On Campus, Thoughts of Beginnings, Not Endings

Usually when chancellors leave their posts, the talk is of legacies, of jobs done and achievements gained.

But at UC Irvine on Wednesday, the talk was more of progeny. A building campaign already underway. A record number of freshman applicants signaling growing enrollments. Crises overcome and an internationally distinguished faculty linking its biomedical research with private enterprise to continue fueling a growth boom in the Orange County economy.

Of course, there was also talk of whether the new boss will be the same as the old boss, Chancellor Laurel L. Wilkening, who announced Wednesday that she will leave in June 1998.

“I don’t know that I see it as having any great effect immediately,” said Julie Hill, chief executive officer of Costain Homes Inc. and chairwoman of the UCI Chief Executives Roundtable, an advisory board of local business leaders. “I think the university has tremendous momentum. It is an extremely dynamic university that contributes somewhere around $1 billion to the local economy.

“It is bigger than the sum of its parts. It is not dependent on any one person.”

Reactions across UCI Wednesday to word of Wilkening’s decision were remarkably similar. Most people were surprised and disappointed that the chancellor with the low-key style plans to depart. Yet most also said the college’s future is secure.

“I think they’ll survive and prosper,” said Jack Peltason, who preceded Wilkening as chancellor and, as university president, recommended her to the regents to replace him at UCI. “The campus goes on. Each of us serves for a while and passes the baton to the next one. But she made a major contribution.”

“Things will continue,” agreed Richard C. Atkinson, who succeeded Peltason as UC president. “The question is, can they continue as well once she leaves? All I can say is I’m very sad. I think it is a serious blow for the university.”

Wilkening’s successor will face pressure to continue the campus’ rise amid some daunting challenges on the horizon.

The university-affiliated UCI Medical Center in Orange, the chief provider of health care for the poor in the county, continues to struggle financially--a problem Wilkening said she regrets not solving. Last year it posted an $8-million loss; this year, thanks to an infusion of government funds, it reported a $13-million gain. It has pursued a business affiliation with managed care organizations.

And the campus is about to embark on a major enhancement of its outreach to K-12 schools in an effort to improve eligibility rates among minority students. The move, which will include sending in tutors and mentors to selected schools, is a response to the regents’ decision in 1995 to eliminate consideration of race and gender in admissions and hiring decisions.

UCI’s student population has grown 22% in the past decade--and is projected to jump as high as 25% in the next 10 years--with the Asian American population posting the biggest increases. That in part reflects the county’s demographics but also the higher eligibility rates of that group. The campus now has a higher proportion of Asian American students than any other in the nine-campus UC system.

Although she was adept at juggling several major crises during her tenure, such as the fertility scandal, Wilkening seemed to keep the university focused beyond those problems, dealing with the less visible but important issues of campus policy toward sexual harassment complaints, grievances and revising campus committees.

And even self-definition.

“We’ve been working issues like, what should this campus look like 10, 15, 20 years from now? Should we have a law school?” said Arnold Binder, professor emeritus in the School of Social Ecology and president of the Academic Senate.

How those issues will play out has picked up an air of uncertainty.

Binder said that in the short term, he’s concerned that programs that might evolve over the next year will be jeopardized by a new top administrator. And that getting to know the new boss might cause problems, particularly if the new chancellor is unfamiliar with the role of the Academic Senate in devising campus policy, academic standards and professional conduct.

“The transition could be tough to weather,” he said. “If you find somebody who doesn’t understand that, there could be clashes, setting us back.”

But the long-range picture is rosy, Binder said, primarily because Wilkening’s successes have made the UCI chancellor’s chair a coveted position.

“I am extraordinarily optimistic about our being able to attract the very best of college administrators here because of what I see as the international distinctions being achieved by the university,” Binder said. “She has been very good for the campus. I think this is a place that top administrators will want to come to. I think our choices are going to be plentiful.”

Added John King, interim dean of the Graduate School of Management:

“She is leaving UCI in a great position. Look at how the state has bounced back, it’s phenomenal. The opportunities are going to be lot more obvious than the complaints for her successor. . . . Being chancellor of UCI is a plum position.”

Whether that chancellor will share Wilkening’s vision, though, is not guaranteed.

“I’m interested to see who’s coming on board as the new chancellor,” Irvine Mayor Christina L. Shea said. “Because each new chancellor brings their own vision and their own ideas of what they would like to see.”

Times staff writers Randal C. Archibold and Janet Wilson also contributed to this report.