UC Irvine Chancellor Outlines Goals : Education: She seeks to place the school among top research institutions. At least one academic department would be dropped.

UC Irvine Chancellor Laurel L. Wilkening on Friday announced her long-awaited plan to propel the campus--one of the University of California’s two youngest--into the ranks of the top 50 research universities in the country within six years.

Wilkening outlined her mission in a written report 14 months after she assumed the helm of the campus. Like the other UC schools, Irvine has been racked by budget cuts, and university officials have recommended further cutbacks. However, Wilkening suggested that only a few major cutbacks would be necessary, including closing the university’s program in comparative culture.

“I want UCI to be the university of the 21st Century, and I don’t think one exists right now,” Wilkening said in a discussion with Times editors and reporters. “We can get a jump on our competitors.”

She said funding for her vision would ideally come from local technology companies. She was not specific, however, about her plans for improving the university.

Her announcement about the future of the campus ended a long summer of anticipation for members of the UCI community. Many have been looking to her for direction on restructuring the 29-year-old university nestled in the grassy hills of Irvine.

In reports released this year, two panels of UC Irvine professors and administrators suggested making vast cuts in academic and non-academic programs. They concluded that several departments, including education, physical education, and comparative culture, should be closed.

But in her announcement Friday, Wilkening made it clear she intends to salvage as many programs as possible while concentrating efforts on departments that are already highly esteemed.

Among her plans for the university, Wilkening said she would:

* Close the comparative culture program.

* Fold interdepartmental programs, such as Asian American studies and Chicano/Latino studies, into other departments.

* Consider closing the physical education department.

* Keep open the education department, which had drawn strong support from Orange County educators in February when it was threatened with closure.

“We’ve had some very tough years in the University of California,” said UC President Jack Peltason. “We’ve all had to re-establish priorities, think about our goals and what we want to do. This is a very thoughtful report, one that makes it very clear the campus has gone through a lot of consulting and thinking about the future.”

On the whole, Wilkening avoided the controversial closures of several graduate schools that had characterized the painful contraction process at UCLA a year ago.

Instead, Wilkening emphasized pulling more research dollars into UC Irvine by encouraging contracts between campus researchers and Southern California biotechnical and biomedical companies. Her goal, published in a tabloid-sized, eight-page newspaper distributed on campus Friday, is to launch UC Irvine into the top 50 research universities nationwide.

Some students were encouraged by the chancellor’s goals for the university, but worried about the emphasis on research.

“Her goal . . . is attainable,” said Matthew Buttacavoli, an undergraduate who is active in student government. “My question is, if they can’t find funding, will she sacrifice undergraduate programs or student services or student athletics?”

Wilkening said she does not expect to cut its intercollegiate athletics, but she added that decisions on cutting student services will depend on what students tell her during the upcoming year.

“What we really need is some creative thinking about how we do business here,” Irvine graduate student Bryan Hannegan said. “Can we do more with less for more students?”