SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS

UC Santa Cruz Chancellor M.R.C. Greenwood departed Wednesday after nearly eight years to take the No. 2 spot at the University of California, leaving behind a national powerhouse where breakthrough research is king, a new engineering school is soaring, students get letter grades and one of the hottest majors is business management economics.

This is not your countercultural parents' UC Santa Cruz, a place where radical thinking and high-decibel political views once thrived. The campus has evolved into the UC of Silicon Valley.

"M.R.C. Greenwood has had the biggest impact on the campus since Dean McHenry," the founding chancellor, said John Leopold, development director for the division of social sciences.

The impact can be seen in something as simple as a campus lecture.

On a recent starry night, about 400 students and local residents listened to conservative talk-show host Dennis Prager lambaste leftist professors for their "hate America" and anti-Israeli rhetoric. He denounced militant Palestinians for fostering a "death-loving culture" that encourages kids to "blow themselves up."

Most in the audience sat quietly; some applauded. Several called Prager's views wrongheaded. But no one tried to shout him down. There was no mass walkout and no booing. Not a hiss was heard.

The transformation, though, has not been without its critics. Some longtime teachers such as Barbara Epstein, a history of consciousness professor, long for the past.

"Santa Cruz had something special in the early days," she said. "The effort to mainstream the campus has caused Santa Cruz to lose what it was going to be -- intellectual engagement for the sake of intellectual engagement."

U C Santa Cruz was born in 1965 as an antidote to factory-like institutions, where teaching undergraduates was often considered a burden by research-obsessed professors who published or perished. Formed as a cluster of residential colleges under redwoods where students could freely mingle with their professors, it was dubbed a "City on a Hill," an Oxford at UC prices -- and no grades.

Since then, UC Santa Cruz has been called everything from an emerging "junior Berkeley" to a "mini-UCLA." In an interview, Greenwood said she sees the current model as "kind of a public Princeton," where both undergraduate teaching and research are treasured.

Most teachers, staff members and students give Greenwood an A for reinvigorating a campus that seemed to have lost its way. They describe her as a tireless fund-raiser, a leader with a Brobdingnagian-size Rolodex who was able to bring fresh talent and 33 new academic programs to the campus, including a 41 percent increase in graduate programs.

U.S. News and World Report ranked the campus in the top fifth of U.S. public universities. Its research impact has been rated No. 1 in space science and physics by the Institute for Scientific Information in Philadelphia.

"It's no longer perceived as a hippie university where students go to school with no shoes and pajamas -- and bring dogs to class," said Pedro Castillo, provost at Oakes College.

But critics contend that tying a school to Silicon Valley's star wasn't exactly a well-timed move. Greenwood said they're missing the point. Powerful research institutions, she said, are needed more than ever.

"What American universities have been great at is catching the next wave -- figuring out what the economy is going to be," she said.

Castillo said he sees no conflict in having new science and engineering programs, strong women's studies classes and programs that are committed to economic justice.

"Essentially, the Santa Cruz campus is trying to get strategic about its strengths," said Manuel Pastor, founding director of UC Santa Cruz's Center for Justice, Tolerance and Community.

M.R.C. (pronounced "Marci") Greenwood, 60, is a biologist who gained fame for her research into the cells that cause obesity and diabetes. She arrived on campus in July 1996, when the school had about 10,000 students. That number has since jumped to 15,000, and a faculty committee earlier this month recommended boosting the enrollment to 21,000 by 2020.

Of the campus' 516 professors, 250 were hired during Greenwood's reign -- the result of new jobs, resignations and retirements.

Greenwood said she hoped conservatives and political middle-of-the-roaders would feel more comfortable in UC Santa Cruz's journey to come.

"We always want UCSC to be unique. ... We want our students to think critically," she said. "They'll be building the 21st century economy."