An eight-year era is ending. Richard Atkinson, the 17th
president of the University of California and one of the most
powerful figures in public education, is retiring today into a
bright but overshadowed legacy. Atkinson has left a indelible
impact on higher education in both the state and the nation. He has
been a champion of diversity in California’s post-affirmative
action era and he has expanded funding to the UC’s research
programs. His remarks on admittance policies snowballed to cause
two of the nation’s largest aptitude tests, the SAT I and
ACT, to revamp the format of the exams. But Atkinson is stepping
down at a time when the future of the UC is clouded with
uncertainty. State funding to the UC has been cut by $410 million
in the past year, and could be cut by $600 million next year.
Soaring student fees threaten access to the university as
enrollment is expected to grow to unprecedented heights. Funding
for many UC programs, including outreach and research, is being cut
by up to 50 percent, threatening to unravel some of
Atkinson’s key accomplishments. “What we are, and how
valuable we are to the people of the state, will be thoroughly
tested,” Atkinson said in his closing remarks to the UC Board
of Regents in September.
Increasing campus diversity Atkinson is no stranger to
tumultuous times. He took office in August 1995 mere weeks after
the regents approved the controversial initiative SP-1, which
prevented the university from considering race or ethnicity in
hiring and admissions. Critics of the initiative feared that it
would threaten accessibility to the UC among ethnic minorities, and
enrollment of some minority groups did go into a sharp decline
after SP-1 passed. Turning this decline in minority enrollment
around became Atkinson’s first challenge. He urged the
regents to create a task force that reached out to minority groups,
and went to Sacramento personally to secure funding for outreach
programs. At Atkinson’s behest, the regents voted to rescind
SP-1 in 2001. Atkinson’s policies have had an impact on the
makeup of the university’s student body: In the fall of 2003,
minorities made up 19.8 percent of the UC’s freshmen class,
up from 18.8 percent in 1997. “Atkinson’s tenure will
be remembered as a time when access was generally threatened, and
as the leader of the institution he found very creative ways to
respond to that challenge,” said Winston Doby, the UC vice
president of outreach.
A legacy of research Atkinson’s history was rooted in the
sciences long before he assumed the UC presidency: As former
chancellor of UC San Diego, he brought that campus to national
preeminence in the field of research. Before that, he served as the
head of the National Science Foundation. “It’s in his
bloodline so to speak,” said Roberto Peccei, the UCLA vice
chancellor of research. Under Atkinson’s term, outside
funding to UC research more than doubled, and the UC established
several California Institutes for Science and Innovation at four of
its campuses, which create a partnership between scientific
industries and university researchers. But university research has
fallen onto hard times. Research programs were cut 10 percent last
year on top of a 10 percent cut the year before, and the UC is in
danger of losing management of the Los Alamos National Laboratories
after a rash of administrative scandals broke out last year. But UC
officials say Atkinson’s contributions to research far
outweigh the problems he faced at the end of his terms. “It
would be extremely unfair if the labs move away from the UC to say
Atkinson lost the labs. He managed the situation as well as anyone
else could manage it,” Peccei said.
Admissions reform Perhaps the most important part of
Atkinson’s legacy is the reforms he made in admissions
criteria, both for the UC and for colleges nationwide. Atkinson
made the university more accessible for freshmen and transfer
applicants, opening up a comprehensive review program that put
greater weight on a student’s personal achievements and less
on test scores. He also pushed for a dual admissions program to
help community college students transfer to the UC. But many say it
was the changes Atkinson advocated for the SAT exams that will be
most remembered. Atkinson made headlines in 2001 when he suggested
the UC drop the SAT I requirement for admissions, an exam Atkinson
said tested “ill-defined notions of aptitude.” His
remarks set off a storm of reactions. Colleges around the country
began to reevaluate their admissions criteria, and the College
Board, which writes the SAT, announced the next year that it would
be changing the exam.
End of the run Many agree that Atkinson has left an outstanding
legacy behind him as he retires. And, despite the problems Atkinson
had to weather at the end of his term, many also agree that the
problems would remain a mere footnote to an otherwise commendable
career. “It would have been nice if he hadn’t had to go
out with that,” said former UC President David Saxon.
“But no, I think he had quite a good run.”