Sherry Lansing, Chair
Regents’ Special Committee to Consider the Selection of a President
University of California
1111 Franklin St., 12th Floor
Oakland, CA 94607-5200
Fax: (510) 987-9224

Dear Chair Lansing,

The selection of a new President of the University of California
provides all of us an important opportunity to set the future course of
the University. The Council of UC Faculty Associations, by far the
largest voluntary membership organization representing the faculty of
the University of California, would like to offer these principles for
who we think would best serve the interests of the university community:

The next President must have a very long and large view of the
University of California, animated by extensive experience in and deep
knowledge of public higher education. He or she should grasp the
seriousness of the University’s current predicaments, including
imperiled affordability and access to undergraduate education by the
middle class, shrinking graduate programs, the difficulties of
sustaining educational quality and research infrastructure, the problem
of retaining and supporting a first-rate research and teaching faculty,
the challenges posed by rapidly evolving but untested online education,
and growing disparities among the campuses, especially their access to
resources. The President must also be able to represent UC effectively
to legislators, the governor, and the people of California. He or she
should stem pressures toward further privatization and defend and
promote the public status and public mission of the University.

Above all, the next President should be a leader in the most august
sense of that word.

Sincerely,

Robert Meister,
President, Council of UC Faculty Associations
Professor History of Consciousness and Political and Social Thought, UC
Santa Cruz