IRVINE : Finalists Named for UCI Vice Chancellor

Four people have made the final cut for the executive vice chancellor post at UC Irvine, the second-highest position at the university, officials said this week.

A screening committee has narrowed the list from 150 down to one woman and three men, a UCI spokeswoman said. The candidates will visit the campus this spring to meet publicly with students, faculty and staff.

Committee members--10 faculty, two students, one staff member and one administrator--plan to pick the new executive vice chancellor by June, UCI spokeswoman Karen Newell Young said.

Acting Executive Vice Chancellor Spencer Olin--who filled the opening created by the departure of L. Dennis Smith late last year--is not one of the final four candidates.

Olin withdrew his name from consideration at the beginning of the search process in December, Young said. He will return to his former post as dean of humanities at UCI.

A job description includes: filling in for Chancellor Laurel L. Wilkening in her absence, acting as chief academic and budget officer on campus, coordinating the activities of vice chancellors, and acting as liaison between Wilkening and UC President Jack Peltason.

The 14-member search committee, led by chemistry professor F. Sherwood Rowland, has trimmed the final list of candidates to Sidney Harris Golub, Wallace D. Loh, Michael A. Olivas and Myra Strober.

“This is the first time we’ve handled a search this way,� Young said, referring to how final candidates were announced publicly. “The chancellor is striving for as open a search process for senior-level positions as possible.�

Golub is the interim dean and provost of medical sciences at the UCLA School of Medicine, Young said. He specializes in immunology and has won prizes for cancer research. At UCLA, he heads the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Advisory Committee.

The University of Washington is home for Loh, who is dean of the Law School. He was also a visiting professor at the University of Texas as well as Vanderbilt, Emory and Beijing universities.

During Loh’s stint as dean, enrollment of underrepresented students tripled, the number of female students in the school increased to equal that of men, and the caliber of entering students climbed into the top 10th of students nationwide, Young said.

Olivas teaches law at the University of Houston, is director of the university’s Institute for Higher Education Law and Governance and heads the Law Center as associate dean.

Olivas also served as visiting professor and special counsel to then-Chancellor Donna Shalala at the University of Wisconsin at Madison in 1989 and 1990.

Strober is a professor and associate dean for academic affairs at the Stanford University School of Education, Young said.

She was also founding director of the Center for Research on Women at Stanford, Young said, and headed a provost’s committee to recruit and retain female faculty at the university.