OAKLAND — Regents at the University of California elected UC San Diego Chancellor Robert C. Dynes president Wednesday, tapping the physicist and avid runner to lead the prestigious 10-campus system at a time when dwindling revenue and growing enrollment pose heavy challenges.
Dynes, who has headed UC San Diego since 1996, follows the path of the man he succeeded on the San Diego campus, Richard C. Atkinson, who steps down as UC president on Oct. 1.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Saturday June 21, 2003 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 58 words Type of Material: Correction
UC president -- A June 12 article about the appointment of a new University of California president stated incorrectly that Laura D'Andrea Tyson was a finalist for the position. Tyson, dean of the London School of Economics and President Clinton's former economic advisor, said she was nominated as a candidate for the job but declined to be considered.
Before entering academia, the 60-year-old Dynes worked 22 years with AT&T Bell Labs, where he worked on superconductors and other projects.
"I am elated by the prospect of taking the helm of the premier university in the world, a place where the very best come to learn, teach and create new knowledge," Dynes told regents after his confirmation was announced.
The Canadian-born, naturalized U.S. citizen was elected unanimously.
Higher education experts said Dynes arrives at a difficult time for UC, which is seeking to preserve its reputation as the leading public university system in the country. Besides wrestling with the consequences of California's $38-billion budget deficit, UC is struggling to maintain diversity in its student body.
Dynes faces a difficult balancing act between the ban on affirmative action in California and the desire of many politicians and educators to see more underrepresented minority students and academics in the UC system.
He also must contend with the controversies over the university's management of the Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore national laboratories. Within months, the university's leaders must decide whether to compete for a contract to continue running Los Alamos, the nuclear weapons lab that recently has been beset by allegations of mismanagement. Livermore has faced smaller-scale security problems.
In dealing with those flaps, Robert M. Shireman, a senior fellow with the Aspen Institute, which studies higher education, said Dynes' credentials as a scientist would be an asset. He said it would be useful to have "someone with a physics background testifying before Congress."
Dynes' main problem, however, will be coping with recession-related state funding cutbacks, as well as possible reductions in federal money just as the 197,000-student university faces an enrollment boom.
UC regents are expected to vote this summer to raise student fees by at least 24%.
