Morale at UCR, medical school push seen as key for next chancellor
Press-Enterprise 5/14/07
The departure of Chancellor France Córdova, who was appointed last week as the first female president of Purdue University, means that a search must begin soon for her successor -- a leader who will continue Córdova's quest to gain UCR wider recognition as a top-ranked university.
Elevating the prestige of the campus will lie with the new leader's ability to appreciate the campus's existing faculty and programs and selling them on a national scale, some professors said.
"We really need somebody who believes in what is already here," said Tom Cogswell, chairman of UCR's Academic Senate, which helps guide academic policy on campus. "We need to start feeling really good about ourselves, and it needs to start with the chancellor."
Cogswell, who was not critical of Córdova, said that the campus has long suffered from a bad self-image as "the poor relation in the system."
University of California President Robert Dynes said in a statement this week that the search for Córdova's replacement will begin as soon as possible. UC officials will form a search committee and appoint an acting chancellor in the interim. The committee will include members of the UC Board of Regents, professors, students, an alumnus and a staff member. It will interview candidates and seek opinions from faculty and other groups.
Historically, the executive vice chancellor, UCR's No. 2 administrator, has become the acting chancellor.
Ellen Wartella, the current executive vice chancellor, said it's premature for her to comment on whether she wants to be the acting chancellor or the new chancellor.
Presidential searches tend to run from six months to a year or longer, said Scott Jaschik, editor of Inside Higher Ed, an online higher education news source.
"Boards tend to be much more worried about getting the right person than filling it instantly," Jaschik said.
A New Leader
Christine Gailey, professor of women's studies, was on the search committee that helped find Córdova in 2002 to replace former UCR Chancellor Raymond L. Orbach, who left for a top post with the U.S. Department of Energy.
Gailey said the challenge can be finding the right combination of a model scholar who also can build relationships in the community, Gailey said.
"It's very hard to figure out from curriculum vitae whether somebody is going to be able to do that," Gailey said. "That's probably the most elusive."
Gailey said that she would like a chancellor who would recognize the importance of UCR's arts, humanities and social sciences.
"It's important because it helps both recruit and retain both faculty and students. We have to get our word out," Gailey said.
Dr. Thomas Haider, a member of the Monday Morning Group, a group of executives in Riverside County, said that he would like to see a new chancellor with high-level experience elsewhere and evidence of strong working relationships with faculty and the community.
"You really need to look at somebody who has had a working relationship with the community, dealing with the faculty and has high marks on that," Haider said. "When it's the first time, all bets are off. You don't know."
One of the challenges for the new chancellor will be to boost faculty morale, which has suffered from the perception that UCR is less desirable than other UC campuses.
"The campus would be much more vibrant if the morale was better," said Thomas Miller, an entomology professor who has been on the faculty since 1969. "People start to do things. New things happen."
Miller said that when Córdova arrived in 2002 and spoke of making UCR a premiere research institution that could compete with UC Berkeley and UCLA, she didn't realize it was insulting to people who had been there for years and were already doing outstanding work.
"It was painful to have to listen to that," Miller said.
Richard Heckmann said the new chancellor should be as dedicated as Córdova was in expanding the fledgling Palm Desert campus, particularly its business program. Heckmann's $6 million donation helped establish the Richard J. Heckmann International Center for Entrepreneurial Management in Palm Desert.
"There are a lot of heads of schools who are fairly academic in nature -- obviously -- who don't have all that high a regard for the more practical side of education," he said.
Palm Desert City Councilman Jim Ferguson said he would like to see more programs added. For example, Ferguson said, graduate programs in nursing and engineering could help alleviate severe shortages of nurses and engineers in the Coachella Valley.
"I would hope the new chancellor would come down and meet with community leaders and ask, 'How can we help you?' " he said.
Some Riverside education leaders said the new chancellor should become more involved in the community.
Kathy Allavie, a trustee for Riverside Unified School District, said the new chancellor should create stronger links with local schools by, for example, establishing after-school enrichment programs, giving students tours of campus and hosting academic events, as UCR already does for the district's science and engineering fair.
