Florida Regents Urged to Pick Ex-UCLA Chancellor
The University of Florida Board of Regents should call off its search for a new president and instead ask former UCLA Chancellor Charles Young to head the state’s flagship university, a search committee recommended Tuesday.
Young has been serving as interim president of the university since November, but he had planned to stay only until the fall semester. He was not immediately available for comment.
The committee will make its formal recommendations Wednesday in a meeting with the regents, who will make the ultimate decision. The meeting was announced after six candidates, selected by search company Korn / Ferry International, withdrew from consideration.
“This has been a difficult process for everybody involved and, for some, an embarrassment. It seems to me the best move we can make by far is to ask Dr. Young to stay,” said Al Warrington, a Houston businessman who is a member of the search committee.
The factors cited by those who withdrew included the decision by the Florida Legislature to abolish the Board of Regents, which governs the state’s 10 public universities, and replace it with a separate board for each school. Another factor has been a plan by Gov. Jeb Bush that will end use of race and ethnicity as factors in university admissions.
A third reason cited was Florida’s “sunshine” law, which prohibits applicants from applying secretly.
The 53-member search committee also recommended that Young receive an assistant to help him with the job while his wife battles cancer.
Rated the 15th-best public university by U.S. News and World Report, the university has 43,000 students and an annual budget of $1.6 billion.
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