UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES BERKELEY
· DAVIS · IRVINE · LOS ANGELES · MERCED · RIVERSIDE · SAN DIEGO · SAN FRANCISCO
UCLA SANTA BARBARA
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SANTA CRUZ
OFFICE OF THE CHANCELLOR BOX 951405 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90095-1405
April 12, 2012
Professor Andrew Leuchter Chair, Academic Senate 2011–2012 UCLA Academic Senate Office 3125 Murphy Hall Campus 140801
Dear Andy: I am pleased to submit the attached statement in support of my five-year chancellorial stewardship review. In keeping with the guidelines and criteria established by the University of California for chancellorial review, this report describes my accomplishments over the past five years, an assessment of the state of campus, and my aspirations for the future of UCLA. I understand that this report will be made available to all members of the UCLA Academic Senate. I appreciate your participation and guidance during this process. With best regards, Sincerely,
Gene D. Block Chancellor Attachment
Academic Senate Five-Year Chancellorial Stewardship Review Chancellor Gene D. Block Statement April 12, 2012 As a public, urban research university, UCLA is committed both to addressing societal needs in the tradition of land-grant universities and to maintaining high academic distinction. Early in my tenure, I outlined four overarching priorities for UCLA: academic excellence, civic engagement, diversity and financial security. I am pleased to report significant accomplishments in each area. As a result, the state of our campus is strong and stable, and despite severe budget challenges I remain optimistic about our future. I have the privilege of leading and working with an extraordinary group of individuals. The accomplishments I describe herein are largely collective accomplishments that senior administration, Academic Senate leadership, faculty, staff and students have achieved together. In the sections that follow, I indicate where large amounts of my time, effort, resources and social and political capital have been devoted in the best interests of the university. An overarching aspect of my role as Chancellor includes national and international service on behalf of the higher education sector. I have carefully selected those opportunities that have afforded me the greatest potential to advocate for research universities generally as well as for the University of California and UCLA. I am currently Chair of the Board of the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities, an office that I am using to focus on the acute financial needs of public higher education. I sit on the Executive Committee of the Association of American Universities, an association of 61 top research universities in the United States and Canada, as well as the Executive Committee of the Competitiveness Council, which brings together higher education and business leaders. I serve on the National Security Higher Education Advisory Board, and my term as a board member on the National Collegiate Athletic Association begins in fall 2012. I have steadfastly promoted the contributions of the university to the Los Angeles and Southern California regions including the mayor, Los Angeles City Council, Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, and various civic organizations. I travel frequently to Sacramento to champion the university and advocate for strengthened resource allocations with our elected officials, and I advance the interests of the campus with federal agencies and on Capitol Hill. Closer to home, I connect with faculty through scheduled lunches, school and departmental visits, group faculty lunch discussions, hosted faculty welcomes and events at the residence, and periodic participation in the Academic Senate Legislative Assembly meetings. I stay informed about student issues through meetings with student government leaders and student organizations, regular group breakfasts at DeNeve, office hours, Fiat Lux courses that I teach, and attendance at student events. I learn about staff issues and concerns by participating in staff town hall meetings and through regularly scheduled staff breakfasts. In addition to serving as Chancellor, I am, of course, a member of the faculty. Staying connected to this aspect of my identity is important to my effectiveness as a leader and is personally fulfilling. I try to spend time in the lab on a weekly basis, publish regularly about the cellular mechanisms regulating circadian rhythms, serve on a research center advisory board, teach about one undergraduate course per year, and mentor graduate students and post-docs. I was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2010 and was promoted to Professor “further above scale� in 2011 ____________________________________________________________________________________________ Chancellor Block’s Statement to the Academic Senate Page 2 April 12, 2012
Academic Excellence Although ratings and rankings are inevitably flawed and can never tell the whole story of a complex institution, they demonstrate the regard in which UCLA is held. The Shanghai Jiao Tong Academic Ranking of World Universities places UCLA 12th internationally, while the London Times ranks us 13th in the world. We are ranked 2nd in the U.S. by the Washington Monthly, which bases its rankings on access for low-income students, cutting edge scholarship and commitment to service. We consistently make a strong showing in the U.S. News Best College and professional school rankings, and two-thirds of the UCLA programs assessed in the 2010 National Research Council assessment of doctoral programs were ranked in the top ten (based on data collected before I arrived at UCLA). Our health services and hospitals are among the best in the world, and have been ranked “Best in the West” by U.S. News for 22 years. Against this general backdrop, I want to cite a small number of accomplishments that are particularly important to me and