By Joy McMasters
Daily Bruin Staff
How the UC will handle upcoming financial, diversity, and
overcrowding issues is still unclear, but the new vice chair of the
university’s Statewide Legislative Assembly, Chand
Viswanathan, plans to continue making the faculty’s voice
heard in the process.
The electrical engineering professor served as chair of the
UCLA’s Academic Senate during the 1997-98 school year. He was
selected for the position last month at a meeting of the Statewide
Legislative Assembly.
“I’m looking forward very much to working with
him,” said UC Santa Cruz American Studies and Literature
Professor Michael Cowan, who served as vice chair this year and
will be chair next year.
“The fact that we come from different campuses and
different disciplines is, in my way of thinking, a real
strength,” Cowan said. “It’s important that we
have diverse perspectives and experience to bring to bear on issues
that we’re facing.”
On both the statewide and campus level, the faculty
senate’s role in the shared governance system is to examine
the impact decisions may have on faculty, students, and the
learning environment, and advise the UC president and campus
chancellors as required or requested.
“The senate leadership should provide a lot of advice to
the administration and represent the faculty to the administration
in a way that is collaborative and productive, not
combative,” Viswanathan said.
He says that writing the budget in this time of decreased state
funding, dealing with minority representation and diversity, and
preparing for the projected surge in enrollment known as Tidal Wave
2 are some of larger issues the senate will have to examine and
advise on over the next few years.
Maintaining an environment conducive to research, continued
excellence in education, and balancing undergraduate and graduate
programs are also very important, Viswanathan said.
“I feel strongly that the shared governance process has to
be kept healthy and alive, and the only way for that to happen is
the strong involvement of the faculty,” Viswanathan said.
“It calls for a lot of sacrifice and time spent on these
issues, but it’s something that has to be done to keep the
shared governance process going.”
UCLA Senate Chair Donna Vredevoe lists Viswanathan’s
advocacy of shared governance along with his knowledge of the
senate and campus among his strongest credentials.
“His years of experience as a professor and his service to
the UCLA Academic Senate make him most appropriate for this
position. The position will require extensive time away from the
campus spent in the Office of the President of the University of
California and on the 10 campuses. My only regret is that he will
have less time with us at UCLA,” Vredevoe said.
As Viswanathan serves as vice chair and then chair over the next
two years, he will spend three days a week in Oakland or visiting
other campuses, and this time commitment will keep him from having
enough time to teach.
“The greatest joy I get is being able to teach in front of
a large class and see the faces brighten up. I’ll miss that,
but I’m filling an important role as the vice chair. I
don’t want my experience over the years to go to
waste,” Viswanathan said.
Away from the UCLA Academic Senate, his experience ranges from
founding the Microelectronics Innovation and Computer Research
Opportunities Program and serving on its executive committee for
eight years, to joining the UC Merced Task Force, which is
functioning as a senate for the campus until its faculty is
selected.
According to Cowan, who calls Viswanathan a “good citizen
of the campus,” he also built much of the electrical
engineering curriculum and not only knows about but cares about
it.
“It is quite clear that he has been a very active and
influential scholar in his field,” Cowan said.
“He’s a professor above scale, and you don’t get
to that point if you haven’t gone though a lot of peer
review.”
“Certainly, the Academic Council and the assembly were
persuaded of his strengths,” he added.
After nominations for vice chair were taken from the nine UC
campuses, they were discussed and voted on by the council, made up
of the chair, vice chair, and campus representatives, and then
submitted to the statewide academic assembly for voting.
“I am very proud that he will lead the faculty of the
University of California as vice chair of the Statewide Academic
Council and as faculty representative to the Board of
Regents,” Vredevoe said. “In addition, his record of
service to UCLA and the UC system is outstanding.”