Wilkening to Leave UC Irvine Chancellor’s Post

UC Irvine Chancellor Laurel L. Wilkening, who oversaw a campus lauded for its twin Nobel prizes two years ago but tarnished by a fertility clinic scandal, announced Wednesday that she will leave her post--and higher education--by next summer.

Wilkening, 52, said she plans to leave UC’s fastest-growing campus by June to pursue projects that will bring her closer to personal passions such as researching population growth, the global environment and women’s issues.

“I have been very fortunate to have had a very exciting career in higher education,” said Wilkening, a planetary scientist who before arriving at UC Irvine in 1993 had been a teacher and administrator at the universities of Washington and Arizona.

“I think public higher education is what made this country great,” she said. “But I’ve done it. I have time and an opportunity to move on.”

That move marks the fourth departure of a UC chancellor in the past 18 months. New leaders have been appointed at Berkeley and UCLA, and a search continues for one at UC San Francisco.

Wilkening’s announcement caught many by surprise, especially because there have been a number of positive developments recently on the Irvine campus.

Also, the chancellor has spurned advances from other universities, including one from Arizona just a few months ago.

Wilkening told her staff of her decision Tuesday after returning from a two-week vacation to Arizona.

“If I’m going to make a career change, I have to do it at some point,” she said in an interview Wednesday. “Time is passing, and I’m getting older. But I also feel that UCI is in very good shape. We’re well-positioned for the future.”

UC Irvine’s third chancellor, she steps down after four years during which the campus embarked on an expansion unprecedented in its 32-year history to cope with the explosive growth of the student population and research endeavors. That, coupled with the campus’ rising national reputation--it has been ranked in the top 50 by academic and popular journals--marked the highlights of her tenure.

In 1995, Nobel prizes went to faculty members F. Sherwood Rowland for chemistry and Frederick Reines for physics.

But Wilkening also presided over the campus during its darkest times, including a budget crisis that precipitated cuts in programs shortly after she arrived and a scandal at a now-defunct university-run fertility clinic that drew national attention.

University doctors Ricardo H. Asch, Jose P. Balmaceda and Sergio C. Stone were accused of harvesting eggs from patients and, without proper authority, implanting them in other women or sending them off to research laboratories. The university has resolved 43 civil cases, including 41 last month, by paying settlements totaling $14 million. The federal government also has charged the doctors, two of whom have left the country, with mail and wire fraud in connection with the scandal.

Wilkening and UC officials said her departure was not linked to the cases. Some high-ranking officials said they tried to persuade Wilkening to remain at the campus of 18,000 students and 2,300 faculty.

In hindsight, Wilkening said of the scandal, “I wish I had grasped the magnitude of the problem [earlier] than I did.” But “I am pleased the cases are being settled. In terms of my timing, I think of it more as coincidence. [The settlements] were a big step to bring the episode to closure. But that wasn’t a defining thing in my decision.”

UC President Richard C. Atkinson, who two years ago at a regents’ meeting offered high praise of Wilkening’s handling of the fertility clinic scandal, said, “It’s a very difficult day for us. She has done a superb job under incredibly difficult conditions, and it will be a tremendous loss to the university.”

The president and regents will set up a search committee to look nationwide for a successor, who Atkinson predicted would be named by March.

“I have done everything humanly possible to try to encourage her to stay on,” he said. “I have the highest regard for her personally. It is really a personal loss to me to see her make this decision.”

A few said they will be happy to see her go.

Though praised by the UC president and some regents, Wilkening endured criticism for what some perceived as a slow response to the fertility clinic crisis.

“I believe she has demonstrated immense ineptness in her job as chancellor,” said Debra Krahel, a former UC Irvine Medical Center administrator who was one of the whistle-blowers in the case. “And that if she’s resigning, the university will be better off for it.”

Wilkening’s administration also has drawn some opposition for baldly declaring that the rural flavor of the campus, carved from 1,500 acres of ranchland donated by the Irvine Co., is incompatible with long-range expansion plans that include new academic and research buildings, as well as dormitories and a student recreation center.

Supporters said the rising stature of the university ultimately will define her legacy. In the latest accolade, U.S. News and World Report’s Sept. 1 issue ranked UC Irvine No. 9 among public institutions and No. 41 among all universities in the nation.

Wilkening said she hopes to be remembered for the campus expansion, new academic programs in biomedical engineering and community health, and an increase in private fund-raising to $30 million this year, the second-highest level ever. But she would not take credit for all that is going well.

“I was lucky to be at UCI when it emerged as one of the elite public universities in the country, and mostly that was fortuitous,” she said.

Times staff writers David Reyes and Janet Wilson contributed to this story.