demonstrate the strong state of our campus. Over the past five years, the number of applicants for undergraduate admission has grown from about 50,000 to over 72,000 for 2012-13. The quality of these students is outstanding and improves every year — freshmen entering UCLA in fall 2011 had an average high school GPA of 4.25. Graduation rates also are at an all-time high of 91%. Through a building program initiated by Chancellor Emeritus Albert Carnesale, UCLA has become a largely residential campus, greatly enhancing the quality of student and campus life. To further the goals of our Housing Master Plan, we are continuing to expand undergraduate housing, with 2,300 new bed spaces either under construction or planned. The quality and innovative nature of our academic programs was validated during UCLA’s reaccreditation review by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC), our regional accreditation agency. In its June 2010 Action Letter, the WASC Commission described UCLA’s preparation for re-accreditation, led by Vice Provost and Dean Judith Smith, as exemplary. It praised UCLA’s progress in establishing capstone opportunities for students by using technology in teaching and learning and by continuing to offer excellent education despite budget cuts. At the graduate level my major goals are maintaining competitiveness in admissions and support. I initiated a comprehensive assessment and reorganization in the Graduate Division in order to better serve students and academic departments during this era of limited resources. We also are in the final stages of adding close to 500 apartments for graduate students to our inventory (a 40% increase); a major benefit in graduate student recruitment and an enhancement to students’ quality of life. UCLA faculty have been awarded extramural research funding of $1 billion or more per year for the past two years, even as the amount of federal funding allocated has declined. Research awards have grown by 33% over the past six fiscal years. To ensure that our research administration services and infrastructure are able to keep up with our PIs, I initiated an organizational review and restructuring that has led to major improvements on virtually every metric, such as turnaround time by institutional review boards, award set-up times, and on-time submissions of invoices and financial reports. In 2011, we received an $81.3 million Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) from the National Institutes of Health, the third largest of sixty CTSAs since the program was established. Such substantial support reflects the excellence and tremendous promise of our institution, working in collaboration with community organizations, to accelerate scientific discoveries and clinical ____________________________________________________________________________________________ Chancellor Block’s Statement to the Academic Senate Page 3 April 12, 2012
breakthroughs to improve health in Los Angeles County. To support this major effort, I provided robust administrative support for the CTSA proposal and facilitated interdisciplinary cooperation among our faculty. Our academic infrastructure is far stronger than it was five years ago. During my tenure as Chancellor, UCLA has celebrated completion of the Terasaki Life Sciences Building; the Biomedical Sciences Research Building; the Orthopaedic Hospital Research Center; Engineering V; Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center; and the UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica. We have initiated work on the Edie and Lew Wasserman Building, the addition to Schoenberg Hall, and seismic repair of the Center for Health Sciences. Planning is underway for a residential conference center; a medical education building; an addition to the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior; a building to house a cellular therapeutics center; and renovation of facilities for the School of Theater, Film and Television. We have made major strides in high-performance computing services, the build-out of core facilities, and remodeling of the Charles E. Young Research Library and Mira Hershey Hall. Although the state’s financial situation forced a slowdown in faculty hiring, the Executive Vice Chancellor/Provost, CFO and I worked together to ensure that we could continue hiring in priority areas in all professional schools and the College. We have competed aggressively and largely successfully to retain faculty. I have also encouraged deans and faculty to nominate peers for honors and awards. Between academic years 2006-07 and 2011-12, the number of UCLA national academy members increased from 84 to 102, and the number of fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences rose from 103 to 113. I expect these trends to accelerate as we continue to attend to them. I have repeatedly emphasized that a key factor in faculty recruitment and retention is quality of life. We are adding to the number of high-quality but affordable apartments we can offer to faculty by purchasing desirable buildings when possible. We have increased the availability of child care for faculty families, and we now offer opportunities for families living at some distance from UCLA to send their children to public schools close to campus. The renovation of Pauley Pavilion and recent completion of the Court of Sciences Student Center are other significant enhancements to campus life. New leadership brings fresh ideas, drive, and a more entrepreneurial spirit. Since I arrived, I have renewed senior administration by appointing nine deans, with four additional searches currently underway, and seven vice chancellors (one vice chancellor who stepped down was replaced by a vice provost). Well over half of those stepping down had served for ten or more years. UCLA senior administration is outstanding at present and more diverse than it was five years ago. Finally, UCLA’s academic quality has benefited from our international partnerships and alliances. This is