Three-year UC President Peltason may retire
Top administrator makes no official announcement yet
By Phillip Carter
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
After serving for nearly three years as University of California
President, Jack Peltason is expected to announce his resignation at
next week’s UC Regents’ meeting in San Francisco, according to a
story appearing in Friday’s San Francisco Chronicle.
In response to the story, Peltason released a statement on
Friday from his Oakland office, saying, "I did not take this job as
president of the University of California for life; I did sign on
with the intention of helping the university work its way through a
difficult transition period.
"We’ve reached a position of relative stability, but I don’t
have any announcement to make today," Peltason added in the
statement. "When the time comes for me to (retire), you won’t have
to ask  I’ll announce it happily."
At UCLA, Chancellor Charles Young was in Washington D.C. on
university business and was unavailable for comment. UCLA
spokeswoman Kay Cooperman said that in his absence, the campus
administration had no official comment on Peltason’s
resignation.
Kristine Berman, spokeswoman for Gov. Pete Wilson, also refused
to comment on Peltason’s possible resignation, saying that it would
be inappropriate because it "hasn’t happened yet."
Peltason took over from former UC President David Gardner in
1992, with the stated intention of putting the university on more
stable financial ground. Prior to becoming president, Peltason
served as chancellor of UC Irvine, and previously the chancellor of
the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Since then, he has received praise from state officials,
including Wilson, for bringing financial stability to the
university. However, Peltason has drawn fire from student groups,
who claim that he has balanced the UC budget on the backs of
students.
"Hopefully, the next (UC President) will look to improving the
condition of the university, including keeping fees down for
students," UC Students’ Association chair Andre Quintero said. "I
hope that (Peltason’s) successor will be a little more determined
to make the case for the university to the state government and the
people."