UCLA's leaders create a great university

Edward Augustus Dickson

Although their titles were different — changing over time from director to vice president, provost and finally chancellor — their vision for the campus was remarkably similar: to make UCLA a great university.

Two men from very different backgrounds whose paths happened to cross brought the campus to life. Edward Augustus Dickson was an idealistic journalist who became political editor at the Los Angeles Express and the first member of the UC Board of Regents to represent the southern half of the state.

The other was an austere Midwestern educator, Ernest Carroll Moore (1871-1955), a stern man who favored rimless eyeglasses and three-button suits with Herbert Hoover collars. He taught philosophy and education at Berkeley, Yale and Harvard before becoming president of the Los Angeles State Normal School in 1917. Among Moore's students at Berkeley was Dickson.

Ernest Carroll Moore

Moore dreamed of making the Normal School, then the largest teacher-training institution in California, among the best in the country. Dickson's goal was to establish a branch of the University of California in the Southland. On Oct. 25, 1917, they met at the Jonathan Club in Los Angeles and forged a partnership that two years later resulted in the establishment of the Southern Branch of the University of California.

Moore became its director from its founding in 1919 until 1930. By then, the campus had been renamed the University of California at Los Angeles and moved from crowded Vermont Avenue to the bare hills of Westwood. From 1931 until he retired in 1936, he was vice president and provost.

Other leaders followed:

Earle R. Hedrick (1876-1943) — A UCLA mathematics professor, Hedrick became the vice president and provost of UCLA in 1937, jokingly referring to his appointment as “the accident.” He fiercely guarded UCLA’s growing reputation for academic excellence, especially of its new graduate program.

Clarence A. Dykstra (1883-1950) — After he became provost in 1945, hundreds of distinguished scholars joined the faculty, and the physical campus grew with new residence halls and parking structures. "The day will arrive, and sooner than most of us realize," Dykstra predicted presciently, "when tens of thousands of cars will come to the campus and need space in which to park."

Raymond B. Allen (1902-1986) — A physician and former president of the University of Washington, he was the first to have the title of chancellor in 1951. His medical background was considered ideal because UCLA was building its medical center and establishing the schools of medicine, dentistry and nursing. But it was football that ultimately led to Allen's resignation in June 1959. Dissension broke out after it was discovered that a booster club had been making secret payments to Bruin football players, and Allen lost the confidence of the alumni and regents.

Vern O. Knudsen (1893-1974) — This UCLA physicist and founding dean of the Graduate Division was installed as chancellor in 1959 while a yearlong search was conducted for Allen’s successor. He retired in 1960, ending his 38-year UCLA career.

Franklin David Murphy (1916-1994) — A physician who became chancellor in 1960, Murphy was a Renaissance man whose love of books and the arts raised UCLA's libraries and galleries to new prominence. His wish to make the campus more beautiful led to the creation of the sculpture garden named for him. Achieving more autonomy for the campus became the signature issue of his administration.

Charles E. Young (b. 1931) — When he became chancellor in 1968 at 36, Young was the youngest leader ever to head a UC campus. When he retired in 1997 after 29 years in office, he was the longest-serving chief executive among leaders of the nation’s major universities. During his tenure, UCLA's operating budget grew from $170 million to more than $1.6 billion, and the number of library volumes, extramural research funding and private support increased.

Albert Carnesale (b.1936) — Appointed chancellor in 1997, this nuclear engineer and former provost of Harvard stepped down June 30 after seeing UCLA rise to the top tier of the country's research universities. While UCLA's operating budget reached $3.5 billion, state funds dwindled. In other arenas, however, external research funding nearly doubled from 1997 to 2005, from $410 million to $821 million. And private giving broke records when the most successful fund-raising campaign in the history of higher education topped out at more than $3 billion.

Under Carnesale, the campus was transformed from a commuter school to a residential one. Undergraduate education expanded to include small seminars for freshmen, more research opportunities and international studies. Through his UCLA in LA initiative, roughly 100 partnerships between faculty and community organizations now exist.

"UCLA is one of the world's great universities, public or private," Carnesale said when he announced he was stepping down. "Few institutions can match its depth and breadth of excellence in education, research, service, health care, arts and cultural offerings and athletics. I am proud to have served as its eighth chief executive."

Norman Abrams (b.TK) — A professor in the School of Law, Abrams was appointed acting chancellor in July, 2006, a post he agreed to take provided that he was not expected to be just a caretaker; he wanted to "keep the campus moving forward." Almost immediately he was plunged into a yearlong series of challenges and crises, including African-American freshman enrollment rates that reached its lowest level in more than 30 years. A vocal advocate of the importance of diversity, Abrams went to work to correct any misperceptions that UCLA was not welcoming to African Americans and other underrepresented groups, and to urge a refinement to the admissions process to make it fairer to all applicants. He also assembled a task force of campus representatives, alumni and community leaders to provide counsel to the campus and to promote discussion with the African-American community. As a result, enrollment of black freshman enrollment doubled the following year. Abrams' response was "a turning point for UCLA's place in the community," said Janina Montero, vice chancellor for student affairs. "He has been not only a leader, but a mentor."