UCLA Chancellor Charles E. Young, the longest serving head of a major American university, announced that he will retire effective June 30, 1997. Young, 64, has served as UCLA chancellor for 28 years.
"When I became chancellor in 1968, my stated goal was to move UCLA from the second level of good universities to the first rank of excellent universities," Young said on Feb. 14, when he announced his retirement. "The National Research Council rankings are a fulfillment of that dream. Having achieved my ambitious goals for UCLA, it is time to hand over the reins to new leadership with even bigger horizons to conquer."
During Young's tenure, UCLA has achieved recognition as one of the most highly regarded campuses in the nation. Last fall, the National Research Council rated 31 of UCLA's Ph.D. programs among the top 20 in their fields.
UC President Richard C. Atkinson said Young's retirement as chancellor will be a great loss to UC. "The UCLA campus is one of the great stars of higher education in this century. The name of Charles E. Young will be forever linked with the development of UCLA into the stellar quality university campus that it is today," he said. "UCLA today is the epitome of a thriving, modern research university, thanks in large measure to the indefatigable efforts of Chancellor Young."
Atkinson also acknowledged the contributions of Young's wife, Sue, "who has served so effectively as an outstanding ambassador for the campus and the university."
Young, a professor of political science, said he plans to teach at UCLA and work on behalf of the campus, after retiring. During the next 17 months, his three primary goals are to build a strong leadership team for the future, to complete efforts to revise the processes for resource allocation and to prepare UCLA for a new fund-raising campaign.
Young became chancellor at UCLA in 1968 at a time of campus unrest across the nation, sparked by the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement. Two years ago, the campus celebrated its 75th anniversary and Young's 25th anniversary as chancellor.
Since 1968, the campus operating budget has grown 10 times to $1.7 billion. UCLA enrolls 35,000 students, employs 18,000 full-time faculty and staff and serves more than 400,000 patients a year through its medical center, which has been judged "Best in the West" for six consecutive years by U.S. News & World Report. An estimated one in every 130 California residents is a UCLA graduate and 62 percent of their diplomas are signed by Young.
Young, a California native, was born and raised in Highland in San Bernardino County. He graduated with honors from UC Riverside in 1955, where he served as that campus' first student body president. He earned his master's degree and Ph.D. in political science at UCLA.
Young taught political science at UC Davis and UCLA before joining the UC Office of the President in 1959 as a staff assistant to President Clark Kerr, when Kerr helped create the Master Plan for Higher Education.
In 1960, Young returned to UCLA, where he held several executive posts under Chancellor Franklin D. Murphy. Following Murphy's resignation, Young was named chancellor on July 12, 1968 and assumed the job in September of that year.
Young is recognized nationally and internationally for his leadership in higher education, said C. Peter Magrath, president of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (NASULGC). In addition to his involvement with NASULGC, Young is active in the Association of American Universities, the American Council on Education and the Business-Higher Education Forum.
He also has been a national leader and spokesman for intercollegiate athletics reform, serving on the National Collegiate Athletic Association President's Commission and the Knight Foundation Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics.