[Final reflections]: Chief executive position has a varied history

On June 30, Albert Carnesale’s tenure as UCLA Chancellor
will end.

Carnesale has been the fifth individual to hold the title of
UCLA chancellor and only the eighth chief executive officer in the
87-year history of this university. Even more significantly, his
nine years as UCLA chancellor will be the third-longest of any UCLA
chief executive officer in the campus’s history, surpassed
only by those of Charles E. Young and Ernest C. Moore.

Only three individuals have held the position of UCLA chancellor
““ Murphy, Young and Carnesale ““ since 1960. During this
same period, nine individuals have been chancellor at UC Berkeley;
eight have served as president of the University of California.

In the last two instances of transition ““ from Murphy to
Young in 1968 and from Young to Carnesale in 1997 ““ the
changeover was smooth. In each case, the appointment of the next
chancellor was announced months in advance.

In contrast, the current state of the chancellor search may
bring pause ““ perhaps nervousness ““ to those on campus.
However, in the expanse of campus history, such a circumstance is
not new.

In 1936, upon Provost Moore’s retirement, Robert G. Sproul
served as chief executive officer for a year. In 1937, Earle R.
Hedrick was named provost.

Five years later, with World War II underway, President Sproul
and the regents did not appoint a new provost; instead, Sproul
served as de facto chief executive officer, aided by a three-person
administrative committee. This lasted three years, until 1945, when
Clarence Dykstra was appointed.

Dykstra’s term also lasted only five years, cut short by
his sudden death. Once again, interim arrangements were enacted: A
new three-person administrative committee served as the executive
office for the next two years.

In 1952, after an 18-month search and a review of 50 candidates,
Raymond Allen was appointed with the new title of
“chancellor.”

After he resigned, the regents appointed Vern Knudsen as
chancellor in 1959, with the knowledge that he was planning to
retire in one year.

The regents then appointed Franklin Murphy as chancellor in
1960. Murphy served until 1968, when he resigned to become chief
executive officer of the Times-Mirror Co.

Charles Young succeeded Murphy. He served for nearly 29 years
before he retired in 1997 and was followed by Carnesale.

Today, the position of chancellor at UCLA is one of the most
complex of any university chief executive position in the U.S. The
chancellor is responsible for the academic, instructional and
research programs of the College of Letters and Science, seven
professional schools, four health science schools, three hospitals
and a library of 8 million volumes (one of the 10 largest in the
U.S.).

The chancellor of UCLA oversees a campus operation with an
annual budget of $3.5 billion. The position requires skills to
perform multiple roles, in the setting of a (quasi-) public
university that is also expected to compete qualitatively with the
best (and better-funded) private universities.

Sandbrook is a UCLA alumnus and was a member of the Daily
Bruin staff from 1968 to 1973. He has held a number of
administrative positions at UCLA, including serving as Chancellor
Young’s assistant for nearly 20 years.