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Photo by Reed Hutchinson
UCLA Photographic Services
Chancellor Emeritus Charles E. Young and his wife, Judy,
were greeted by Executive Vice Chancellor Daniel Neuman, former
colleagues and library supporters and staff at an event marking
the completion of his oral history. |
ORAL HISTORY IN THREE VOLUMES
Ever Young: a look past and forward
BY JUDY LIN-EFTEKHAR
UCLA Today
Flanked by administrators, faculty, friends and his wife, Judy,
Chancellor Emeritus Charles E. Young hefted the three thick volumes
that comprise his complete oral history spanning nearly 30 years
at the helm of UCLA. “This thing weighs a ton,” he said
jokingly to University Librarian Gary E. Strong.
That’s no surprise, considering his story chronicles UCLA’s
rise to national prominence under the leadership of a then-36-year-old
political scientist who started as the youngest chancellor in the
history of the University of California and ended as the longest-serving
leader of an American university.
The publication of Young’s oral history was commemorated
at a reception May 20 on the terrace of the library that bears his
name. Among the guests were members of the Gold Shield alumnae support
group, pivotal in establishing the UCLA Oral History Program in
1959 to collect and preserve oral recollections.
“This campus and its library would not have achieved our
present level of excellence without Charles Young’s vision,
determination and many years of dedication,” Strong told the
gathering.
Among the events recounted in Young’s oral history is the
controversy he faced when he opposed the UC Board of Regents’
decision to dismiss UCLA Assistant Professor of Philosophy Angela
Davis because of her membership in the Communist Party.
“I consider that a seminal event in my career and life,”
Young recalled. “I think history has shown that we did the
right thing.”
Early in his administration, Young encountered campus unrest over
the Vietnam War and civil rights protests. From the beginning of
his tenure, Young supported affirmative-action efforts to increase
the ethnic diversity of UCLA’s students, faculty and staff.
He publicly opposed the regents’ decision in 1995 to ban gender
and race in admissions decisions, and he stood up against Proposition
209, which banned affirmative action at the state’s public
universities. Voters passed it in 1996.
Interviewed by James V. Mink and Dale E. Treleven, former heads
of the Oral History Program, Young recorded a total of 34 hours
during 1984-85 and 1998-99. The publications can be consulted at
the Charles E. Young Research Library’s Department of Special
Collections and UC Berkeley’s Bancroft Library.
While his oral history represents a significant look back, Young,
72, is already sprinting forward at a fast clip. After retiring
from UCLA in 1997, and subsequently retiring after four years as
president of the University of Florida, he recently accepted a two-year
term as president of the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science
and Community Development in the Persian Gulf nation of Qatar.
Founded by the emir of Qatar, Sheik Hamad ibn Khalifa al Thani,
the foundation endeavors to improve education in that country —
ambitious plans that are generously supported in the tiny, oil-rich
emirate, Young noted.
“This is the first place I’ve been where I wish from
time to time that they didn’t have quite so much money,”
he joked, noting that sometimes plans take form without as much
forethought as he would prefer.
Young is helping bring American higher education to Qatar. Cornell,
Carnegie Mellon, Texas A&M and Virginia Commonwealth have opened
satellite campuses there, and the RAND Corporation established a
public policy institute there last year to help reform the nation’s
public K-12 educational system. Young expects as many as eight satellite
campuses will be added over the next two years.
“There won’t be a UCLA campus there, but there are
going to be several UCLA programs at Qatar,” he predicted,
although he’s not ready to identify them yet.
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