Mark Yudof

Mark G. Yudof has his work cut out for him if, as expected, he becomes the next president of the 10-campus University of California system in the midst of a gloomy state budget that threatens staff reductions and more student fee hikes. But UC regents who nominated the current head of the University of Texas system Thursday to the top UC post said they had confidence in Yudof's leadership abilities in both good and bad times.

Heija Yan took a drag from his cigarette as he approached Powell Library on the UCLA campus Monday, not noticing the ashtrays were empty and askew. The graduate student in electrical engineering had no idea the university had enacted its tobacco ban on Earth Day. "I know others don't like the smell around them, but I know [the library] is a popular place to smoke, so I thought I'd be OK," Yan said, flicking the butt into an ashtray. UCLA is the first school in the UC system to implement the ban, following a call by President Mark G. Yudof for all 10 UC campuses to go smoke-free by 2014.

Mark Yudof likes to point out that he was the first real outsider in more than a century chosen to run the sprawling University of California system. And he often jokes that, as a result of his leadership, it is likely to take a hundred years more before UC hires another. Maybe not. But the comment does represent a dilemma facing the UC regents as they look for his successor: No obvious heir apparent is lined up inside the system. So experts predict the search for a new president will concentrate on large public university systems elsewhere in the country that dealt, like UC, with dramatic declines in state support.

With no obvious inside candidate to be the next president of the University of California system, experts predict a wide search that will concentrate on similar university systems elsewhere but could also stretch beyond academia. Whoever replaces Mark Yudof will take a job that comes with intense political and financial pressures. UC has an annual budget of $24 billion, 230,000 students, 191,000 faculty and staff members, 10 campuses, five medical centers and three national laboratories.

Mark Yudof is a brilliant scholar and will be a visionary president. I believe he will make the university a leaner, more productive institution -- streamlining cumbersome operations and redirecting precious university funds toward our core academic mission. In the years ahead, the university must become more strategic in undertaking integrated, multiyear academic and budget planning. Its administrative infrastructure must become more results oriented, more publicly accountable and better able to adapt quickly to changing circumstances.

There is no obvious heir apparent lined up to take over the University of California system after Mark Yudof retires as president. Yudof was the first true outsider selected to run the sprawling institution in more than 100 years. So experts predict the search for a new president will look to leaders of large public university systems elsewhere in the country that, like UC, have faced dramatic declines in state financial support. Some observers expect the hunt to extend beyond academia, to government or business leaders.

With no obvious inside candidate to be the next president of the University of California system, experts predict a wide search that will concentrate on similar university systems elsewhere but could also stretch beyond academia. Whoever replaces Mark Yudof will take a job that comes with intense political and financial pressures. UC has an annual budget of $24 billion, 230,000 students, 191,000 faculty and staff members, 10 campuses, five medical centers and three national laboratories.

If there was one thing you could count on Mark G. Yudof to stand for, it was the academic quality of the University of California, the system he has led for close to five years. Yudof, 68, announced Friday that he was stepping down as UC president, citing health problems, including gall bladder surgery. He couldn't be blamed if he also would like to avoid the major headaches of Gov. Jerry Brown's proposals to link future funding increases for UC to a variety of reforms, including less research and publication by professors (who would pick up heavier teaching loads)

Mark Yudof became president of the University of California in 2008. Some timing. Since then, the university has seen its state funding, which accounts for about 13% of its operating budget, cut again and again. Now Gov. Jerry Brown wants another $500 million out of UC's bottom line. That's a 20% drop in state dollars. With this cut, for the first time, students will shoulder more of UC's costs than California will. Yudof is a realist and a self-deprecating fellow who jokes about his girth.

