High definition

Tuesday, May 19, 1998

High definition

Q&A: Dr. W. Rory Hume outlines his goals and discusses his
role as UCLA’s

new executive vice chancellor

By Lawrence Ferchaw

Daily Bruin Contributor

On Friday morning, the UC Board of Regents announced their
approval of the appointment of Dr. W. Rory Hume to be UCLA’s next
executive vice chancellor.

Hume is currently dean of the school of dentistry, a position he
has held since November 1996. He will assume office as UCLA’s
second-in-command on July 1.

On Friday, Hume sat down with The Bruin to discuss his new role,
his past and his goals.

What do you see as your role at the university as executive vice
chancellor, and what do you expect in your first year?

The job is to assist the chancellor in his work, particularly in
structuring the support elements of the campus to meet the academic
needs of the university.

The chancellor has a broad range of responsibilities as chief
executive officer of the university, so he uses the executive vice
chancellor, not exclusively, but to a reasonably strong degree, to
help him with the management of the internal aspects.

So, the executive vice chancellor has responsibilities related
particularly to internal consultation and the management of the
internal resources.

That is done in close consultation and collaboration with the
chancellor and with the remainder of the chancellor’s support
staff.

So, it’s not a solo operation, it’s very much a team operation,
and I plan to consult carefully and thoroughly with the deans, with
the Academic Senate, with the staff and with the students to help
the chancellor determine the best ways to organize the university
and to use its resources to get our job done.

As executive vice chancellor, your duties will include academic
planning; what are your plans?

We have a well-established process of strategic planning linked
to the budget process. Executive Vice Chancellor (Charles) Kennel
established that process and I plan to continue it, I think, in a
slightly modified form.

But, I will be expecting the academic units of the university to
continue to update their strategic plans so that they have a clear
vision of where they are going.

I’ll expect them to communicate that to me or to the chancellor
to help us determine how we allocate our resources.

The strategic plans of the academic units allow us to determine
the best way to allocate resources to support the whole campus.
It’s very important that resource allocation is linked to a clear
process of planning goals and priorities. We’ll continue that
process, and I hope strengthen it.

The chancellor said that one of the reasons he chose you was for
your experience with the UC system. How familiar are you with UCLA
and the UC system?

I’ve worked in research and teaching in the University of
California for a total of 13 years. I’ve also had, during that
time, good experience with the processes of consultation between
the administration of the university and the Academic Senate, which
is the representational organization for the faculty.

I’ve served on senate committees at UCSF and earlier at UCLA,
and I’ve also had some experience systemwide as a senate
representative.

Chancellor Carnesale is still relatively new to UCLA. Do you
think that will mean an expanded role for you as executive vice
chancellor?

I don’t think so. He’s an extremely capable man who understands
our system very well.

I think I will play a similar role as former executive vice
chancellors in assisting the chancellor – allowing him more time
than he would otherwise have to focus on the representation of the
university to external constituencies and to devoting his attention
to the broader philosophies of education that need to be
addressed.

What experiences as dean of the dental school will help you to
fulfill your role as executive vice chancellor?

The dental school is like any other academic unit of the
university; we receive funds from the state, we have to generate a
lot of additional funds on our own in order to do our work.

And, we do the same sorts of things the remainder of the campus
does: We teach young people how to attain their career goals or to
help them attain their career goals, we do research to help improve
the body of knowledge, we do education to the broader community, we
communicate with the international body of scholars in our field.
All of these things are common to all academic units.

In addition, we run a business enterprise, the clinical
enterprise, that I think has given me additional valuable
experience.

So, I learned in my time in administration of dentistry many of
the elements that are needed in broader university
administration.

People have claimed that your appointment comes as a result of
restructuring at the dental school. How do you answer those
critics, and what exactly has your role been?

I certainly came to the dental school with a mandate and a
personal vision to make this school as good as it could be.

I worked closely with faculty and staff to define our goals.

We then set about changing our program and our system of
administrative support to meet those program goals.

If that was in anyway related to my selection as executive vice
chancellor, I think all of those things are positive reasons.

Our school has grown in size since I’ve been here. I think it
has also grown in effectiveness.

If I can bring those two things to the campus, then I’ll be
really pleased.

Chancellor Carnesale announced Friday his vision for making UCLA
a great university. Where do you fit in and how do you hope to help
him reach that goal?

I was very pleased to hear him discuss the enhancement of
undergraduate education through a revision of the base structures
of that program.

I look forward to working with the faculty, the administration
and the students in the College of Letters and Sciences to find the
best way to provide the most effective undergraduate education.

I was also very pleased to hear him discuss the potential for
using enhanced educational technology systems to assist us in the
educational process.

He quite rightly pointed out that our role in this university is
to assess, as well as to use, new technology, and I look forward to
working with all elements of the campus in their activity.

I was also very pleased to hear his vision concerning
diversity.

As he said in his inaugural address, we have to work within the
constraints of SP-1 and Proposition 209, and we will do everything
we can within the law to ensure the diversity of our student
body.

Those were the three elements of his vision that interested me
the most, and I look forward to working on each of them with
him.

Protesters outside the inauguration demanded more than remaining
within the law. How do you respond to them?

I value very much their expression of opinion. I think that it’s
extremely worthwhile in a university like this for students to
consider such issues and make their views plain. In that respect, I
was pleased to see the display of concern and energetic request for
change.

I personally cannot see how it will help the process for anybody
within this university to break the law. For the chancellor, or for
me, or for any other administrator to break the law, in my view
would not be helpful at this time.

Why do you think you were chosen to be executive vice
chancellor?

I think that the chancellor took advice from many people from
this campus about many people who could have served in this role,
and I know many individuals here who could do well as executive
vice chancellor and help the university in its work.

I believe that he chose me because I have demonstrated that I
can work with faculty and staff to develop a clear vision for the
units in which I have worked, that I can articulate that vision,
that I can listen to criticism, listen to advice, and then
formulate a plan of action.

Some people in the school of dentistry have described you as a
unique dean. What do you think they mean by that?

I’ve always believed that I would be more effective as the dean
of a faculty if I continued to be engaged in patient care, teaching
and research because they’re the things that we do.

As dean, I wasn’t able to devote as much time to any of them as
I would have liked, but I did maintain some activity in each of
those three areas.

There are not many deans of dental schools who do all of those
things and perhaps that’s why I have been characterized as unique.
Unfortunately, as executive vice chancellor, I will have to stop
seeing patients, and I will very probably have to stop making very
significant teaching contributions. The chancellor has agreed that
I should be allowed to continue my research activities at least on
a limited basis.

How long do you see yourself as executive vice chancellor?

That’s always a difficult question to answer, but I’ll do my
best. I will continue as long as I clearly enjoy what I’m doing and
as long as the chancellor wants me to. I hope that that’s for a
very long time.

PATIL ARMENIAN

Dr. W. Rory Hume, the dean of the school of dentistry, was
recently appointed executive vice chancellor.