Wilson Nominates 2 Backers as Regents

Two Southern California executives were nominated to the embattled University of California Board of Regents on Tuesday and both indicated support for Gov. Pete Wilson’s stand against using ethnic and gender preferences for UC academic jobs and admissions.

Wilson selected Gerald L. Parsky, a Los Angeles investment executive, and Peter Preuss, president of a San Diego medical research foundation.

Both declined to comment on the board’s landmark vote last July to rescind its consideration of ethnicity and gender as factors in hiring, contracting and admissions. But they also joined the governor in supporting a university policy that evaluates individuals based on academic merit, not on membership in groups such as a racial categories.

“I certainly believe in diversity,” said Parsky, a prominent Republican activist who served as assistant U.S. treasury secretary from 1974 to 1977. “But I believe it can be achieved by maintaining the highest admission criteria. . . . It’s important to maintain an admission policy that admits only qualified students.”

The selection of Parsky and Preuss, both wealthy political supporters of the governor, appears unlikely to mark a sharp change in policy for the nationally prestigious 26-member board.

Wilson’s seventh and eighth selections have donated a total of about $100,000 to his political campaigns since 1989.

If approved by the state Senate, the nominees will fill vacancies left last February by two men who had also backed the governor’s stand on affirmative action. Both retiring regents, Dean Watkins and Glenn Campbell, left after completing their 12-year terms on the board.

The governor’s selection is scheduled to be considered at a public hearing June 6 before a bipartisan committee established to consider regent appointments. After the committee’s recommendation, which is nonbinding, the governor will make a formal appointment that is subject to approval in the state Senate Rules Committee.

On Tuesday, state Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica) put the governor’s office on notice that the appointments carry an enormous burden.

“It is extremely important that the regents regain their lost credibility,” Hayden said in a statement. “The regents are expected to serve the university as a public trust without any partisan motive. In recent years they have become more and more enmeshed in partisan conflicts of interest to the detriment of the university.”

In turn, Wilson officials boasted about the public and private-sector accomplishments of their latest nominees. Wilson press secretary Sean Walsh said both men have national and international stature in their fields that will reflect well on the university’s reputation.

Parsky, 53, has served on three other academic boards, including that of Princeton University. After leaving the White House, he joined former U.S. Treasury Secretary William E. Simon at an investment company involved in the purchase of ailing savings and loan institutions.

He now heads a Los Angeles investment company that specializes in the purchase of manufacturing and distribution companies.

He has also as served on boards for the Reagan and Bush presidential libraries. He is also a major contributor to Wilson, having given about $74,000 since 1989.

Preuss declined to state his political affiliation, saying he has supported Republicans and Democrats. But Preuss has also been a major Wilson supporter, contributing $32,500 to his campaigns since 1989.

Preuss is head of a medical research firm that focuses on cancer, bringing together scientists from around the world to discuss issues.