Friday, October 11, 1996
PRIDE:
Emergence as top research university caps 28-year tenureBy
Charles Young
Members of the UCLA Campus Community:
Welcome back to campus after what I hope has been a happy and
productive summer. For those of you who are new to our community,
best wishes for a fulfilling stay at UCLA. As we begin the academic
year, I’d like to share my thoughts on UCLA’s present, future and
past.
Our record-breaking last year was filled with bests and firsts
…
UCLA Medical Center was judged the best hospital in the western
United States. Our health-care network is providing the
best-quality medical care, and we’re reaching out to serve the vast
L.A. community in more ways and at more locations than ever
before.
We received private gifts and grants totaling $190.8 million,
the most successful year in the history of UCLA or the University
of California. Private support is essential to our continued
success, especially considering that UCLA receives only a quarter
of its total budget from the State of California.
UCLA is educating more students than any other college in
California, public or private  twice the number of Stanford
and 7,000 more than USC. UCLA also is the most sought after of the
UC campuses, receiving 28,000 applications last year for a freshman
class of 3,600 (And outstanding freshmen they are, with an average
GPA of 3.99, the highest ever in the history of UCLA.)
In athletics, UCLA won championships in men’s volleyball,
women’s water polo and men’s water polo, making us the all-time
leader in NCAA team titles with 74. UCLA came home a winner from
the Summer Games in Atlanta, too. Forty-eight Bruin Olympians,
including alumni, students and coaches, won 22 medals. If UCLA were
competing as a separate country, we would have tied for 11th place
with Canada in the overall medal standings.
Your participation is essential to our continued pursuit of
excellence.
UCLA will prepare leaders to meet the challenges of the next
century, people who will develop more of the big ideas for which
our campus is known. We’re proud to be the birthplace of the
Internet, the university responsible for identifying Earth’s
earliest known examples of life, and the first hospital to identify
AIDS cases in the U.S. and leading the way with innovative
treatments for the disease.
I hope that as we look ahead we pay special attention to
investing in the Los Angeles community, our best partner and our
greatest resource. UCLA is for L.A., and that commitment is
illustrated in dozens of initiatives. Our health-care network is
serving a half-million people a year.
The same number of people attend UCLA’s public arts events,
which bring world-class cultural programming  from museum
exhibitions to the performing arts  to enthusiastic
audiences. More than 7,000 undergraduates take part in community
service programs to improve the lives of our neighbors. And UCLA is
a partner with two local school-reform initiatives, LEARN and LAMP,
working to improve K-12 education.
I’d like to enlist your help in preserving UCLA’s rich
diversity. The policy passed by the UC Board of Regents in July
1995, eliminating race and ethnicity from admissions criteria,
certainly will make it more difficult for us to maintain diversity.
We are working to develop new admissions criteria to fit the
guidelines drawn up by the University of California. We will
continue to do all we can to find alternative ways to ensure that
UCLA remains a place that is inclusive and welcoming to all
segments of our society. I ask your support in communicating UCLA’s
message. Through understanding and dedication to the principle of
diversity, UCLA can continue to offer its students the finest
education available anywhere.
As you know, I am stepping down as Chancellor in June, and so I
know the coming year will be a time for all of us to think
strategically about UCLA’s future direction. With the help of our
new Executive Vice Chancellor, Dr. Charles Kennel, we will continue
work on a campus-wide initiative called "Responsibility Center
Management" to help guide the schools and departments of UCLA.
I’ve watched UCLA grow from a very good institution to a truly
great institution. When I started, we had one endowed faculty
chair, 2.8 million volumes in the library, an ethnic minority
enrollment of less than 23 percent and an operating budget of
$169.7 million. Today we have 120 endowed faculty chairs, 6.7
million volumes in the library, an ethnic minority enrollment of 59
percent and an operating budget of $1.9 billion. By all of these
measures, we rank among America’s premier universities.
And when I think back over the 28 years I have served in this
office, it is my memories of the wonderful people of UCLA I shall
prize most when I take leave of Westwood. My UCLA love affair is
with our faculty, staff, students, alumni and supporters: all of
you, who are truly responsible for our triumphs. I thank you and
hope I’ve served as a good guardian. As UCLA grows and prospers it
will bring more credit to you, enhancing the diplomas of our
graduates long after they have gone on to make their mark on the
world.
Daily Bruin File Photo
Chancellor Charles Young retires in June.