New guy for UCI drops by

Michael Miller

UC Irvine’s newly appointed chancellor, Michael V. Drake, estimates

he has visited the campus dozens of times. So, when Drake came to UCI

to give a speech and a press conference on Friday, it was hardly an

initiation.

For the campus community, however, it was a valuable opportunity

to meet the man who will take the reins of Orange County’s largest

university in July.

At a gathering outside the library plaza in Aldrich Park, Drake

and current chancellor Ralph Cicerone addressed a crowd of more than

100 students, faculty members and administrators. In his short

speech, Drake paid tribute to his predecessor and spoke about the

need to strengthen UCI’s ties to the local community.

“It’s important for us to include as many people as possible,”

Drake said. “If we’re competing in a global economy, we can’t do that

if we have people in our borders who we marginalize and push aside.”

A moment later, Drake noted: “California’s economy is not going to

be a manufacturing economy in the future. It’s going to be a

knowledge-based economy.”

Drake, currently the UC vice president for health affairs, was

named the next UCI chancellor by the UC Board of Regents on Thursday.

In addition to being a professor, administrator and practicing

ophthalmologist for the past 30 years, Drake -- who will become the

school’s first black chancellor when he takes office on July 1 -- has

won a reputation as a champion of diversity and minority student

enrollment.

Drake attended the ceremony with his wife Brenda, a San Francisco

attorney. Cicerone presented his successor with a pair of stuffed

anteater toys and a “Completely Insane Anteaters” T-shirt to wear to

athletic events.

Afterward, Drake and UC president Robert Dynes held a press

conference in the campus’s administration building, in which both men

outlined their hopes and expectations for UCI in the coming years.

“Michael is a product of a nationwide search for chancellor,”

Dynes said to begin the conference. “He’s a superb academic, a great

administrator, a warm person, and he’ll lead the campus in a way that

you will be astounded.”

Drake told reporters that he planned to continue seeing

ophthalmology patients even after stepping in as chancellor. He

currently practices at UC San Francisco, where he has been on the

faculty for nearly three decades.

“I always wanted to be a medical doctor, so I want to keep a

little of that going to continue my license,” Drake explained,

adding, “It’s great to be in a room with somebody where you’re just

one-on-one, working on a project together.”

Drake said that he hoped to make the population at UCI more

varied, but acknowledged that enrolling more minority students would

require a communitywide push.

“Diversity’s complicated,” he said. “The diversity at the

University of California reflects the society we live in, so you

can’t start at undergraduate admissions.”

Drake said he hopes to work with public schools and other

community groups to encourage students at a young age to begin

planning for college.

During the conference, Drake and Dynes also discussed the possible

creation of a UCI law school, a goal of campus leaders for several

years. Earlier this spring, UCI lost a bid for a new Orange County

courthouse to the city of Santa Ana. Drake said he was in favor of

initiating a law school on campus, while Dynes announced that his

office had assembled a “long-range guidance team” to examine the UC

system’s needs over the next two decades.

The team, Dynes said, officially started its work after the Board

of Regents meeting on Thursday, at which Drake was appointed

chancellor. Members of the group, including UC chancellors, regents

and administrators, will study demographics and other data to assess

strategic issues facing the university. Part of the group’s work may

include planning for new academic institutions.

“We should be looking at what the state of California will be

needing in 2025,” Dynes said.

* MICHAEL MILLER covers education and may be reached at (714)

966-4617 or by e-mail at michael.miller@latimes.com.