Former vice chancellor of the graduate school returns to the classroom

The last time Claudia Mitchell-Kernan taught classes, she stood behind a podium and simply lectured.

After spending the past 21 years running the graduate school, the former vice chancellor plans to return to teaching and learn the new technologies prevalent in modern classrooms.

“When I was teaching years ago, the primary mode was straight lecturing by the professor. Things are more lively now, and there is some technology that I’ll have to learn,” she said.

Although she has been a part of the UC system since the 1960s, Mitchell-Kernan said the recent rises in the cost of higher education, combined with the budget cuts, prompted her to give up her administrative post.

“There are many changes taking place in higher education that I do not embrace, and I really think that being a faculty member provides more of an opportunity to benefit students than serving on a board of administrators,” Mitchell-Kernan said.

She said that returning to teaching and writing books will allow her to influence students on a more direct level than serving as vice chancellor did.

“My experiences (in) the last 21 years have been tremendously changing,” she said. “I can either take them to the grave, or I can use them to better the future through writing or teaching.”

Before she returns to UCLA next January, Mitchell-Kernan plans to take an overdue vacation, spending a sabbatical year traveling in Africa and Samoa and finishing up some books.

Mitchell-Kernan was recognized for the many changes she implemented during her time at UCLA, including decreasing the time needed to complete a doctorate degree and providing more opportunities for students to do research in their field.

One of her largest accomplishments was to promote diversity at the graduate level.

Under Mitchell-Kernan’s leadership, the minority-student admissions at the graduate school rose 10 percent between 1987 and 2007 to reach 19 percent of the total student body.

“If you exclude fragments of your population, then you are only creating problems for yourself in the future,” she said, explaining why diversity was important in higher education.

One of Mitchell-Kernan’s accomplishments was to expand the Eugene V. Cota-Robles Fellowship for minority students, funded by the UC Office of the President, to which Mitchell-Kernan added more money and student spots.

Oluwadayo Oluwadara, a recipient of the Cota-Robles Fellowship who holds a doctorate degree in oral biology, said this fellowship was what helped him graduate.

“I came in as an international student so my tuition cost was higher than other students. The fellowship paid that tuition and let me continue studying,” Oluwadara said.

In addition to attracting minority students to the school, Mitchell-Kernan also worked to provide an interesting environment where they could complete their research efficiently and study things they were interested in, said Darnell Hunt, director of the Bunche Center for African American Studies.

“You want to support (the students) financially and also to create an environment in which they want to study, and Claudia helped both of these with the ethnic studies centers,” Hunt said.

Although Mitchell-Kernan said she does not know how the graduate school will change in the future, she does not think any drastic changes have to be made because the current system works well.

The post of vice chancellor will not be filled until March, but Michael Goldstein, a professor of public health and sociology, is temporarily filling in the position as interim vice provost.

A committee headed by history professor Ronald Mellor is in the process of compiling a list of candidates for the vice chancellor position and consulting with representatives from the graduate school.

The new vice chancellor is scheduled to begin on July 1, with final candidates being sent for approval to Chancellor Gene Block in March, Mellor said.