To the Editor:
Sanford J. Ungar is right in his op-ed “13 Years an Archduke,” (The Chronicle, January 26) but he has it backwards. He understates his own importance. The heads of institutions of higher education that are smaller do have different jobs than those of institutions that are bigger, but the former have the more difficult job, not the latter. The reason is that almost all of the tasks that have to be done at a college are necessary regardless of its enrollment, and the responsibilities do not scale downward with fewer students.
Like Dr. Ungar, I happen to have a fancy title that doesn’t jibe with overseeing a two-block campus; actually, I possess a couple such titles. To avoid appearing too self-aggrandizing, when people say “Chancellor,” never mind “Chancellor and Dean,” I explain that if you use such honorifics, you have to curtsy—though, oddly, a few have done so. My school is enormous for a law school but tiny for a stand-alone institution. Although proudly affiliated with the University of California, we are separately governed and have our own budget.
Yet everything that is done within the vast system, we replicate on our own terms. For example, we engage in collective bargaining with three unions, independently; we meet the requirements of accrediting authorities; we comply with federal mandates on everything from financial aid to sexual assault. What might be done elsewhere by a specialist in labor relations or another in institutional research, must be performed by a generalist in our shop whose portfolio encompasses multiple functions but whose budget comes from less than one tenth as much tuition revenue.
Perhaps these structural facts should be taken into account by the many authorities that regulate and rank us. Institutions of higher education in the United States display tremendous diversity. Policies that are meant for a high-research-intensity comprehensive campus might not be appropriate for a special focus institution.
Frank H. Wu
Chancellor and Dean
University of California, Hastings College of Law
San Francisco