Ending a 10-month search, the UC Board of Regents appointed
Denice Dee Denton, the University of Washinton engineering dean, as
the chancellor of the UC Santa Cruz campus Tuesday afternoon.
In a special meeting, held via teleconference, the board
followed the recommendation of UC President Robert Dynes by
approving Denton.
Denton will begin her tenure on the Santa Cruz campus in
February and will earn an annual salary of $275,000, Dynes said
during a conference call with the press immediately following the
meeting.
Denton will be taking the place of acting chancellor Martin
Chemers, who Dynes commended for having stepped up to the role when
then-chancellor M.R.C. Greenwood had been appointed provost and
vice president of academic affairs for the UC system.
Denton said she looks forward to building the legacy established
by Chemers and Greenwood.
She also said she believes the biggest challenge the UC faces is
its fiscal woes.
One of her biggest accomplishments in Washington was increasing
diversity in the school of engineering, Denton said, and hopes to
do the same at Santa Cruz.
Making the jump from dean to chancellor, Denton said an obstacle
would be doing more public outreach and fundraising on a much wider
scale.