Fall 2019 Update
This past weekend, new students joined many returning students, staff, faculty and alumni at more than 100 sites locally and across the globe at our annual Volunteer Day. Service has always been a priority for UCLA and it takes many forms every day all across our community. Please watch the video above to see what service looks like at UCLA.
In this issue
02. Welcoming Back Emily Carter
Number One in Rankings
This year, UCLA was once again named the nation’s No. 1 public university by two prominent rankings: US News & World Report and The Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education. And, in July, UCLA hospitals in Westwood and Santa Monica ranked #1 in California and #6 nationally.
These are great honors for our campus and speak to the exceptional quality of our students, faculty and staff on campus and throughout UCLA Health. These are particularly extraordinary achievements when you consider that UCLA is the youngest institution among the top 25 in both university rankings.
As we mark UCLA’s 100th anniversary, so much of what makes this campus stand out is our deep and steadfast commitment to a distinctly public mission. Our service mission, as you saw in the video above, means providing access to exceptional individuals all across our community and beyond, regardless of their background.
In May, the columnist Joe Mathews called UCLA “California’s most important educational institution.” While our academics and research “rival those of the Ivy League,” one-third of our graduates become first in their families to earn a four-year degree and 35 percent of undergraduates receive Pell grants – a rate, he notes, that is twice that of the Ivies.
As a first-generation college graduate myself, I am grateful for the opportunities I had early in life. That’s why my mission and UCLA’s is to continue offering opportunities to the best students, faculty and staff anywhere. If we continue these efforts, I am confident UCLA will remain on top well into our second century.
Photo by Bryan Ruiz @bryaan_julian
Welcoming Back Emily Carter
Several weeks ago, we welcomed our new Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Emily A. Carter back to UCLA. She returns to Los Angeles after 15 years at Princeton, where she was most recently dean of engineering and applied science, leading major research, education, outreach and diversity initiatives.
As EVC and Provost, Dr. Carter serves dual roles as UCLA’s chief operating and academic officer. This means she works very closely with me — in addition to senior administrators, the Academic Senate and many other colleagues — to guide strategic planning and develop and implement priorities that move the campus forward.
Dr. Carter began her independent academic career at UCLA in 1988, rising through the chemistry and biochemistry faculty ranks. She left a lasting legacy here, in part by helping launch two institutes that still exist today: The Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics and the California NanoSystems Institute.
At Princeton, Dr. Carter held professorships in mechanical and aerospace engineering and in applied and computational mathematics. She was also the founding director of Princeton’s Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment and led its development from the ground up.
Dr. Carter is an outstanding addition to UCLA’s leadership team, and her dedication to our mission as a public university in a world-class city will be an enormous asset for our campus. I look forward to seeing all that she will achieve in this important role.
Photo by David Kelly Crow