an area in which I have actively partnered with deans and faculty. Our master affiliation agreement with Peking University (PKU), for example, has led to the creation of the Joint Research Institute in Science and Engineering, which now involves over 70 faculty from the Physical Sciences and Life Sciences divisions of the College, Engineering, Medicine and Dentistry in collaborative research with colleagues at PKU, as well as robust student exchange programs. We have a similarly broad agreement in place with Zhejiang University, which has led to student exchanges and research collaborations primarily related to the health sciences and medicine. In one component of this multifaceted agreement, more than 100 top Chinese students spent a summer studying in faculty laboratories at UCLA. Some of these students have subsequently been admitted to doctoral programs here, with sponsorship from the China Scholarship ____________________________________________________________________________________________ Chancellor Block’s Statement to the Academic Senate Page 4 April 12, 2012
Council. In follow up to the 2011 earthquake/tsunami disaster in Japan, I recently signed an expression of support for collaboration with Tohoku University in the study of disaster preparation and response. I also serve on the steering committee of a program that fosters collaboration between the Association of American Universities and the Association of Leading Russian Universities. These are just a few of the dozens of vital partnerships and collaborations in which UCLA is engaged. Civic Engagement We have made considerable progress in promoting the creation and application of knowledge to better the lives and well-being of those around us. Two landmark naming gifts we have received — $50 million for the Meyer and Renee Luskin School of Public Affairs, and $50 million for the Jonathan and Karin Fielding School of Public Health — reflect the myriad ways in which we serve Los Angeles. The Luskins also provided generous support for a residential conference center, which includes an endowment for academic conferences and an annual lecture. This element of their gift will enable UCLA to sponsor programs that expand dialogue among scholars, government and business leaders, and the public at large. Both the Luskins and Fieldings have deep ties to UCLA and to Los Angeles and are committed to educating the next generation of professionals whose work will improve life in communities locally and throughout the world. This generous support of UCLA positions us to have an even greater impact in the years ahead. The UCLA Community School, which opened in 2009, is an innovative partnership among UCLA, the Los Angeles Unified School District and the local community. This K-12 pilot school enrolls approximately 1,000 students primarily from the impoverished Pico Union area. Dean Aimee Dorr of The Graduate School of Education and Information Studies was responsible for bringing this important effort into existence and with her team is providing leadership in developing the UCLA Community School as a site for outstanding teaching, learning and research. Also bringing UCLA faculty expertise to the community is the Luskin Center for Innovation, an interdisciplinary center conducting applied research on social issues confronting Los Angeles and other urban centers. The center is currently focusing on issues related to sustainability and environmental quality. In 2009, I established the UCLA Volunteer Center to provide a central gateway for civic engagement. The signature program of the Volunteer Center has become the annual UCLA Volunteer Day. For the past three years, over 5,000 Bruins have spent one day during welcome week in the Los Angeles vicinity providing some form of community service to a school, park or nonprofit organization. This massive effort not only provides tangible assistance to our community and builds goodwill, but also is a powerful symbol of our values. My expectation is that students will continue serving the region through extracurricular activities and service learning courses. Survey data indicate that approximately 60% of undergraduates do so on a regular basis during the academic year. Our civic engagement has been manifested in many other ways over the past five years. We have provided invaluable support to the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science. We have partnered with The Artists and Athletes Alliance, Zocalo Public Square and the Peace Corps. Every year, I visit local high schools and community colleges to encourage students to pursue a college education – I have made 18 community college and 15 high school visits to date. These efforts have not gone ____________________________________________________________________________________________ Chancellor Block’s Statement to the Academic Senate Page 5 April 12, 2012
unnoticed. Surveys of community opinion leaders have revealed a distinct positive shift in perceptions of UCLA over the past five years. Diversity While I am proud of our accomplishments in advancing diversity, we face tough challenges in this area. Although the numbers of underrepresented students and faculty have increased modestly, I would like to see greater gains. In addition, maintaining an environment in alignment with our principles of community requires ongoing education and effort. A university should be a place where concepts, ideas, and beliefs are debated. It should never be a place where individuals are subject to discrimination or harassment, or made to feel unwelcome, marginalized, or, worse, unsafe. I strive to respond as quickly as possible when incidents occur and to reach out to those affected. Underrepresented ethnic groups (American Indian, African American, Chicano/a, Latino/a) constitute 20% of our undergraduates and 13% of our graduate students. Over one-third of undergraduates are in the first generation of their family to graduate from a four-year university, and one in five speaks a language