College chancellor woos new students
Fresno Bee 4/18/07
"I'm here to recruit all of you," Steve Kang told 10 top Sunnyside seniors over lunch Tuesday. "Actually, I would like to go out the door with you coming to UC Merced."
Only six weeks into his new job, Kang visited Fresno to build support for the University of California's newest campus, which opened in 2005 and has missed its target enrollment its first two years. UC Merced now has 1,300 students, and Kang said he is confident the campus will hit its enrollment goal of 2,000 students this fall.
Kang -- who previously was dean of the school of engineering at UC Santa Cruz -- held separate meetings with Fresno educators, editors at The Fresno Bee and Sunnyside students who are interested in health professions and are participating in the school's Doctors Academy.
Some of the teens want to be physicians. Kang said he would like UC Merced to have a medical school near the time they finish college. Starting one could cost more than $150 million. In the best-case scenario, the medical school would open in 2012. Its first doctors would hit the streets in 2020.
Kang skipped many of those details with the students. Instead, he concentrated on the personal, listening to their college plans.
Seventeen-year-old Walter Vang told the chancellor he is going to UC Davis because he has family in the area and he likes the Davis community.
"I'm very disappointed," Kang said with the right blend of seriousness and humor.
Walter said later he was impressed by Kang. "It's like, how many people can say you met the chancellor of a campus, and he came to recruit you. It's a once-in-a-lifetime occasion."
Jesus Lopez, 17, offered Kang more hope. Accepted to three universities, UC Merced among them, Lopez said he still is deciding.
Joked Kang, "I'll give you a ride this afternoon." He then added that all UC campuses are world-class and students won't make a mistake attending any of them.
Eighteen-year-old Leticia Rodriguez, who wants to attend UC Merced but hasn't heard whether she has been accepted, said she liked Kang, calling him perky and upbeat. "It's refreshing to hear someone so enthusiastic about his school, and why shouldn't he be? He has a brand-new school that he's helping to shape."
As the lunch wrapped up, Kang left the students with encouraging words.
"You are the future," he said. "Individually, you are VIPs. Keep that in your mind. Don't let anyone take that away from you."