Friday, January 10, 1997
SEARCH:
Today’s meeting aims to shorten list of possible candidatesBy
Gil Hopenstand
Daily Bruin Staff
University community members are meeting behind closed doors at
the Westwood Marquis hotel today in their continuing quest for
UCLA’s next chancellor.
The 17-member advisory committee, formed last September, is
still narrowing down the list of potential successors to Chancellor
Charles Young.
Young, the longest serving chancellor in the history of the
University of California, announced last February that he will
retire from his post this June, after leading UCLA for 28
years.
"We’ve been going through the list of candidates and working our
way slowly," said Regent Tom Sayles, adding that today’s agenda
will consist of "scaling down the list again."
Today’s meeting marks the group’s third gathering since
beginning its search. The first was a series of public
presentations on what criteria and characteristics are important
for a university chancellor.
"The presentations were very informative and helpful in terms of
what characteristics we should look for, and those characteristics
played a big part in our discussions," said Peggy Sundstrom, the
organizational planning and performance director at UCLA’s Business
and Finance department.
UCLA undergraduate President John Du, who is also a member of
the search committee, said the group is now considering 14
candidates. They originally started with about 80 names and hope to
narrow the field to a mere handful by the end of February, he
said.
UC President Richard Atkinson, who holds the final say in the
recommendation, hopes to present a finalist to the full Board of
Regents at their March 20 meeting.
"It appears that we’re working at the right pace and headed
toward that timeline," Sundstrom said, noting that the process thus
far is "running smoothly."
Sayles explained that the search has "been a collaborative
process to date" between all members of the committee.
The group further consists of Regents Tirso del Junco, Frank
Clark, Leo Kolligian, Velma Montoya and Gerald Parsky.
Faculty representatives from UCLA are Social Welfare Professor
Rosina Becerra, Computer Science Professor Leonard Kleinrock and
Christopher Foote, a professor of chemistry-biochemistry.
Also named to the committee are President Atkinson, UC San Diego
Physics Professor Marvin Goldberg and UC Irvine Cognitive Science
Professor Duncan Luce.
Other UCLA representatives include alumni association President
Peter Taylor, UCLA Foundation Representative Roy Aaron and graduate
student President Chris Tymchuk.