other than English in the home. Among research universities, UCLA has one of the highest percentages of undergraduates who receive Pell Grants, federal assistance based on financial need (about 37%). We have seen a sharp increase in geographic diversity — today, 7% of our students are international (representing 64 countries) and 5% are from out of state (representing 44 states and the District of Columbia). My predecessor, Acting Chancellor Norman Abrams, mobilized the community to reverse a serious decline in the admission and enrollment of African American undergraduates. I have been fortunate that the strong foundation he established enabled me to continue building relations with African American alumni and other community leaders, including the Alliance for Equal Opportunity in Education. In fall 2006, 101 African American freshmen enrolled at UCLA; this past fall, 223 African American freshmen joined us — a significant improvement, although we aspire to higher levels of diversity. I was honored to receive the Los Angeles NAACP Foundation President’s Award in 2009 for my efforts in this area. We have much more work to do in the areas of graduate student and faculty diversity, including both ethnic diversity and the representation of women in STEM fields. We have put in place procedures that are beginning to bear fruit, including mandatory training for faculty searches and strong outreach to, and support for, graduate students. The diversity of our senior leadership, particularly deans, has increased significantly with regard to both gender and ethnicity. I also elevated a position that was formerly an associate vice chancellor for faculty diversity and development reporting to the Vice Chancellor for Academic Personnel. It is now a vice provost position that reports directly to the Executive Vice Chancellor/Provost. Beyond simply increasing numbers, I have devoted myself to creating an inclusive and welcoming campus environment. I meet regularly with various student groups, including the ethnic student organizations. I am personally involved in recruitment and yield activities. I am a strong advocate for AB 540 students and for the California Dream Act, which enables undocumented students to receive needbased financial aid. I created an “It Gets Better” video to express support for our LGBT community. I also have reached out to a variety of faith-based communities on and off campus. These efforts must continue. Fostering a campus climate that supports diversity requires ongoing attention. ____________________________________________________________________________________________ Chancellor Block’s Statement to the Academic Senate Page 6 April 12, 2012
I have also emphasized the importance of leadership diversity and the development of UCLA employees. In collaboration with the UCLA Anderson School of Management and Campus Human Resources, outstanding UCLA senior staff members have been supported as Chancellor’s Fellows in the Diversity in Leadership Institutes. Over the last few years, the recipients of these competitive Chancellor’s Fellowships have participated in five-month long sessions of the African American Leadership Institute; the Latino Leadership Institute; The Leadership Institute for Managers with Disabilities; The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Leadership Institute, and the Women’s Leadership Institute. Finally, diversity is integral to our academic programs. I am pleased to support the development of the Institute of American Cultures, which is facilitating the work of our ethnic studies centers while nurturing interdisciplinary scholarship about the issues related to the demographic and social changes referred to as “emerging America.” This quarter I am teaching a course on diversity and leadership, and I am supporting the development of other courses that build on our principles of community. Financial Security Our long-term security depends upon our ability to build our endowment and to increase non-state revenues. Fortunately, UCLA is among the most successful universities in the country in fundraising. This is the area where I have devoted the largest share of my time. Between FY ’08 and FY ’12 (to date), the campus has deepened a culture of engagement and philanthropy. In this span of time, UCLA has generated nearly $1.98 billion, a projected average of $416 million per year. This is a marked increase from the campus average of $303.4 million raised annually during the five years prior to my arrival. In other words, we have seen a 37% increase in private support per year, despite the financial problems besetting our nation. This growth and success has consistently placed UCLA in the top echelon of the nation’s universities (public or private) as measured by the cash raised in each of the past four years. Most recently we ranked 1st among publics and 8th in the nation. Over the last five years, 18 philanthropic gifts of $10 million or more were received, including ten of at least $20 million. While we have a very diverse donor base, I am especially pleased that giving by our alumni has increased sharply, from $118 million in my first year to $219 million last year. A number of gifts have been transformational in their impact on our campus. Shortly after I arrived, in November 2007, I had the pleasure of announcing a $30 million gift from the Herb Alpert Foundation to establish the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, which aligns our departments of music, ethnomusicology, and musicology. It was the largest gift ever made to the arts within the University of California system. In May of 2010, Professor Emeritus Paul Terasaki donated $50 million to the Division of Life Sciences in the College of Letters and Science. A new Life Sciences building was named the Terasaki Life Sciences Building in Dr. Terasaki’s honor. In January 2011, Renee and Meyer Luskin donated a gift valued at $100 million, which is equally divided between the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs and a planned residential conference center. One month later the Lincy Foundation transferred its assets to the UCLA Foundation and we received a “Dream Fund” valued at $100 million for student support, research, and academic programs. And in February 2012, Professor Jonathan Fielding and his wife Karin Fielding donated a gift valued at $50 million to the School of Public Health. In recognition, the school has been renamed the UCLA Jonathan and Karin Fielding School of Public Health. ____________________________________________________________________________________________ Chancellor Block’s Statement to the Academic Senate Page 7 April 12, 2012