Highly esteemed worldwide, the University of California is among the state's most valuable assets, but it is in danger of being sharply devalued as its budget undergoes continual cuts and uncertainty. UC President Mark Yudof hopes to bring some stability to the university by using whatever budget he is granted this year as the starting point for a five-year deal with state government, with assured funding levels for the next several years. If this sounds familiar — and unlikely to happen — you're probably thinking back to 2004 and the famous "compact" between UC and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Mark Yudof likes to point out that he was the first real outsider in more than a century chosen to run the sprawling University of California system. And he often jokes that, as a result of his leadership, it is likely to take a hundred years more before UC hires another. Maybe not. But the comment does represent a dilemma facing the UC regents as they look for his successor: No obvious heir apparent is lined up inside the system. So experts predict the search for a new president will concentrate on large public university systems elsewhere in the country that dealt, like UC, with dramatic declines in state support.

There is no obvious heir apparent lined up to take over the University of California system after Mark Yudof retires as president. Yudof was the first true outsider selected to run the sprawling institution in more than 100 years. So experts predict the search for a new president will look to leaders of large public university systems elsewhere in the country that, like UC, have faced dramatic declines in state financial support. Some observers expect the hunt to extend beyond academia, to government or business leaders.

Since 2008, Mark G. Yudof has led the 10-campus University of California system through a dramatic period of budget cuts and tuition hikes but also of widening financial aid and solid academic reputation. A constitutional scholar with a sardonic wit and a fondness for Tex-Mex food, Yudof recently announced he will step down in August and become a law professor at UC Berkeley. He cited gallbladder surgery and a broken arm over the last year or so and said it was a good time to leave since UC would be financially stronger with extra tax revenue approved by California voters in November.

If there was one thing you could count on Mark G. Yudof to stand for, it was the academic quality of the University of California, the system he has led for close to five years. Yudof, 68, announced Friday that he was stepping down as UC president, citing health problems, including gall bladder surgery. He couldn't be blamed if he also would like to avoid the major headaches of Gov. Jerry Brown's proposals to link future funding increases for UC to a variety of reforms, including less research and publication by professors (who would pick up heavier teaching loads)

SAN FRANCISCO - University of California President Mark G. Yudof announced Friday that he is resigning in August for health reasons, ending a five-year stint in which he guided the 10-campus system through one of its worst financial crises and controversies over rising tuition. His announcement comes at a time of change throughout California's higher education system. Gov. Jerry Brown is aggressively pressing the university to cut costs and to reform its traditional methods of teaching and research.

SAN FRANCISCO — University of California President Mark G. Yudof on Wednesday strongly backed Gov. Jerry Brown's proposed tax increase aimed for the November ballot, warning of big tuition increases next year if it fails and offering hope that tuition would remain stable if it passes. Yudof urged the regents, who were meeting in San Francisco, to endorse the governor's tax plan at a future session. "In my view, it represents the best opportunity I've seen in my four years in California for the state to clamber out of a sinkhole of fiscal uncertainty and move forward into a better, more prosperous future," he said.

Healthcare politics Re "GOP returns ready to duel with Obama," Jan. 1 So the Republicans' healthcare alternative is "built on a longtime conservative belief that reduced regulation is the best path to controlling costs. " My goodness, haven't Republicans learned anything from the nightmare created by all their deregulation? And look at the Republican-controlled Congress' prescription drug debacle, which turned out to be manna from heaven for huge drug corporations that has cost our country hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars.

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.

UC Riverside students received a dose of validation Wednesday from system President Mark G. Yudof over their radical plan to abolish tuition and replace it with post-graduation payments equaling 5% of their income for 20 years. Speaking at a UC regents meeting on the Riverside campus, Yudof said he was "very impressed" with the proposal - despite the obstacles it would face in implementation. "We think the ideas are constructive," Yudof said, promising that his staff would study the plan.

Shifting tactics in a difficult budget situation, University of California President Mark G. Yudof said Tuesday that he would seek enough additional state funding to avoid a tuition hike next year and increase enrollment by 1%, or about 2,100 students. Yudof's statement was a tactical retreat from a controversial plan floated in September in which UC said tuition could rise 8% to 16% annually over the next four years if state funding did not increase enough to offset increasing costs.