fallon said.

In overseeing UCI’s extension branch, Hall said he supervised a program that grew from about 25,000 students in 1989 to 32,000 students in 1994. The program is self-supporting, receiving no funding from the university or state.

Looking back on his years at UCI, Hall said that extension once simply meant night school courses. Now it includes working with businesses to train employees to be more efficient, providing day classes taken mainly by retirees, and other programs.

He also pointed to an expansion into North County; UCI Extension will open its first satellite branch in Anaheim on Aug. 1.

“Hall is a good example of someone who’s made outstanding contributions . . . in terms of extension for the university and beyond the university,” said Davida Hopkins-Parham, assistant vice chancellor for academic programs. “It’s a tragedy, as far as I’m concerned, that we didn’t retain him.”

Hopkins-Parham said UCI faculty members are increasingly being courted by East Coast and Midwest universities at a time of budgetary crises in the University of California system.

“We have been, more than we would want to be, in the position of trying to retain people,” she said.

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While some staff members at UCI said the amount of turnover among UCI Extension staff during Hall’s tenure was controversial, Hall said that the staff now reflects the county’s ethnic makeup. In 1989 when he started, Hall said, only two staff members were from an ethnic minority group.

He said he does not think his departure will deter other African American educators from joining UCI.

“I don’t think my leaving will have as much an impact on the future as my coming here,” Hall said. “The fact I came here, and had a successful tenure, is going to be far more important than my leaving.”

Jane Welgan, an assistant dean of University Extension for three years, will fill in as acting dean beginning Aug. 1, Olin said. Welgan, of Laguna Beach, has worked with University Extension since 1978.