The value of our endowment has risen substantially as a result of both increased giving and strong stewardship. Between 2003 and 2007, the value of the endowment averaged $1.68 billion. In 2010, its value topped $2 billion and for the past two years has exceeded $2.6 billion in value. In addition to private support, we are developing other robust revenue streams. Of particular importance is our success in ramping up admissions and enrollment of out-of-state and international students, since nonresident tuition helps support the cost of educating all of our students. Unlike some other campuses, we are achieving this without displacing California students. Today, more than 2,500 undergraduate students are paying non-resident tuition, an increase of 48% over just three years ago. We also have a promising effort underway to increase the revenues we obtain from intellectual property and licensing faculty inventions. Although this will take time to establish, I believe that we will see higher returns and a more stable revenue stream, which will benefit UCLA and our faculty inventors, and will promote regional economic development. Challenges While every week brings new challenges, there are a number of significant problems we have faced as a campus that have demanded a considerable amount of my attention and shaped my chancellorship in unexpected but important ways. Laboratory Safety. A tragic accident that occurred in one of our chemistry labs late in 2008 brought a renewed emphasis to laboratory safety, which is among my highest priorities. I have funded new staff positions, called for new policies and training programs, increased the frequency and rigor of laboratory inspections, and funded a new UC Center for Laboratory Safety. I have personally participated in laboratory safety courses and in unannounced laboratory safety inspections. Today, I believe UCLA has a greatly enhanced culture of safety, practices, protocols and understanding, and is now looked to for advice by other institutions both nationally and internationally. Further developing and maintaining this safety culture will require ongoing attention and investment. Extremists Opposed to Animal Research. When I joined UCLA, researchers here and their family members were constant targets of extremists opposed to the use of animal models in research. Tactics faced by our researchers ranged from violent terrorist acts to protests on campus to obscenity-laden pickets in the front yards of researchers’ homes. I directed the police to focus resources on protection of researchers on campus and in their homes, backed litigation that resulted in an injunction against threatening behavior during protests, helped secure resources to strengthen security in researchers’ laboratories and homes, and made numerous public statements of support with extensive media coverage, including but not limited to full page advertisements, in the Los Angeles Times, Chronicle of Higher Education, and elsewhere. I wanted my personal involvement in these issues to be an overt sign of my own values and commitment. I took a leadership role in a national organization defending animal model research, and I now speak on the subject at other institutions around the country. As a result of our efforts, UCLA has (for the time being, at least) greatly reduced the intensity of attacks on our researchers. There have been no acts of violence against UCLA researchers since fall 2010 and the neighborhood protests, which used to occur every other Saturday, have subsided. These successes have required coordinated efforts across the campus and beyond. I recognize that this battle is not yet won, and our investigators are
____________________________________________________________________________________________ Chancellor Block’s Statement to the Academic Senate Page 8 April 12, 2012
still targets of misinformation and harassment. We must continue our efforts to defend our campus against illegal and misdirected actions. Fiscal Challenges. The budget crisis facing the State of California has had a dramatic impact on the University of California. In 2007-08, UCLA received $643 million in state funding. This year, we received $339 million — a loss of over $300 million (47%). Increases in student tuition have not fully compensated for the loss of these monies. On top of this, we face unfunded costs for pension contributions, benefits, salary increases, collective bargaining agreements and more. To cope with this unprecedented situation, we have stepped up our efforts to generate non-state revenues through nonresident student enrollments, summer sessions revenue sharing, professional school differential fees and self-supporting programs. We also have increased our investments in the Total Return Investment Pool, and have major plans underway to improve the investment returns of our Foundation endowment and to generate more revenue from patents and industry-sponsored research. In addition, we have taken many steps to increase efficiency and cut costs. In 2009, I established the Restructuring Steering Committee to stimulate, coordinate and oversee these efforts. Since that time, UCLA has realized roughly $25 million in administrative and academic efficiencies through a wide array of efforts such as strategic sourcing, energy savings, transactional savings, systems