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 Edward Chiao
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UCLA is in desperate need of guidance.
It needs someone who can accommodate UCLA’s portion of
Tidal Wave II, the influx of 60,000 students over the next 10 years
throughout the UC; someone to ensure students’ quality of
education by maintaining high standards in academics; and someone
to attract the nation’s brightest graduate students back to
the university. With the Executive Vice Chancellor seat up for
grabs after Rory Hume leaves at the end of this academic year, UCLA
has the chance to find a person who can do this.
The EVC is the chief operating and academic officer at UCLA.
Only second in rank to Chancellor Albert Carnesale, the EVC works
behind the scenes with budget allocations and academic planning.
Since the importance of the EVC is usually overshadowed by the
chancellor, the majority of the student body is unaware of the
position’s critical importance and its ability to create
substantial change on campus. But the EVC is as, or even more
important than the Chancellor himself when it comes to affecting
the day-to-day lives of students, staff and faculty so everyone has
a stake in the matter.
With so much potential to impact the university and campus life,
students must make certain UCLA gives them a voice during the EVC
selection process. The university, too, must be receptive to
student, staff and faculty involvement in the process ““
something that has not been done in the past. A valuable student
perspective can be gained by drawing on advisory boards composed of
student leaders on campus. Allowing for cooperation among all of
UCLA’s spheres will prevent the dispute that surrounded the
appointment of Chancellor Carnesale ““ since he had no
experience in the public education sector, students did not make
him their first choice.
That same type of student involvement should also take place
now. Only this way will students ensure UCLA finds an EVC with a
clear, progressive vision of where the university should head.
Luckily for EVC candidates, they will have a lot of problems to
choose from when setting their agenda.
One of those issue is the impact of Tidal Wave II on
students’ quality of life. Already, the increase of large
class sizes at the expense of smaller classes hurts the
student-to-professor ratio, which is a visible symptom of what UCLA
can expect from Tidal Wave II. The lack of living space, parking
and the shortage of campus real estate available for expansion,
also pose a great challenge to UCLA ““ it has to grow, but it
has no physical space to do it in.
The vice chancellor then will face such critical decisions as
recommending the capping of enrollment to the state government and
finding places on campus to cut money from when, not if,
necessary.
Undergraduate education won’t be the only thing to give
the new EVC ulcers. Underfunded graduate student programs and the
UC’s eroding appeal to talented graduate students is becoming
a larger problem, especially at UCLA, that will profoundly affect
the quality of undergraduate education and university research. The
vice chancellor cannot afford to keep losing graduate students to
other universities if UCLA is to remain a competitive research
institution. The Graduate Student Association has made it a point
to warn the university that without increased funding to graduate
research programs, UCLA will fall further behind in attracting top
graduate student research.
Since Chancellor Carnesale came from another university, it
would also behoove UCLA to strongly consider an in-house candidate
who is familiar with the traditions and history of UCLA’s
campus and can relate at a much more personal level with the campus
as a whole.