April 2004

 

Provost King’s Farewell Remarks

C. Judson King, Provost and Senior Vice President, Academic Affairs

 

I want to begin by recognizing the person who is the true secret behind whatever I may have accomplished. Jeanne is my wife of 47 years, 41 of them at UC and 37 of them in academic administration. She has been my constant source of support, good sense, sanity and relief!

 

My entire career has been spent with the University of California, since Jeanne and I arrived in Berkeley in January of 1963. That was truly an ancient time -- a year and a half before the Free Speech Movement.

 

In my somewhat over 41 years with UC, I have been through the ranks of Assistant, Associate and full Professor, have been vice chair of a department for five years, chair for nine, dean of a college for six years, provost for professional schools and colleges for seven years, Vice Provost for Research at the system level for one year, and now Provost and Senior Vice President for almost nine years. It has been a wonderful experience, which I wouldn’t trade for anything. The University of California has provided the ideal atmosphere for development of an academic career, for teaching and research, and for achieving a reputation in my field. It has also provided an ideal situation for academic administration at all levels, and for getting to know and understand a truly great and multidimensional faculty.

 

What is it that makes the University of California so special? First, there are one’s colleagues. There are absolutely top-notch faculty, across all fields. They are outstanding consultants in any field that may be pertinent to your own activities, and they provide much intellectual stimulation. So do the exceptionally strong graduate students, who are drawn here by the stature of the faculty, and the undergraduates, who are also outstanding by virtue of the 12½ % criterion of the California Master Plan. With its resource base and exceptional intellectual value system and reputation, the University of California provided a wonderful launching pad for federal and industrial research support – which in my case included the very helpful avenue of the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, a national lab next door to the Berkeley campus. At UC you are truly in a situation where you are limited only by your own creativity and ingenuity. Finally, we are the research university of the largest, greatest and most dynamic state, and we have the strong interactions with all the rest of the state that go with that, bringing major benefits to both the university and the state.

 

It all goes together in an intricate structure of quality, effectiveness and success. And if any part of that structure is harmed or removed, all parts are harmed.

 

That is why the present budgetary situation is so serious and challenging. If UC changes such that those resources, that climate, those faculty or those students are not there, it all goes down together to the great detriment of the State. Faculty will not be attracted, and therefore the best students will not be attracted, the reputation suffers, faculty are even less attracted, and so forth.

 

The Regents, the administration and the Academic Senate all have to work together preserve and enhance this institution and to make sure that this scenario does not happen. Our valued tradition of shared governance provides us a vehicle to do so. It works!

 

The potential role of The Regents here is large, larger than it may seem. Regents have been given a public trust. Regents are known to speak their minds. They get much more attention in the media than do provosts (thank goodness!). Regents know the university and can draw conclusions as to what is needed for it to thrive. Regents have the ultimate approval on the most important issues that face the university, and their actions are noticed. Our public trust is important and it is in danger. Working together, we need all do what we can to preserve and enhance it.

 

It has been a pleasure to serve.