Berkeleyan

University Relations' McQuade announces plans to step down

19 July 2006

Donald McQuade

Donald McQuade, vice chancellor for University Relations for the past seven years, has decided to step down as head of fundraising and public affairs and return to teaching and research in the English department, Chancellor Birgeneau has announced.

"Don McQuade's outstanding leadership has earned UC Berkeley a record amount of private philanthropic support - approximately $2 billion over the course of his service," said the chancellor. "He greatly enhanced and expanded our ability to secure support for the campus through both fundraising and improved external relations. I will continue to rely on his expertise and seek his advice as the university prepares to embark on even more ambitious objectives."

McQuade has agreed to remain in the post until a successor is in place. A nationwide search is planned.

McQuade, 64, assumed the leadership of University Relations in 1999. He also served as president of the UC Berkeley Foundation, a not-for-profit corporation that raises, invests, and administers private gifts for the campus. He was pivotal in helping the campus double the assets of the foundation. Most notably, he led the successful conclusion of the seven-year Campaign for the New Century in 2001, which raised $1.44 billion - at the time the most successful fundraising campaign ever completed by a public university.

In addition to building a stronger foundation of philanthropic support during a period of economic downturn and state budget cuts, he strengthened and expanded the role of public affairs, including government and community relations, and improved external relations with alumni, parents, legislators, and other friends and neighbors of the university. [The Berkeleyan is published by the Office of Public Affairs, a unit within University Relations.]

"I am grateful to former Chancellor [Robert] Berdahl for the opportunity to serve Berkeley at this important time in the development of its external relations, and to have had the privilege of working with Chancellor Birgeneau. My original goals were to create architecture as well as to build an infrastructure for success at Berkeley by adapting to the work of University Relations the same high standards we maintain for Berkeley's academic excellence. That design and groundwork are now in place, and I look forward to returning to the work that attracted me to Berkeley - teaching, research, and writing."

Highlights of McQuade's administration include completing the fundraising campaign for the Chang-Lin Tien Center for East Asian Studies and the new Stanley Biosciences and Bioengineering Facility, both now under construction. He was also instrumental in securing two of the largest gifts ever made to the campus - a $50 million bequest from the late William V. Power for faculty, student, and academic support, and a $40 million gift from the Li Ka-shing Foundation to support a new research center in the health sciences.

A member of the English department since 1986, McQuade held several senior administrative posts at Berkeley prior to assuming the vice chancellorship, including dean of undergraduate and interdisciplinary studies in the College of Letters and Science, where he conceived and developed the Undergraduate Research Apprentice Program. He was the founding dean and a member of the faculty of the American Studies program. An ardent advocate for the arts, McQuade also served as acting chair of what was until 2001 called the Department of Dramatic Art.

McQuade has published numerous books and articles on writing as well as on American literature and culture. Most recently, he edited volume nine of The Correspondence of William James and published the third edition of his influential book Seeing and Writing.

The search for a new vice chancellor for university relations will begin immediately with the appointment by the chancellor of an advisory committee.