enhancements, reductions in staff, consolidations and reorganizations. Although increasing enrollment of non-resident students is a crucial strategy, it has created a new challenge because we must ensure that we can provide students with the courses they need. We also must ensure that their academic and co-curricular experiences are of the highest quality, especially if we want to continue our success in recruiting non-resident students. I have made it a priority to provide funding for undergraduate education. As a result, students continue to make timely progress to their degrees, class sizes have remained stable, and survey data indicate that student satisfaction is very high. UCLA is fortunate to have strong fiscal planning and management, both centrally and within our operating units. This has been critical to our ability to pursue our goals and priorities despite major budgetary constraints. Aspirations for the Campus UCLA is in the midst of transformation along several dimensions. First, we are attempting to transform the financial model as state support represents a smaller and smaller fraction of the total operating budget. In order to become more self-sufficient we continue to sculpt the resident/non-resident student body with a goal of reaching approximately 18% non-resident undergraduates within the next few years. We will strive to increase non-state funding in other ways as well, such as identifying opportunities for selfsupporting programs and realizing enhanced revenue returns from intellectual property. Finally, we must continue to focus on administrative and academic efficiencies. The physical transformation of the campus is reflected in the projects described earlier in this report — residence halls for undergraduates, apartments for graduate students, a residential conference center, medical education building, additions to our music facilities and the Semel Institute, renovation of Pauley Pavilion, a new building for a cellular therapeutics center, and renovation of the old Center for Health
____________________________________________________________________________________________ Chancellor Block’s Statement to the Academic Senate Page 9 April 12, 2012
Sciences, with — I’m certain — more to come. Energy conservation and sustainability are important aspects of our planning for these and all new projects. The four priority areas of academic excellence, civic engagement, diversity and financial security remain relevant and vital. In the academic arena, I will continue to engage UCLA internationally, with trips planned to Korea, China, and India over the next six months. I will work with academic leadership to nurture interdisciplinary areas of study from the health sciences to the arts, and I will continue to attend closely to faculty recruitment and retention. A new initiative that I’m especially excited about will bring the expertise of UCLA faculty from all corners of the campus to improve the physical and emotional well-being of our entire campus community — students, staff and faculty. A steering committee that includes faculty from the south and north sides of campus, as well as administrative and Senate leaders, is meeting regularly to consider programs, projects and policies that will facilitate improvements in nutrition, activity and emotional well-being. A related task force is being convened to recommend to the Executive Vice Chancellor/Provost and me how to eliminate all on-campus tobacco use. This initiative will make UCLA a healthier and more desirable place in which to study, work and live, and will set the standard for universities around the world. I am confident it will attract donor and extramural funding. I hear frequently from students and their parents about the challenges they face in paying for college. It is essential that we do all we can to enable students to make or accelerate timely progress to their degrees, and I will work with the Academic Senate to facilitate that goal. We must also carefully monitor students’ academic and co-curricular experiences to ensure that we are offering the highest quality educational experience. We have much more work to do with regard to diversity; I hope and expect that we will see continued increases in the number of underrepresented students and faculty, but this will only occur if we attend to outreach and recruitment and by creating an inclusive campus environment. With regard to civic engagement, I am less interested in generating new activities than I am in deepening the relationships and commitments that are currently in place. Of critical importance to UCLA’s future and the area where I expect to once again devote the largest amount of my time is fundraising. We are preparing to launch a centennial campaign which will culminate in 2019 when UCLA celebrates its 100th birthday. I am working closely with External Affairs, the vice chancellors and deans, alumni, volunteers and donors to lay a strong foundation for this campaign. I expect it to reach or surpass the amount raised by the previous campaign, which generated more than $3 billion. I will be calling upon UCLA faculty and students for their assistance in reaching out to prospective donors to demonstrate the superb work going on here. We have an inspirational story to tell and we must work hard to develop a strong spirit of philanthropy among our graduates and friends. I recognize that these are challenging times. This is certainly not the first time that the University of California has faced adversity. Nearing the end of his presidency in 1967 Clark Kerr remarked, “Despite our current difficulties, I think the university is destined to continue to be one of the great universities of the world, and I view its future with the greatest of expectations.” I believe that President Kerr would be proud of where UCLA is today. ____________________________________________________________________________________________ Chancellor Block’s Statement to the Academic Senate Page 10 April 12, 2012