Mary Figueroa, president of the Riverside Community College District board, said she wants a future chancellor to be more visible than Córdova in Riverside's neighborhoods. Leaders of universities can help motivate teens to succeed and attend college, she said.
"They offer hope, especially for some of the communities underrepresented in the higher-education structure," said Figueroa, a leader in the mostly Latino and black Eastside neighborhood that borders UCR.
As a top-notch Latina scientist, Córdova could have served as a role model for Latino youth in Riverside, she said.
Riverside City Councilman Andy Melendrez, who represents the Eastside and UCR, said he thought Córdova has been responsive to community concerns. Under Córdova's leadership, university officials sought community input on its expansion plans, worked to address complaints about loud off-campus student parties and attended community meetings, he said.
The Medical School
A major question posed by Córdova's departure is the fate of UCR's proposed medical school, which won preliminary approved from the UC Board of Regents in November. Córdova was the leader and public face of the university's effort toward a medical school.
Regardless of who the next chancellor is, leaders on and off campus said they were confident that the medical school would succeed.
Haider, a member of UCR's board of trustees and a major proponent of a medical school, said he is concerned about the medical school's timeline.
"I think it will be stalled -- there's no question about that," Haider said.
UCR officials issued a statement Wednesday saying that UC officials, including Dynes, the UC president, remain supportive of UCR's medical school.
Wartella, UCR's executive vice chancellor, said the university needs "someone committed to this medical school and making it happen. That's a top priority."
UCR officials are working on the final proposal for a medical school and the search for a founding dean is under way. Wartella said the aim is to get a curriculum to the UC Board of Regents by May 2008.
Mark Rubin and his wife, Pam, of Beverly Hills, donated almost 65 acres in Moreno Valley to UCR in 1994. At least $3.5 million of the land sale's proceeds will be designated to fund the deanship of the medical school, which will be named the Rubin Chair.
Rubin is confident that the medical school is "a done deal."
Another top donor, Bart Singletary, agreed. Others at the university were also integrally involved in obtaining preliminary approval for the school, and they will still be involved in seeing the project through, no matter who the new chancellor is, he said.
"I think it's far enough along that it will happen," he said.
Jaschik, the editor of Inside Higher Ed, said that the success of the medical school proposal hinges on the other players.
"The key factor here isn't going to be the departure of the chancellor," Jaschik said. "The key factor is whether there is a broad base of support."
Emory Elliott, a professor of English at UCR, agreed that Córdova's exit does not mean the university will fall apart.
"Only one person is leaving," said Elliott, who also led the search committee that helped hire Wartella in 2004. "All the people she hired and all she put in motion will go on."
FRANCE CÓRDOVA
Tenure: 2002-2007
Previous position: Vice chancellor for research at UC Santa Barbara
Academic background: Ph.D. in physics, California Institute of Technology
RAYMOND ORBACH
Tenure: 1992-2002
Previous position: Provost of UCLA's College of Letters and Science
Academic background: Ph.D. in physics, UC Berkeley
ROSEMARY SCHRAER
Tenure: 1987-1992
Previous position: Executive vice chancellor at UCR
Academic background: Ph.D. in biochemistry, Syracuse University
THEODORE L. HULLAR
Tenure: 1985-1987
Previous position: Executive vice chancellor at UCR
Academic background: Ph.D. biochemistry, University of Minnesota
TOMAS RIVERA
Tenure: 1979-1984
Previous position: Executive vice president and acting vice president for academic affairs at University of Texas at El Paso
Academic background: Ph.D. in Romance literature, University of Oklahoma
IVAN HINDERAKER
Tenure: 1964-1979
Previous position: Vice chancellor, academic affairs, at UC Irvine
Academic background: Ph.D. political science, University of Minnesota
HERMAN SPIETH
Tenure: 1956-1964
Previous position: Provost at UCR
Academic background: Ph.D. zoology, Indiana University