Monday, March 10, 1997
CHANCELLOR:
Administrative restructuring, fund raising loom in Ivy Leaguer’s
futureBy Brooke Olson
Daily Bruin Staff
When new UCLA Chancellor Albert Carnesale leaves this
university, he may just have to buy a "I Survived L.A." shirt.
The Harvard provost enters Murphy Hall at a critical juncture.
Long regarded as one of the nation’s most distinguished public
university systems, UCLA is grappling with difficult and complex
issues on many fronts.
The need to maintain a diverse faculty and student body while
phasing out affirmative action, as well as retaining the quality of
education in the aftermath of the early 1990s budget cuts are just
a few of the challenges the nuclear engineer will face when he
arrives this summer.
Carnesale has also established his own challenge  to take
UCLA from the ranks of excellent universities to the top 10.
"There are so many different issues (Carnesale) is going to have
to face," said Dean of Social Sciences Scott Waugh. "But from what
I understand, he sounds like the person capable of handling those
things."
Carnesale will oversee a 400-acre campus with 35,000 students,
more than 21,000 employees and a $1.6 billion budget.
But the Ivy Leaguer inherits an institution whose public
standing is threatened by a steep decline in state spending.
To augment state support, which has shrunk to 22 percent of the
school’s annual budget from 61 percent in 1960, university
officials have turned to private support. Currently, the university
is in the midst of a $1.2 billion fund-raising drive.
Administrators hope that Carnesale, who has been instrumental in
helping Harvard raise over $1 billion, will enable UCLA to reach
its own billion dollar goal.
"He’s been very successful at fund-raising," said Aimee Dorr,
Academic Senate chair and professor of education. "I think he’ll
definitely help us maintain and even expand upon the quality of
UCLA."
Student leaders do not dispute Carnesale’s fund-raising
abilities, but some fear he may propose fee hikes as a quick fix
for a much bigger problem.
"(The) affordability of public institutions make UCLA one of the
best schools in the nation," said undergraduate president John Du.
"Carnesale must retain access to education."
Students around the country agree that increasing fees would be
a mistake. According to a recent UCLA survey of 251,323 college
students, entering freshman show a clear pattern of increasing
concern about financing college.
A record high percentage of freshmen say they will have to "get
a job to help pay for college expenses" and 31 percent said they
picked their college because of low tuition.
"Within the last few years, the legislature has really exhibited
a lack of concern and support for higher education," said Ben
Hofilena, a third-year physiological sciences student. "But raising
fees are not the answer  Carnesale needs to propose
(budgetary) solutions that will support the students."
Affordability isn’t the only "A" word Carnesale will be held
accountable for  some students also expect him to retain
minorities’ access to education in light of the UC Regents’ July
1995 decision to end affirmative action in all hiring and
admissions processes, as well as the passage of Proposition
209.
"Admissions is definitely a big issue here," said Chris Tymchuk,
president of the Graduate Student Association. "Obviously, with the
(regents’ decision) and 209, it will be interesting to see what the
future make-up of UCLA’s student body will be."
Already the UC’s are feeling the effects of their decision to
end affirmative action. According to a recent report released by
the UC Office of the President, the number of underrepresented
students who applied for Fall 1997 dropped dramatically.
The most notable decrease was the 13 percent drop in
applications from African Americans and American Indians. Chicana/o
and Latina/o applications for Fall 1997 also dropped over four
percent this year.
Students claim the regents have sent a clear unwelcoming message
to minorities and feel that it is Carnesale’s responsibility to
ensure that all UCLA retains diversity.
"I hope that he will continue Chancellor Charles Young’s
championing of affirmative action," said John Medearis, a political
science graduate student. "I expect that he will be a force to
convince the regents that they need to revisit their politicized
and ill-conceived decision."
Even if Carnesale decides to fully comply with the regents,the
new chancellor will still have deal with several student groups who
are demanding an ethnic and gender studies requirement at the
campus level.
