Wilkening’s Accomplishments

UCI Chancellor Laurel L. Wilkening’s announcement this week that she will leave her post next year was unexpected, in part because the campus seems to have gotten back on an even keel after several rocky years.

Wilkening could have stayed on the job and reaped the benefits of an improving economy and the settlement of the fertility scandal. She deserves credit for the state of the university as she turns over the reins to a yet to be named successor, who is likely to have an easier time of it than she did.

Three years ago, after a year as chancellor, Wilkening issued her vision statement. She proclaimed her goal of moving UCI into the ranks of the nation’s top 50 research institutions by the year 2000. She has accomplished that. She challenged the faculty to work with her in garnering money from the government and private industry for research. There too she has succeeded.

Equally important, Wilkening recognized the necessity of fostering diversity in both the student body and the faculty.

The fertility scandal was obviously difficult. Wilkening said Wednesday that she wished she had realized sooner the magnitude of the case, in which three university doctors were accused of harvesting eggs from patients and implanting them in other women or sending them to research laboratories. The university has resolved several dozen of the civil lawsuits filed as a result. It also has instituted needed reforms to prevent recurrences.

The next chancellor will face the continuing problem of the finances of the university’s medical center, which has long held an important role as servant of the poor in a county without its own public hospital. The campus also can expect annual battles with Sacramento for funds, though the improving economy since Wilkening’s arrival has meant a brighter picture.

UC Irvine is a young institution, but it increasingly occupies a crucial place in the life of Orange County. Wilkening recognized that dynamic relationship and is to be commended for her role in fostering it.