After Tough Times at UCI’s Helm, World of Science Awaits Wilkening
When she learned the job she was leaving would be filled by fellow scientist Ralph J. Cicerone, UCI Chancellor Laurel L. Wilkening smiled at the irony.
After all, Cicerone was among those who helped foster Wilkening’s concern for global environmental issues--a concern she plans to pursue full-time after leaving her post June 30. In turn, he will move into her old office the following day.
“I told Ralph . . . that it was a nice completion of a circle, because he and I have talked a fair amount about the issues that I want now to do grass-roots work on,” she said during an interview Thursday. “He has stimulated my interest in a way in this area, so I think it’s really nice that he’s replacing me while I’m going to go try to get some action on some of the issues he’s been researching.”
Cicerone, whose pioneering work on global warming and the depletion of the ozone layer helped earn him a membership in the elite National Academy of Sciences, was confirmed Thursday as the university’s fourth chancellor. He has been UCI’s dean of physical sciences since 1994, when Wilkening promoted him to the position.
Wilkening announced last September her decision to leave the university to work on population growth, pollution and other issues affecting the global environment. She said Thursday she plans to do more research before deciding how to use her knowledge and contacts effectively. “Right now, I’m saying no to everything,” she said. “I really need the time to study and think about this and devise a course of action.”
Her only immediate plans were to join her husband at their home in rural Arizona, outside Sonoita, where they run a small vineyard.
“I’m going to be reflecting, reading and writing,” she said, laughing, “because in this job I have no time for reflection.”
Wilkening was ebullient throughout the interview, clearly pleased with the UC Regents’ choice of Cicerone and glad to have such an important matter settled in ample time for a smooth transition.
“He’s quite a visionary. He thinks ahead and that’s very good,” she said. “He’s very concerned with quality, and that’s very good. And he’s a man of great integrity, and I think that’s very important. So he has these fundamental qualities that I think are necessary for the job.”
Associates on campus said Wilkening and Cicerone bring a similar scientific curiosity and logic to their jobs. Both were said to be good listeners.
“They tend to be very analytical people, very data-driven,” said Sidney Golub, who, as executive vice chancellor, has worked with both. “They absorb enormous amounts of information. They like to absorb as much as possible and then analyze it before coming to a position.”
But colleagues said their personal styles are markedly different. While Wilkening was said to be introverted and somewhat aloof with those she doesn’t know well, Cicerone was described as gregarious, playful and charming.
“She is far from cold, but anybody who is on the shy side gives that impression at first,” said Arnold Binder, chairman of UCI’s Academic Senate. “Once you get involved, she’s warm and friendly, but it’s easy to get that impression.”
During her five years as UCI’s chancellor--a job that requires a great many public appearances and constant contact with staff and faculty--Wilkening lost some of her inhibitions and proved herself to be a compassionate leader, Binder said.
“Ralph is very good with puns and wordplay and those kinds of things,” Golub said. “There’s a kind of teasing quality to some of his joking. Laurel has a wonderful sense of humor too, but she’s not a good joke teller. She’s a good audience.
“They both have one thing in common that is essential to that job, which is a good sense of humor. The people who are really unhappy and unsuccessful in that job are those who can’t laugh at it. Both have the capacity of laughing, just in different ways.”
One major difference between the two is that Wilkening came to UCI in 1993 as an outsider from the University of Washington and immediately had to confront the largest budget cuts in the UC system’s history.
A year later, in 1994, the UCI campus was marred by a widely publicized scandal in which three doctors at a university-run fertility clinic were accused of taking eggs from some women without their knowledge. Some of the eggs were later planted in other women who bore children.
The scandal spawned numerous lawsuits, and two of the doctors involved fled the country.
Associates at the campus pointed out that Wilkening inherited the fertility scandal, and credited her with pulling the university through a difficult period and making it stronger.
“I don’t think there’s any doubt that she elevated UCI to another level during her time here,” said Mark Laret, director of the UCI Medical Center, who was brought in by Wilkening in part because of the scandal.
Wilkening acknowledged those were difficult years, but said the budget cuts and clinic scandal provided opportunities for change. “As a result we’ve strengthened the campus in some ways,” she said. “We audited a lot of stuff, investigated a lot of stuff, and as a result made a lot of policy changes.”
She said she has no regrets about leaving, now that the university appears to be in a period of sustained growth.
“I think that’s just the time to leave,” Wilkening said. “I couldn’t leave if things weren’t good, because I consider it my responsibility when there are problems to fix them. In fact, the reason I enjoy administration is fixing problems. But I’m kind of tired of fixing those problems and I want to go do some other ones.”
