Q&A: Yudof reflects on time as UC president

University of California President Mark Yudof is stepping down from his post at the end of this month after a five-year term marked by budgetary issues, rising tuition and growing enrollment for the University. The education administrator and law professor will be replaced by former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano.

Late last month, the Daily Bruin’s Katherine Hafner sat down with Yudof in his office at UC headquarters in Oakland to discuss his term at the head of the University, the UC’s accomplishments during his term and how he addressed matters that drew major controversy.

Daily Bruin: First of all, can you just give us a little bit of background on what you think of your term, what you see as your biggest accomplishments, pitfalls or what you weren’t able to get to?

Mark Yudof: The biggest thing I would say I did is something students don’t often appreciate. When someone cut (our) budget by a billion dollars we had this delicate balance of how do we maintain this world-class faculty and how do you maintain these great institutions. So, just maintaining the status quo and incrementally improving it (is an accomplishment) – and that’s something that people, I think, often forget.

We (also) streamlined (the Office of the President) operations; everything about the place is better managed. I think the relationship with the Board of Regents has greatly improved.

Then I would say there were a number of areas where I wanted to do things but I think we didn’t do well. One of them was e-learning. We had some adamant faculty opposition, we had some inadequate management here in the Office of the President, and I think we’re getting there today. It’s much slower than I wanted.

It was not an era to begin new initiatives. We had trouble enough maintaining what we already had, so in part that becomes the measure of success.

DB: There have been indicators of decentralization at the UC, whether it’s the funding streams initiative, or just more campus autonomy in general. What do you think the UC can or should do to stick together as a system?

MY: Well first let me say there are no great universities built from the center. And we’re certainly not smarter than the UCLA people, (nor do we) have greater insight or anything, so I really believe in decentralization. So it’s true … We have no independent means of support, any dollar we spend on anything around here is in effect a dollar from the campuses, it’s just the way it works.

And we have one of the more centralized systems in the United States. So I don’t think we reached the point where there’s no centrifugal force to hold us all together. We still have a common set of rules, we still have our mission targets here. We just have to be smart about it. But there’s always a friction there, and at different points in the history of the University, the lines were drawn differently.

DB: Student advocates, like at the UC Student Association, have said in the past they don’t feel like they’re being heard by the UC leadership. Do you feel that outreach past the student regent should be increased?

MY: Well, I think (outreach) should be increased and you can never do enough. But some students will always say that (there’s not enough outreach). I mean, I heard them (say that) on tuition increases – I hate it. It wasn’t a question of not being respectful or not listening. But it is hard when you’re the Board of Regents, when you’re in Oakland, to have that sort of interchange. I meet not only with the Student Association regularly, I meet regularly with the student body presidents and I have met with various groups. I try my best but it’s very hard in big systems.

DB: Looking back, what do you think was the hardest part of your job?

MY: One hard part is the personal vilification, you know, I’ve never seen anything like it. I have pretty thick skin, but it’s hard when people think you’re personally a villain who’s out to do evil to people.

I would say, the decisions on the pension plan were very hard, in trying to reform the pension plan, to make sure it wouldn’t go bankrupt in 20, 30 years. By and large, with the exception of a couple of union groups, I hardly got any criticism from the faculty. But that was very hard to find out what the right thing to do was.

DB: Speaking of personal vilification, one issue that (UC worker union) AFSCME 3299, and others, have always brought up is the president’s salary and housing situation. Have you ever felt that it was too much for the leader of the UC?

MY: I’m not going to address my salary – take that up with the Board of Regents. It’s lower than I would’ve received at Texas, but nevertheless it’s hard to attract people to these jobs. You can’t just sit in your armchair and say $300,000 or $400,000 is too much. If you’re a chancellor, you’re much better off being at USC, you’re much better off being at Texas, you’re much better off being at Michigan, and that’s the truth of it. So I don’t have much sympathy for (concerns about the salary). And I entertain, and I bring politicians; I bring alumni and financial supporters of the University and all that, that’s my job.

DB: What do you think are going to be the biggest challenges Napolitano faces?

MY: Tuition’s going to be a challenge, tuition cannot be frozen forever. So, my personal view is there should be moderate, single-digit tuition increases, along with moderate, single-digit increases in state appropriation. And eventually we’ll get back to the (2007) levels, with many more students than we had before, with pension contributions, and a bunch of other cost-drivers.

I think facilities instruction will be a big issue. We have health and safety issues, we have seismic damage, we have enrollment pressures, we have the baby campus, Merced, that needs more buildings.

I think that we’re reaching an age where many of our boomers are going to be retiring, so finding faculty to fill those spots, that will be good. I think we’re going to have increasing problems recruiting leadership because most of the people we want are making far more money.

We (also) need a financial aid system that helps the middle class more and I think we need to continue to focus on the student concerns – things like graduation rates, access to courses.

The online learning is still a challenge, and my personal view is that we need to have an online entry point to the University of California.

DB: And what are your plans for after you step down, and do you plan to continue to be involved with UC leadership?

MY: Well, I’ve always had an appointment on the law faculty at Berkeley, and so I’ll be a law professor. I’ve always threatened to do my tell-all book about the governors I’ve known, which include Jesse Ventura, Rick Perry and George Bush and Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jerry Brown, so I think I’ve got about as good a group of governors to talk about as anybody.

I don’t really want to be president of anything … So I might be a commentator. When you’re a president you don’t get to say everything you think, it’s just in the nature of it. And as a private citizen I’m going to re-embrace my First Amendment rights. I’m a deep believer in immigration reform. I may try to get involved in that if I can figure out a constructive way to do that. I don’t know – give a few speeches, watch a few football games – that’s my plan.