History is marked by a few figures who ascend to leadership and
dramatically reshape the institution under their guidance. Former
UCLA Chancellor Charles Young is one of those rare individuals.
Young was pivotal to the emergence of UCLA as an internationally
recognized institution of higher learning, guiding the campus
through a quarter century of unprecedented growth.
Thursday evening, Young’s contributions to the university
were celebrated with a reception at the university research library
that ““ as a further testament to his importance in
UCLA’s history ““ bears his name.
The event commemorated the completion of the Charles Young Oral
History, a project which compiled the results of several interviews
conducted with the former chancellor.
“Oral history is very much about memory ““ it’s
the individual’s experience,” said Alex Cline, who
creates oral histories for UCLA. “You’re really getting
history in someone’s own words.”
The interviews, which resulted in more than 34 hours of recorded
tape, covered Young’s time at the University of California.
The content of the interviews ““ conducted from 1984-1985 and
1998-1999 ““ has been collected in a three-volume
publication.
“It is very long, but it is fitting considering his
importance to UCLA,” Cline said.
The reception began with brief comments by UCLA librarian Gary
Strong, External Vice Chancellor and Provost Daniel Neuman, and
Oral History Producer Jan Reiff. Young then addressed the
crowd.
“It’s wonderful to be here with so many friends and
colleagues,” Young said while receiving congratulatory hugs
and handshakes from guests at the reception. “I really look
forward to reading (the oral history).”
In the oral history, Young recalls the long road that ultimately
led him to the position of chancellor. His UC journey began in the
mid-1950s as an undergraduate studying political science at San
Bernardino Valley College, the campus that would later become UC
Riverside.
Following graduation, he came to UCLA for graduate study in
political science, completing his doctorate in 1960. Afterward, he
remained in the UC, quickly rising from the position of professor
to vice chancellor to chancellor.
At his inauguration as chancellor in 1969, he articulated the
goal of advancing UCLA “from the second level of good
universities to the first rank of excellent
universities.”
The prestigious status of the university at the time of his
retirement in 1997 illustrated Young’s remarkable success in
meeting this objective.
A 1995 National Research Council survey ranked 31 of
UCLA’s doctorate programs among the top 20 in the country,
placing it among the nation’s leading research universities.
The university was also among the first recipients of the National
Science Foundation’s Recognition Award for the integration of
research and education, receiving this honor in 1997.
“That was what I set out to do when I became
chancellor,” Young said. “It was made easier by the
fact I was here for a long time.”
In addition, Young presided over a dramatic increase in campus
diversity. A steadfast supporter of affirmative action efforts from
the onset of his tenure, Young’s labors to further diversify
the university culminated in 1991, when UCLA was recognized as the
most ethnically diverse public university in the country.
An opponent of the UC regents’ 1995 decision to abolish
gender and race as considerations in admissions, he decried the
recent decline in diversity at UCLA that can be attributed partly
to the passage of Proposition 209, which among other provisions
bans the consideration of race in university admissions.
“It is horrible,” he said.
Still, Young remains quite optimistic that the university can
continue to evolve and grow.
“UCLA has a great future,” he said. “We need
to overcome some of the problems that have arisen over the past 8
to 10 years, (but) UCLA is at the point where it has the momentum
to continue forward even under a less than ideal
situation.”
Since leaving UCLA, Young has remained active in a variety of
pursuits.
From 1999 to the beginning of 2004, he served as president for
the University of Florida, taking the helm of another large public
university after less than two years of retirement.
In April, he accepted the presidency at the Qatar Foundation, an
ambitious educational and scientific organization dedicated to
improving academic resources in the small, oil-rich emirate.
Young and his wife Judy plan to live in the Persian Gulf nation
for eight months out of the year. The term of his presidency is
expected to last two years.
“I think it will be a wonderful opportunity to have a new
career ““ I look forward to it with great enthusiasm,”
Young said.
The odyssey of Charles E. Young thus continues to unfold.
Adventure awaits the former chancellor in the Middle East, but
Thursday’s reception allowed Young and his peers an chance to
look back and reflect on an already completed ““ and now
published ““ chapter of Young’s story before turning to
the future.
“It was a great opportunity to recognize a real lion in
higher education,” Strong said. “The completion of the
oral history is a tremendous accomplishment.