The Student Committee for Diversity Requirement aims to ensure
that all UCLA students would be exposed to issues of race, gender
and sexual orientation as part of their college education.
UCLA faculty have traditionally opposed students’ demands.
Instead, members of the Academic Senate have passed resolutions
which encouraged professors to take the initiative to bring
multicultural perspectives into the classroom.
Students argue that the initiatives are ineffective and that an
ethnic and gender studies requirement is the only way to ensure
that issues of race, class and gender are explored.
"Our campaign is going to continue until UCLA enacts a diversity
requirement," said undergraduate Academic Affairs Commissioner Max
Espinoza.
Currently, UCLA is the only UC that does not have a diversity
requirement, and some students are optimistic that Carnesale will
follow other campuses’ suit.
The new chancellor will also face another set of demands from
the Student Association of Graduate Employees (SAGE), which has
sought recognition as the bargaining unit for academic student
employees at UCLA over the last two years.
The university, which has consistently interpreted state
collective bargaining laws as excluding student academic employees,
does not even recognize SAGE’s existence, let alone their power to
collectively bargain on behalf of student employees.
Chancellor Young has opposed recognizing SAGE because he claims
that academic employees are primarily students, not employees, of
the university.
SAGE members are optimistic that they will be able to establish
a good, working relationship with the new chancellor.
"The arguments for recognition of SAGE are compelling and I’m
confident that Carnesale will realize that importance of
recognizing the graduate student employee union," Medearis
said.
But student demands aren’t the only issues Carnesale will face
when he assumes control of the university on July 1.
Carnesale will have to deal with issues that could dramatically
affect the way UCLA is run, as well as the way students are
educated.
One such change is the integration of a new administrative
system called Responsibility Center Management (RCM) which,
according to Young, will help the entire campus run more
efficiently and become more budget conscious.
Under RCM, the college and professional schools at UCLA will be
responsible for paying for the services they use on campus. The
college and schools would receive higher budgets, yet they would be
expected to foot the bill for those services they currently receive
from the university for free or at a reduced cost, such as payroll
services and the use of campus buildings.
Planned for implementation in Fall 1997, RCM will be one of
Carnesale’s biggest challenges. Although computer-simulated models
of RCM have been conducted, university administrators are still
unclear how the system will work in practice.
Carnesale will be responsible for ironing out many of the kinks
in the system, administrators said.
But administrative systems are not the only roles being
redefined at UCLA. The general education (GE) requirements are also
facing an overhaul if the Academic Senate approves a proposal to
restructure the study list this Spring.
If approved, the system would dramatically affect all Fall 1998
entering freshmen. Described by staff and faculty as a major
curricular change, the proposal will completely scrap the current
GE system in favor of more "interdisciplinary" topics, said Judith
Smith, vice provost for undergraduate education.
The new chancellor will be responsible for overseeing a smooth
transition between the old and new system and must ensure that the
change is adequately funded.
But in moving west, Carnesale isn’t just inheriting challenges
 he’s also creating a few of his own.
One of his main priorities is "to take UCLA from the ranks of
excellent universities to the top 10," he said in his interview
with the selection committee last month.
Exactly how he plans to do this remains to be seen, but faculty
are optimistic that Carnesale will achieve his goal.
"UCLA itself is a monumental challenge, but it’s a monumental
challenge in a very powerful sense," said Brian Copenhaver, provost
of the College of Letters and Science. "It’s the size of a small
city and it’s a large and complex academic institution.
"The challenge is to take that and bring it to a higher
excellence and that’s what any chancellor worth his salt is going
to want to do … Carnesale did it at Harvard and I don’t see why
he wouldn’t be able to do it here."
Many faculty, staff and students are anticipating Carnesale’s
arrival and plan to keep a close watch on the new chancellor.
"It will be interesting to see how Carnesale responds to the
first major student/faculty issues at UCLA," Tymchuk said.