Thank you, President Drake … thank you, Chair Leib … and thank you to the full Board of Regents for entrusting me with the responsibility of leading one of the most important and impactful institutions of higher education in the world. I have spent most of my life in public service, and being able to come back to a public university setting is very exciting and deeply meaningful.
I am eager to take up this role for several reasons. This is a crucial moment for higher education. We need bold innovation, and UCLA has a track record of embracing that innovation. The campus is also inextricably linked with the great City of Los Angeles — a diverse and cosmopolitan urban area that is multicultural, community-oriented, and simultaneously both local and global. And while UCLA is exceptional itself, I am excited to be part of the remarkable University of California system, which represents the essential and quintessential exemplar of public higher education in the United States and around the world.
UCLA is an extraordinary place across the three dimensions of its mission: in education, by being an engine of opportunity and social mobility for students of all backgrounds; as a research powerhouse, by generating knowledge and solutions to address complex challenges; and in service, by lifting up communities and providing the most advanced health care. It is also the home of one of the nation’s greatest athletic legacies, a major source of cultural enrichment for the region, and a motor of economic development for the City of Los Angeles and the state of California.
We must clearly and passionately articulate the many societal benefits that come from UCLA and its peer universities, because there has been an erosion of trust in higher education. At this moment, campus communities across the country are facing complex questions related to protecting student well-being, stopping any form of discrimination, and upholding free expression rights. University leaders must take up these issues thoughtfully while continuing to advocate for the immense value that higher education generates.
Now, for many people around the world, UCLA is known as a dream school — and this is truly a dream job for me.
I have often thought of myself as a boundary spanner — someone who has been enriched by experiencing and connecting across differences. I am a person whose life and career has bridged two great nations, the United States and Mexico. I am a person whose family of musicians, writers, scientists, and physicians links together the arts, sciences and humanities. And through my work in both academia and public policy, I have endeavored to connect knowledge and action in service to the common good.
The opportunity to lead such a broadly excellent public university in the multicultural City of Los Angeles brings all of these threads together.
I am so grateful for the chance to build on UCLA’s legacy, and along those lines, I want to express my deep appreciation to Chancellor Block for his 17 years of exceptional leadership. Thank you, Gene.
I also want to thank Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Darnell Hunt for stepping in to serve as interim chancellor during this transition.
As I prepare to take up the role of chancellor in January, I will spend a great deal of time listening to all constituencies — taking time to get to know UCLA’s faculty, staff, students, alumni, neighbors, and supporters. I also look forward to getting to know everyone in this room… and my family and I look forward to spending more time on UCLA’s beautiful campus, to deepening our connections to L.A., and to enmeshing ourselves within the vibrant Bruin community.
Thank you again, President Drake, Chair Leib, and this full board. I have always viewed UCLA as a remarkable and innovative institution, committed to the foundational mission of higher education. I recognize that I have been entrusted to safeguard and advance a university that has served the state of California and the world for more than a century.
I believe in institutions. They are the instruments humans have invented to collaboratively pursue valued goals and build shared legacies. The ultimate duty of any leader — the ethical imperative of leadership — is to safeguard the legacy received from those who came before us and hand it enriched to those who will follow. I promise that I will strive to meet this high standard by serving this great university and its community to the very best of my abilities.