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November 23, 1998

UC begins national search for Merced chancellor

By Mark Aydelotte

The University of California will begin a national search for the chancellor of the planned University of California, Merced campus, the first new UC campus to be built since the mid-1960s.

UC President Richard C. Atkinson announced the start of the search at a recent meeting of UC's Board of Regents at UCLA. National advertising for the new position will begin in December. The search is expected to be completed at the end of March, with the new chancellor being named by July 1.

"The new UC Merced campus is a vital part of our overall plan to ensure that California's young people will continue to find a place at the University of California," Atkinson said. "The selection of the campus' first chancellor is very important since that person will oversee the selection of the founding faculty of the campus, and that faculty will set a pattern of excellence for years to come."

The search for a chancellor for the new campus is a key next step in the development of the Merced campus, according to UC Board of Regents chairman John G. Davies.

"It's important to have the new chancellor in place to guide the early academic and physical planning of UC Merced, as well as to begin the recruitment of the founding faculty," Davies said.

"This is truly an historic moment for the people of the San Joaquin Valley, and for students throughout California," Davies said. "We will want to select a person of national stature to help UC Merced realize its position as a full partner with our existing nine campuses."

To begin the search for the UC Merced chancellor the university will advertise in national educational publications and will contact professional organizations about the new post. UC will also canvass college and university presidents nationwide to solicit nominations for the new chancellor.

The chancellor is the chief executive officer of the campus and is responsible to the president of the UC system. The UC Merced chancellor will exercise broad delegated authority, within policy guidelines, and is responsible for all aspects of the campus' administration.

UC Merced will be the tenth campus of the University of California. The campus is expected to open in 2005. Initial duties of the new chancellor will be to recruit a core faculty, recruit professional and support staff, and develop campus academic and physical plans.

The new campus will be located near the city of Merced on 2,000 acres near the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. The area surrounding the campus is reserved for an 8,300-acre university community development featuring residential, office, and retail areas. The current state budget includes $9.9 million in operating support for UC Merced programs and planning activities, an increase of $5 million over the level provided in last year's budget. An additional one-time appropriation of $1.5 million this year supports the development of a network of distributed UC learning centers in the San Joaquin Valley linked to the future campus.

Proposition 1A, just approved by California voters, provides $55 million for UC Merced's development beginning in 2000.

The University of California is one of the largest and most acclaimed institutions of higher learning in the world. UC has 20 Nobel laureates on faculty and more than 260 members of the National Academy of Sciences, more than any other college or university in the nation. More UC academic programs are consistently rated among the top 10 nationally than any other public or private university. Six UC campuses are members of the prestigious Association of American Universities; no other university system in the country has more than one campus as a member. UC and the three national laboratories that it manages produce more research leading to patented inventions than any other public or private research university.

In 1997, UC licensed technologies generated nearly $75 million. The new UC Merced campus is anticipated to build an affiliation with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Additionally, UC is the nation's top fund raiser among American universities and colleges, having collected from alumni and friends more than $700 million in each of the past three years. In the most current year, UC raised $754.5 million.


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