UC Outreach Head Quits in Scandal Over False Grades

Alex Saragoza, the University of California’s highest-ranking Latino and the charismatic head of its high-profile outreach program, has resigned under pressure weeks after acknowledging his role in an academic fraud scandal at UC Berkeley.

Saragoza, who served 10 months as the university’s vice president for educational outreach, has acknowledged giving two former Cal football players credit for a course he taught at Berkeley in 1999, although they enrolled after the class was over and did not complete the work.

A longtime ethnic studies professor at Berkeley, Saragoza, 54, last month was suspended for six months without pay from his teaching post after an independent investigator found evidence of fraud. But he had managed to hang on to his job as head of the university’s outreach efforts to poor and minority students.

In recent weeks, however, UC President Richard Atkinson had come under increasing pressure from the university’s Board of Regents to oust Saragoza or urge him to step down, regents said.

This week, Saragoza did so, telling Atkinson in a letter released Tuesday that he was resigning out of concern that his outreach efforts had been “compromised by recent outside events.” Contacted at his UC office in Oakland on Tuesday, Saragoza declined further comment.

The UC president, who was in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, released a short statement in which he said he personally regretted Saragoza’s decision but described it as “necessary.” He declined to elaborate.

The university’s outreach efforts, which involve recruiting and preparing disadvantaged students to attend the university, have been considered increasingly crucial since the university voted to ban affirmative action in 1995.

Several observers expressed concern Tuesday that Saragoza’s resignation could hurt those efforts.

Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, who serves as an ex officio member of the Board of Regents, urged the university to redouble its efforts to attract minority and poor students.

“No one should think this can be used as an excuse for not developing and implementing a more effective outreach program,” Bustamante said through a spokesman. “We need more bang for the outreach bucks . . . and we need to see results now.”

Saragoza, the son of San Joaquin Valley farm workers who earned a PhD in history and teaches at Berkeley, had seemed perfect for the job. In his 10-month tenure, Saragoza had proven an energetic advocate and articulate spokesman for the university’s outreach efforts.

But after the fraud scandal became public this spring, a majority of regents had urged Atkinson to dismiss Saragoza, fearful that his continued presence in the systemwide post could compromise the wide-ranging, expensive outreach program. In the past two years, the university has spent more than $250 million annually on the effort.

“There was a great deal of feeling among the board that the integrity of the university was an important issue, and that case was clearly made to the president,” said Sue Johnson, chairwoman of the Board of Regents.

Johnson called the resignation a “tragedy” for Saragoza. “I personally regret it,” she said. Regent Velma Montoya said she was disappointed at how Saragoza’s administrative career unraveled. She said she feared that it would stall UC’s efforts to increase the racial and ethnic diversity of its student body.

“We are sad for him, yet we try to make sure professors uphold the same standards expected of our students,” Montoya said. “If a student is found grossly cheating, then the student is dismissed.”

Montoya, a former California State University professor, said the university needed to uphold its most cherished asset: its academic standards.

“I’m thinking about how it tarnishes other professors by having this behavior appear to be tolerated,” she said.

At the same time, Montoya said that UC headquarters has an obligation to help Saragoza make a “soft landing.”

“I know the students at Berkeley really appreciate him,” she said. “He’s a valued professor and an enthusiastic mentor for his students. We truly have a responsibility to help him be a success as a teacher.”

Manuel N. Gomez, UC Irvine’s vice chancellor for student affairs, was appointed as Saragoza’s interim replacement. Gomez, who has been praised by UC officials for an innovative program to increase racial diversity at the Irvine campus, said he had accepted the position for six months, beginning May 14.

Gomez said he was very much aware of the challenges he faced. He said the scandal involving Saragoza clearly was “not helpful” to the university’s attempts to maintain diversity in the post-affirmative action era.

“It’s such a crucial time and it’s a very crucial role, guiding the university’s efforts in this regard. It depends on the cooperation of all the educational sectors and I hope we’ll have that,” Gomez said.