Michael Miller
UC Irvine's newly appointed chancellor, Michael V. Drake, estimates
he has visited the campus dozens of times. So, when Drake came to UCI
to give a speech and a press conference on Friday, it was hardly an
initiation.
For the campus community, however, it was a valuable opportunity
to meet the man who will take the reins of Orange County's largest
university in July.
At a gathering outside the library plaza in Aldrich Park, Drake
and current chancellor Ralph Cicerone addressed a crowd of more than
100 students, faculty members and administrators. In his short
speech, Drake paid tribute to his predecessor and spoke about the
need to strengthen UCI's ties to the local community.
"It's important for us to include as many people as possible,"
Drake said. "If we're competing in a global economy, we can't do that
if we have people in our borders who we marginalize and push aside."
A moment later, Drake noted: "California's economy is not going to
be a manufacturing economy in the future. It's going to be a
knowledge-based economy."
Drake, currently the UC vice president for health affairs, was
named the next UCI chancellor by the UC Board of Regents on Thursday.
In addition to being a professor, administrator and practicing
ophthalmologist for the past 30 years, Drake -- who will become the
school's first black chancellor when he takes office on July 1 -- has
won a reputation as a champion of diversity and minority student
enrollment.
Drake attended the ceremony with his wife Brenda, a San Francisco
attorney. Cicerone presented his successor with a pair of stuffed
anteater toys and a "Completely Insane Anteaters" T-shirt to wear to
athletic events.
Afterward, Drake and UC president Robert Dynes held a press
conference in the campus's administration building, in which both men
outlined their hopes and expectations for UCI in the coming years.
"Michael is a product of a nationwide search for chancellor,"
Dynes said to begin the conference. "He's a superb academic, a great
administrator, a warm person, and he'll lead the campus in a way that
you will be astounded."
Drake told reporters that he planned to continue seeing
ophthalmology patients even after stepping in as chancellor. He
currently practices at UC San Francisco, where he has been on the
faculty for nearly three decades.
"I always wanted to be a medical doctor, so I want to keep a
little of that going to continue my license," Drake explained,
adding, "It's great to be in a room with somebody where you're just
