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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2012
NEWS
INTERVIEW WITH CHANCELLOR WHITE ON PAGE 4
Highlander University
Established 1954
UCR School of Medicine receives accreditation
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Chris LoCascio SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Colin Markovich
S a n dy V a n SENIOR STAFF WRITER
MED SCHOOL CONT’D ON PAGE 6
C a l i f o r n i a , R ive r s i d e
Chancellor Timothy White to leave UCR, named head of CSU system
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
After months of anticipation, the UCR School of Medicine has been approved to open its doors and will begin student enrollment in the summer of 2013. The Liaison Committee for Medical Education (LCME), the organization in charge of authorizing medical schools across the United States and Canada, granted preliminary accreditation to the school on Tuesday, Oct. 2. UCR has been looking into the possibility of constructing a medical school for over 10 years. In 2002, the Riverside County Board of Supervisors and UCR began the process of establishing a medical school, according to the Press-Enterprise. A formal proposal was submitted in 2006 and two years later, the school received the blessing of the UC Regents, which was followed by the appointment of Timothy White as chancellor. Dr. G. Richard Olds was brought on in 2010 as the first dean of the School of Medicine in order to help shepherd it through the accreditation process. Hopes were high that the school would open, as scheduled, during the 2012-2013 academic year. But that optimism was dashed when the LCME refused to accredit the school, due to uncertain long-term funding. “We wish the LCME would have let us know that we didn’t have enough money… That’s what they typically do,” remarked Dean Olds in an interview with the Highlander. The rejection was a devastating blow to the fledgling school in which the Los Angeles Times reported that no American medical school in the past three decades received accreditation after being denied. UCR’s medical school broke that precedent. “One and a half years ago, you couldn’t find five people who thought we could have done it,” remarked Dean Olds, his jubilant face briefly turning serious. “But as the chancellor says, we refused to take a knee.” Now, UCR is home to the first new medical school on any UC campus since the last one opened in 1967 at UC Irvine. “Finally!” exclaimed third-year bioengineering major and pre-med student Kanksha Peddi. She alluded to the benefit of the medical school for UCR’s standing in the UC system. “The eye of the media won’t just be on big name med-schools [like] UCLA,” she remarked. “More people will want to attend UCR.”
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The California State University Board of Trustees has announced the appointment of current UC Riverside Chancellor Timothy White as the system’s new chancellor. In an email to UCR students and faculty sent the morning of Thursday, Oct. 4, White informed the campus of his departure. “Not many opportunities could lure me away from this wonderful campus, a campus I have grown to love and in which I take enormous pride. But the opportunity to head up the Cal State system at such a transformative yet precarious moment for both higher education and the state of California is one I cannot pass up. It is a chance to give back to this state and to public higher education at a grand scale, a state and system that has been transformative for me and my family,” wrote Chancellor White in the email. White will finish his four years at UCR following the conclusion of the fall academic term in December. White will succeed Charles B. Reed, who led the CSU for 14 years. He is expected to receive the same compensation package as his predecessor Reed: $421,500 plus a $30,000 supplement from the California State University Foundation. A product of California’s three institutions of public higher education, Chancellor White attended Diablo Valley Community College, Cal State Fresno, Cal State East Bay and UC Berkeley. Chancellor White came to UCR in July of 2008 from the University of Idaho, where he served as president since 2004. As the chancellor of the California State Uni-
B rya n T u tt l e /HIGHLANDER Chancellor White in his office the morning following the announcement of his departure from UCR.
versity, White will lead the nation’s largest university system, which currently enrolls 427,000 students across its 23 campuses. A chancellor known for his close interaction with students, White’s new position will remove him from a university campus setting for the first time in his professional career. His office will be located in an off-campus building in Long Beach. “It comes with great regret that I am acknowledging the loss of such an amazing presence on campus,” said Student United Way President and fourth-year business student Sarina El. “Chancellor White was and will always be a significant figure at UCR. Not only will we miss his warm cookies and little puppy during finals, we will miss his friday letters and attentiveness to the needs of our student body. While we are sad to see [him] go, we are excited for [his] future endeavors with the CSU system.” Other students were disappointed to learn of Chancellor White’s new position. “I think
he’s selling out for a bigger job that makes more money,” said fourth-year African American studies major Philip Carroll-Johnson. “I can see how that benefits him, but from the basic concern that he attempted to show to the student body at UCR, it seems two-faced to go and take another job. I can kind of understand. I was here when the chancellor before him was here and I felt like [Chancellor White] at least made an effort by being out, walking around, speaking to students. So I felt like he was more friendly than the first one we had, but I was kind of surprised to see him leave so fast.” UC President Mark Yudof is expected to name an interim chancellor in the coming weeks. A national search will be conducted to appoint the ninth ■H chancellor of UCR. See page 4 for an in-depth interview with Chancellor White. See page 20 for quotes from the campus community about Chancellor White.
UCR community grieves passing of Rosemary Bourns Dean Mayorga CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Rosemary Bourns, for whom UC Riverside’s Bourns College of Engineering is the namesake, passed away on Sept. 26, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles due to complications from congestive heart failure. Her family service and interment took place on Saturday, Sept. 29. She, along with her husband Marlan, started Bourns, Inc., a company specializing in electronic components. At the time of its founding, when it was still Bourns Laboratories, the couple worked out of a single car garage in their Pasadena home. A personal friend of the family and assistant dean of development of the Bourns College of Engineering, Linda G. Parker, recalled the dynamic of the couple. “Rosemary was the business side. She kept everything on track and she was a true partner in the whole business,” Parker stated. Before partnering with Marlan, Rosemary graduated from the University of Michigan. She majored in education and minored in anthropology, graduating second in her class according to
the Bourns company Intranet. The relationship between the Bourns and UCR was established in 1994, when the Bourns family contributed $6 million in revenue to the college of engineering. They would later go on to contribute a million more. “I think that’s what was really smart—is to invest in the brainpower that can really move your company forward. They knew what existed at this university and they were willing to invest in it,” stated Parker. Dean of Bourns College of Engineering, Reza Abbaschian, also shared what he felt the contribution meant to UCR. “The legacy that the family has, is of course, being so generous,” Abbaschian said. “What they did [for] this college—it’s a fantastic thing that they did…I think their contribution to this college is really what set this college at a kind of, dynamic growth mode. Even though [Bourns College of Engineering] is only 22-years-old we are highly ranked for a young college. We have great recognition because of the kind of gifts that they gave. It encouraged the college to do things differently. We had the
resources to help the students in their education.” After the initial donation, the family remained involved at UCR. Today, Marlan and Rosemary Bourns’ son, Gordon Bourns, is a member of the Council of Advisors for the engineering college. He is also the CEO and Chairman of Bourns, Inc. The company, which started out modestly, has branched out to other countries such as Mexico, Costa Rica and China. Rosemary was described by people who knew her and the family as someone was easy to talk to and always in a good mood. According to the company Intranet, she had three passions: “traveling, telling stories and arranging flowers.” “She was a very engaged person, and of course, she was a quite accomplished person,” stated Abbaschian. “She was always so upbeat,” stated Parker. Parker also explained how the family, collectively is known as “g.l.a.d.” (an acronym for each of their children: Gordon, Linda, Anita and Denise). “They’re always like that; they’re always glad and ■H happy.”
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