UCLA’s Interim Chief Is Shaking Things Up

UCLA engineering professor Adrienne Lavine laughed, remembering a comment she made to the student newspaper in June after law professor Norman Abrams was named the university’s interim leader.

“I said something about how an acting chancellor might not be able to make much in the way of bold, forward progress on new initiatives,” Lavine said last week. “I’d like to retract that now.”

Abrams, 73, was appointed to the interim position while University of California officials searched for a permanent replacement for Chancellor Albert Carnesale, who retired June 30. But in less than two months on the job -- a long-planned overseas trip kept him from appearing in the chancellor’s suite until July 21 -- Abrams has made a vigorous start.

In his first major public action, Abrams in late August announced steps to protect UCLA and its employees from extremists in the animal rights movement, including plans for increased security at faculty homes. The move came after anonymous activists claimed to be behind an attempted firebombing near the home of one researcher and harassment that pushed another professor to halt his primate research.

Abrams called the incidents “domestic terrorism” and announced that UCLA would double the FBI’s $30,000 reward in the attempted firebombing.

This month, he played a pivotal role in pushing UCLA toward a major shift in its admissions policies, persuading a key faculty committee to sign off on a plan for a more “holistic” style of admitting undergraduates.

In broad terms, it would allow applicants’ academic records to be considered in the context of their personal experiences and challenges. If approved by two more faculty panels, the change could take effect as early as this fall -- light-speed by academic standards.

Abrams met over the summer with alumni and community groups concerned about UCLA’s admissions and enrollment, especially the declining number of black freshmen on campus, which this fall is expected to be the lowest since 1973. He spoke with faculty leaders, then appeared before the faculty admissions committee to advocate the policy switch and urge that it be done in time for students applying for next year’s freshman class.

Abrams also told the panel that his office would pay to retrain admissions readers and cover other costs associated with the new plan.

The change would make UCLA’s admissions process similar to that used by UC Berkeley and many elite private universities. Abrams and other UCLA officials have emphasized that the campus would continue to abide by Proposition 209, which bars the state’s colleges from considering race in admissions and employment. And criticism of the proposal has appeared relatively muted so far.

Asked about Abrams’ role in the likely admissions change, Jenny Sharpe, an English professor who recently became the admissions committee’s chairwoman, said: “He made it possible. He encouraged us and allowed us to move more quickly than we might have. It was very much a leadership role.”

Abrams said that whether his tenure as acting chancellor was a few months or a year or more, he did not intend to let the university stand still.

“UCLA is a very dynamic place, with a lot of forward motion, and I view my role as keeping it moving forward,” he said. “When an issue comes up that needs a decision, I’ll just do what I think the chancellor in this kind of position has to do, make my best judgment and try to do what’s right for UCLA.”

UC President Robert C. Dynes said that Abrams, who took emeritus status a year ago but has continued teaching part time in the law school, wanted assurances before he took the job that he was not being asked to be just a caretaker.

“I assured him he wasn’t, and we went from there,” Dynes said. “He’s a leader, and that’s what I asked him to do.”

Sharpe and other faculty members said Abrams may have been able to act quickly on recent issues in part because of his nearly half-century tenure at UCLA, which gives him broad knowledge of the campus, its issues and people.

He joined the law school faculty in 1959 and has specialized in federal criminal law, antiterrorism law and evidence. He was interim law school dean for one year and spent a decade as vice chancellor of academic personnel, overseeing faculty appointments and promotions.

“He knows us, he knows our processes, he knows our values,” said Lavine, who has just stepped down as chairwoman of UCLA’s academic senate. “He’s really been able to act forcefully, decisively and, I think, appropriately” in his new position.

Peter Taylor, a Los Angeles banker and prominent UCLA alumnus who has been among those pressing for admissions changes, described the part Abrams played on the issue as “galvanizing.”

He also said that Abrams, as acting chancellor, may enjoy a freedom that comes with his short tenure. “Maybe it’s easier to come in like that and really push and galvanize,” Taylor said. “What are they going to do, fire him?”

Among his law school colleagues, Abrams, a tall man with a calm, almost gentle manner, is known for being a good listener, for studying issues exhaustively and for being unafraid to make difficult decisions.

“There’s just enormous respect for whomever it is he’s interacting with,” said emeritus law school professor Herbert Morris, a longtime Abrams colleague and friend. “He listens, keeps his cool, empathizes and then states it as he sees it. There’s tremendous integrity there.”

However, Morris said, laughing, Abrams undergoes a dramatic transformation at the Ping-Pong table, where the two have a fierce, decades-long rivalry.

“This perfectly calm, rational man can become vicious beyond words,” Morris said. “And I’ve told him that many times.”

Abrams, who is married and has four children, was born in Chicago, and his bachelor’s and law degrees are from the University of Chicago. He is the author of several books, including a widely used casebook on federal criminal law and another on anti-terrorism law and the criminal enforcement process.

Dynes would not discuss the status of the effort to find a permanent leader for UCLA, beyond saying that the search committee was looking at a number of candidates. In May, the months-long search for Carnesale’s replacement was reopened after the leading candidate, Syracuse University Provost Deborah A. Freund, pulled out.

But Dynes said he was feeling comfortable with Abrams in place and was pleased with his performance.

“I’m not feeling a need to rush [the search] or do anything prematurely,” Dynes said.

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rebecca.trounson@latimes.com