UC looks to Texas for new president

The chancellor of the University of Texas system is the leading candidate to become the next president of the University of California and may be named to that post as soon as today, according to several knowledgeable sources.

Mark G. Yudof, a legal scholar who has headed the 15-campus Texas system since 2002, is in talks with a UC regents committee to succeed current UC chief Robert C. Dynes, who is scheduled to retire in June after nearly five years in the job.

Though sources stress that Yudof’s California appointment is not a done deal, they also said that he is seen as the strongest name in an international search for a new leader of the 10-campus UC system. His experience presiding over another huge, public university chain, with both basic undergraduate programs and sophisticated medical centers, makes a good fit for UC, they said.

“The focus is on him,” said one official, who requested anonymity because of the confidential nature of the talks.

The UC regents are meeting in San Francisco today and a previously unscheduled item about a special session of their presidential search panel has been added to the agenda.

Yudof, 63, could not be reached for comment.

Brad Hayward, a UC system spokesman, said he could not comment on any potential candidates.

In a statement, he said the search “is aimed at finding an individual with the rare set of skills and judgment needed to run an institution of international academic stature, great administrative complexity, and tremendous social impact.”

One stumbling block could be matching Yudof’s pay, a politically sensitive issue because some regents and California legislators were unhappy with the way Dynes handled a controversy two years ago over executive compensation policies seen as secretive and too lush.

Yudof’s salary last year at Texas was $476,400 but deferred compensation and other benefits brought his total compensation to $742,209, according to a survey by the Chronicle of Higher Education. Dynes’ salary was $405,000 and his total compensation was $421,000, UC reported.

The issue of high pay could be controversial because the next UC president will be walking into a state budget crisis. The university is considering cutbacks in staff and a hike in student fees, actions sure to provoke protests. This week the university announced a proposal to reduce the budget of the UC president’s office.

Yudof has faced public debates, both in Texas and in his previous job as president of the University of Minnesota from 1997 to 2002. In Minnesota, he publicly sparred with then-Gov. Jesse Ventura over funding for higher education and helped clean up a basketball cheating scandal that predated his arrival at the university.

In Texas, he was among the architects of a plan that allowed university systems to set their own fee levels, something the Legislature used to control, and set aside more financial aid for lower-income students.

Yudof, a Philadelphia native, earned his bachelor’s and law degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and later became known as an expert on freedom of expression issues and education law. He started his university career as a law professor at University of Texas at Austin and rose over 26 years there to become law school dean and provost before joining the University of Minnesota.

As University of Texas system chancellor, he headed a chain with a combined $10-billion annual budget and 185,000 students. UC has an annual operating budget of $17 billion and enrolls more than 220,000 students.

The UC presidency commands prestige across the globe, but the president is sandwiched between the regents and campus chancellors. An academic accrediting agency recently released a report criticizing that structure, saying that “perhaps the most fundamental of issues now facing the university is clarifying and strengthening the role of the university president.”

One of the big issues in the search for a 19th UC chief has been whether to go outside the university. Dynes and his predecessor, Richard Atkinson, were chancellors at UC San Diego before taking on the system presidency. Jack Peltason, the UC president before Atkinson, had been UC Irvine’s chief.

Since Dynes announced his resignation in August, UC provost and executive vice president Wyatt “Rory” Hume has been the system’s chief operating officer.

A former executive vice chancellor of UCLA, Hume said he was not seeking the UC presidency but many faculty said he was the leading insider candidate.

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larry.gordon@latimes.com