University Communications

Winter 2000
The View from Murphy Hall
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Q: You arrived at UCLA from Harvard in July 1997. In the time you have been h you've set high goals and standards for the university. What are you proudest of having accomplished thus far?

A: Well, I joke often about taking credit for everything because, Lord knows, I get blamed for everything that goes wrong. But the pride I feel is not necessarily for what I have personally achieved. Two UCLA faculty members have been awarded Nobel Prizes on my watch, but it's not because I arrived at UCLA that we won them. Everyone associated with the university - faculty, staff, students, alumni, volunteers and donors - should take great pride in the recognition earned by Paul Boyer (Chemistry, 1997) and Louis Ignarro (Medicine, 1998). In fact, we can all be proud of the superb quality of the people we have here. The academic credentials of the students keep getting better every year; the number of applications we receive makes UCLA the most popular university in the country. The number of faculty being elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences keeps rising.

I am proud of the superb administrative appointments that have been made since I've been here. Our executive vice chancellor, Rory Hume, is doing an exceptional job, and I do deserve credit for having figured out, before others did, that he would do so. We've also appointed some excellent new deans. I'm proud of the people in our academic and administrative leadership team.

And I am very proud of the campus itself; its combination of beauty and functionality is unmatched. It's remarkable that we've been able to keep it that way, despite being the smallest campus in the UC system with the largest number of students. Look at Royce Hall in all its glory. And Powell Library. Look at the soccer field with its wide-open space, while belowground hundreds of parking spaces have been built. On the south campus, you see a hole in the ground that will eventually be the site of a hospital designed by I.M. Pei. At our northern gateway, an arts complex designed by Richard Meier will be built. All of us can take pride in this place and its people.

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