University of California Los Angeles - Bruin Life / Southern Campus Yearbook (Los Angeles, CA)

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INTERVIEW: CHARLES YOUNG Charles E. Young succeeded Franklin Murphy as UCLA ' s Chancellor in September, 1968. He is 44 years old. Southern Campus spoke with Young on Tuesday, April 29, 1975. You ' ve been a student, a teaching assistant, and an administrator here. Exactly what is it about UCLA that attracts you? UCLA has always been a tremendously interesting place, as far as I ' m concerned, ever since I first came here. It ' s interesting, dynamic, growing. It ' s a unique institution — there ' s just none other like it in higher education, at least not in higher education. The only that approximates it in terms of rapid growth in a qualitative sense is the University of Chicago. UCLA is, for all practical purposes, about 55 or 56 years old now. It ' s one of the top seven or eight in the United States — if you are able to come up with a really objective analysis, which you can ' t since analyses always lag behind. There ' s a gap in the evaluation of institutions, in terms of prestige, both going up and down. In other words, if one is going down the effects of that aren ' t known until some time after it has really occurred, and an institution that is going up — the perceptions always lag somewhat behind the actuality. But in that rarified atmosphere it doesn ' t make a hell of a lot of difference. The top two or three are in a group and the next five are in a group and the next five to seven are in a group. We ' re in the second group. We ' re not up with the Berkeleys, Harvards, Yales, and Princetons. We ' re in the second group . . . and growing very rapidly in distinction. It ' s a fascinating place to be involved. It ' s like a big city. I find cities to be where I enjoy being; in part because of the breadth and the excitement and the variety and the ability to gain anonyr ity if one so chooses, which I occasionally do. It ' s just altogether a fascinating and interesting place, with a fantastically good student body and a fantastically good faculty. We ' ve bee n extremely successful in getting and maintaining the best faculty in the country. We lose very few people. We are able to get an unbelievably large number of people we really want at UCLA — which is another indication of the quality of the institution . . . people ' s feelings about where it ' s going and how it ' s getting there. Can you describe your job to me? I can ' t think of a more complex job in the world than being the head of a major American University. It the kinds of things that you find in so many other kinds of jobs. Look at it in a kind of functional or structural sense. This is a community of 50-60,000 people, when you count students, faculty, and visitors. I haven ' t looked at the total picture this year, but my guess is I won ' t be more than 5 or 6 million off if I say that, looked at from a business point of view, it ' s a 300 million dollar a year business. We will bring in income from three major sources: the State, the federal Government and a third, which is student fees, sales of goods and services, fees for specific kinds of activities, the hospital, parking service. We will take in and spend more than 300 million dollars. It ' s extremely complex in terms of the governance, in terms of the degree in which you involve a large number of people in the decisionmaking process, at least in terms of consultation. Some parts of the making process are indeed delegated. Although in some ways the

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REGISTER STEP II

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best way to describe my job would be to say I ' m the head administrative officer of UCLA, and therefore pri-marily responsible for everything that happens here, there are some things which delegation has sent directly from the Board of Regents to the Academic Senate, which complicates the matter. It means that I have no authority in those areas and yet in terms of responsibility I ' m still the one who is looked to when anything goes wrong. The degree of delegation is very small. It has to do with the curricula and the granting of degrees and establishing criteria for admissions. But though it ' s small, it ' s an extremely important part of our endeavor. But with all the growth, internal and external pressures put an inordinate demand on the administration of an institution like this. And those demands are increasing in a geometric fashion. In the twenty years since you first came here as a student, how has the school changed? It ' s grown, it has expanded a lot physically . . . more students. It ' s moved a lot in the direction of the graduate level program. There ' s been a very large growth in the Health Sciences, from a small medical school to an extremely large Medical School, and the development of a Dental School, development, almost from scratch, of a School of Public Health, although it did exist. We have moved from what was still very largely an undergraduate in professional areas to almost a completely graduate program, with a few very minor exceptions. Now we have small programs at the undergraduate level. I think we now have a much more beautiful, though much more varied campus than existed when I came here. It ' s aged, it ' s matured, it has gotten more self-confidence, and that is extremely important. You ' re completing your seventh year as Chancellor. How have you changed? I ' ve gotten older, maybe a little wiser, maybe evened out a little bit. I ' m still pretty mercurial, given on occasions to letting my temper not get the best of me, but perhaps using it. I ' ve learned a lot. I ' ve been extremely happy in the job. I think the same thing has to me which has happened to most people — not all, sometimes the reverse happens. I think I have tended to become somewhat more conservative in my views as I have aged or as other things have happened over the years. I don ' t know if it ' s age that brings that about or not. I still consider myself a liberal, but I ' m probably somewhat on the edges of that. My committment to the educational has deepened. On the other hand, my realization that there are alternative means of achievement has grown, the recognition of viable alternatives to higher education. I ' ve lived through some very difficult times in terms of the pressures of a job like this, with demonstrations, physical assault, and so forth. Those have left some scars on me, made dealing with students perhaps more difficult than it might have been at an earlier date. Although I think that ' s kind of turning around. I ' m relaxing a little bit more. I ' m a little more relaxed in regard to the University. What kind of plans do you have for UCLA in the next few years? What changes do you forsee? For this place there are still a lot of things that are undone. I consider part of my agenda to be completion of the physical plant for all intents and purposes. We ' re close to it. There are three or four more major building additions which I want to see moving ahead, and there is the whole problem of eliminating the substandard seismic conditions in the major older buildings. I don ' t think they ' re unsafe — I don ' t think anybody would argue that — but we ' ve got to meet new standards and I think we ' ve got to get that resolved. Getting what I call the core of the campus built, the Westwood Plaza development, with the new Alumni Center, the Sports and Recreation Center. The development of the malls that will replace the jumble of Blvd., and the Bruin Walk East — Bruin Walk West which will turn that into a beautiful center of the campus. That ' s going to be done primarily through the donation of private funds. That means the completion of the present time, at least 20 million dollars. A large part of that, at least seven or eight large part of that, at least seven or eight million, goes into the physical changes in that part of the campus. But also increasing tremendously the endowment of the campus, especially named chairs in a variety of the schools and colleges. Finally, continuing to build the administrative mechanism and its ability in planning and budgeting in the kind of steady state situation in which we find ourselves. When those things are done I ' ll be quite happy to leave the place in somebody else ' s hands, but that still requires a few more years ' work. I ' d like to stay around to see those things accomplished. UCLA Southern Campus 1975