STATEMENT, 7/9/96 Statement from Chancellor Chang-Lin Tien, July 9, 1996, California Hall

More than six years ago, I was named to lead the finest university in the world. For me, it was the realization of a lifetime dream. It is a great honor and special privilege to be Chancellor of UC Berkeley. It is also the toughest, most rewarding job I have ever had. Keeping a great university at the cutting edge of higher education is not something one person can take credit for. It is like running a relay race with history. Sproul, Kerr, Seaborg, Strong, Heyns, Bowker, Heyman. That is the short list of legendary leaders who went before me and built UC Berkeley into a world-class university. And they passed the baton to me. I would like to think I have maintained the standard of excellence they set, and even, perhaps, added to it. Now, it is time for me to pass the baton. So I am announcing today that I will step down as Chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley, no later than June 30, 1997. By then, I will have served in this position for seven years. I have made no decisions about my future plans. For now, I am looking forward to returning to my teaching and research, and to spending more time with my family. This decision has not been an easy one. Cal is so much a part of me, my wife, Di-Hwa, and our three children, who have grown up here and are all UC Berkeley graduates. I know we will always be a part of Cal. With the exception of a two-year stint as Executive Vice Chancellor at UC Irvine, I have spent my entire professional career of 37 years at Berkeley. I love our students. I am proud of our faculty. I am grateful to our staff. I admire the achievements of our alumni, and I appreciate their willingness to give of themselves to support Berkeley. It is important to me that all of the Cal community understand why I am doing this and why I am doing it now. I have chosen to leave next year because the campus is at a high point in its history. Drawing on record undergraduate applications, we have assembled a first-rate student body. The quality of our faculty remains unsurpassed. Despite severe federal budget cutbacks, our extra mural research support has grown by 35 percent to $318 million for the last academic year. And fund raising is on track to break all records. It astounds me that we have been able to raise about $780 million during my six years as Chancellor. We would not have been able to maintain our academic excellence without this generosity. Over much of the last few years, we have been fighting to maintain the excellence of the campus in the face of the most severe budget cutbacks in the history of the university. From 1991 through 1994, state general fund support for the Berkeley campus dropped from $373 to $301 million, a decline of 19 percent. At the same time, we lost 27 percent of our senior faculty to early retirement. We won that battle. Cal not only survived, it thrived. Last year, the National Research Council named UC Berkeley the number one research university in the nation, a very proud accomplishment for all Californians. As Change magazine stated in its May/June issue: "UC Berkeley rated exceptionally high any way you look at the Report's figures." My concern now is to ensure that the university has strong leadership to carry it into the new millennium. The capital campaign and other initiatives that we have begun will require another long-term commitment. I realize it is time for me to pass the baton to a new generation of leaders. The campus is very stable now. Our building program is on schedule. And we will do all we can to ensure that those buildings are filled with students who reflect the marvelous talent and diversity of this great state. In announcing my resignation, I want to make sure that President Atkinson will have ample time to choose my successor. Besides, I would hate to leave before January and have a new chancellor accompany our new football coach to his first Rose Bowl. From the football field to faculty recruitment, Berkeley is riding a rising tide. I want to help plot a course that will let the next chancellor come in with favorable winds. Berkeley now enjoys an outstanding reputation in the field of higher education and tremendous goodwill among alumni and friends. I came to this job with a number of specific goals, and I will leave feeling great satisfaction in the progress we have made. More than six years ago, I set out the following goals: I wanted to assure the excellence of the faculty and academic programs. We have done that. I was determined to create a welcoming and supportive campus atmosphere and foster diversity in all aspects of campus life. We have done that. I was committed to strengthening undergraduate education. We have done that. And I thought it was essential to cultivate productive relationships with our neighbors (witness our progress on People's Park), our alumni, and our special family and friends throughout the nation and around the world. We have done that. I did not accomplish these by myself. And I would like to take this opportunity to thank the entire campus community for working so diligently through very difficult times to achieve these goals. There is still much to be done. I will continue to work to increase private fund raising so that our academic excellence can be maintained and enhanced, to build stronger ties to the Pacific Rim, and to create new initiatives such as the Berkeley Pledge to enhance diversity by reaching out to K-12 education. I was born in Wuhan, China, grew up in Shanghai and Taiwan, and came to the United States as a struggling young graduate student in 1956. With a refugee immigrant background, my family and I have lived the American dream. And I have done everything I could to make that dream accessible to others. I will continue to pursue that goal in whatever capacity I may serve in the future. My entire family is fully devoted to Cal and I assure you that we will continue our active involvement with the campus in the future. ###