UCSC Review Summer 1996

From the Chancellor by Karl S. Pister

I take pleasure in bringing this issue of the UCSC Review to the many alumni and friends of UC Santa Cruz. Measured by the timescale of most sister institutions in the United States, we are a very young campus indeed. Yet, in our short history, we can take great pride in achievements already attained and in the promise of continued success in the pursuit of our mission of creating, disseminating, and applying knowledge through teaching, research, and public service.

This issue is focused on examples of the research that is being carried out by our faculty and students. I think you will be impressed, as I am, by the incredible range in what is being addressed on the campus as well as the variety in the focus of the work--from highly theoretical, long-range studies to applications of knowledge to pressing problems of immediate concern in our society.

Over the past half decade I have been privileged to serve as the sixth chancellor of the campus. During this period, I have been pleased with the significant rate of growth in extramurally funded research, reflecting an active, peer-recognized faculty of growing stature. Recent rankings of research doctoral programs by the National Research Council reflect very favorably on the campus. This is all the more impressive by virtue of the esteem with which our faculty is held in its commitment to teaching undergraduate students. At the same time, members of our faculty are being selected for prestigious honors for their scholarly contributions, and we continue to attract some of the very best young faculty in the country to our ranks.

A source of special pride for me has been the extension of partnerships with institutions in all segments of public and private education in the Monterey Bay region. Building upon an already established campus commitment to outreach, I would like to mention as examples the Monterey Bay Regional Studies program and the Monterey Bay Educational Consortium. On a longer time line the Monterey Bay Education, Science, and Technology Center at the site of the former Fort Ord will provide new opportunities for research and service to the region and to the state.

After almost a half century of service in the University of California, I will retire on June 30. It has been a great privilege to have been numbered among its faculty and to have served at Santa Cruz as chancellor. My wife, Rita, and I regard these years here very specially. We are grateful for the many friendships and for the support we have consistently received from faculty, staff, students, and community members. We leave with the confidence that the best is yet to come for UC Santa Cruz.