College of California President Michael V. Drake introduced Wednesday he would step down on the finish of the 2024-25 educational 12 months from the nation’s high public analysis college system after managing the pandemic, campus policing, tumultuous protests and price range woes throughout what may have been a difficult five-year tenure.
Drake, 74, introduced management expertise, educational credentials, political savvy and private qualities that helped regular UC at a time of turmoil when he took the helm in 2020 after serving for 4 many years within the UC system after which as president of The Ohio State College. Throughout his UC presidency, the pandemic blew up campus budgets and sowed uncertainty over reopening school rooms. The 2020 killing of George Floyd by a white police officer triggered calls for to defund campus regulation enforcement. Relationships with Sacramento had frayed, jeopardizing state funding. Then final 12 months campuses have been roiled by protests over the Israel-Hamas warfare.
“It has been the glory of a lifetime to function president of the College of California these previous a number of years, and I’m immensely pleased with what the UC group has completed,” Drake stated in a press release. “At each flip, I’ve sought to take heed to these I served, to uphold our shared UC values, and to do all I might to depart this establishment in higher form than it was earlier than. I’m proud to see the College persevering with to make a constructive influence on the lives of numerous Californians by analysis, educating, and public service.”
Drake guided the system’s transition to distant instruction and helped develop security protocols — aided by his personal background in public well being with a medical diploma in ophthalmology and expertise as UC vice chairman for well being affairs in 2000.
Drake additionally needed to navigate a high-profile controversy when UCLA introduced two years in the past that it deliberate to depart the Pac-12 for the Massive Ten — a transfer that infuriated Gov. Gavin Newsom, many regents and UC Berkeley leaders who have been left within the lurch with a collapsing athletic convention. The regents in the end directed UCLA to pay Berkeley $10 million yearly for 3 years to share among the income the Westwood campus will obtain from the Massive Ten’s extra profitable media rights deal.
As the primary Black president in UC historical past, Drake spoke about his personal detrimental private experiences with policing — he stated he and his sons had been racially profiled. Such experiences helped him lead a systemwide effort to enhance security practices. And his lifelong dedication to opening entry to various college students produced document expansions in enrollment, with UC saying this week that the system had admitted the most important, most various class of scholars for fall 2024 ever. His initiatives included creation of the UC Native American Alternative Plan, which offers free tuition for members of federally acknowledged tribes.
Drake is also credited with bettering relations with Newsom and state legislators, and hammering out a five-year funding compact that introduced extra monetary stability to the college. UC Educational Senate Chair Jim Steintrager stated the reset in relationships, which have been fractured through the tenure of earlier UC President Janet Napolitano, helped UC safe a modest funding enhance this 12 months when many anticipated a significant minimize.
Newsom, in a press release, praised Drake and his accomplishments.
“President Drake took the reins of the College of California through the peak of the pandemic and has led with grace and imaginative and prescient within the years since,” Newsom stated. “He has used his many years of expertise to advocate for higher entry to larger training for all Californians and has at all times fought for tutorial excellence. On behalf of all Californians, I thank President Drake for his management, for rising our UC system, and for paving a brighter path ahead for our state. His legacy of service in larger training has undoubtedly helped us develop the following technology of extraordinary California leaders, and it’s been an honor to work alongside him.”
However Drake has additionally drawn criticism on various fronts for failing to handle main points. The Israel-Hamas warfare triggered explosive protests and deeply divided campuses over free speech, educational freedom and harassment of supporters from all sides. Drake, below stress from the Legislature, is at the moment working with chancellors to craft a plan to constantly and uniformly implement campus guidelines on protests — however that would deliver down the type of police motion this fall that triggered uproars at UCLA, UC San Diego, UC Irvine, UC Santa Cruz and UC Santa Barbara.
Regardless of Drake’s private ardour to enhance policing, advocates of minimizing or eliminating campus regulation enforcement have been upset by his systemwide group security plan, saying it preserved the established order by failing to cut back campus police forces. Some college students and college and employees members stated the problems of anti-Black police violence triggered by Floyd’s homicide stay unresolved.
Dylan Rodriguez, a UC Riverside professor of Black research and media and cultural research, stated Drake additionally didn’t create lasting options to the financial uncertainty and stress that set off the nation’s largest-ever educational employees’ strike in 2022. And campuses nonetheless grapple with inequitable funding, he stated — including that Riverside and UC Merced educate probably the most underserved college students within the system however don’t get their justifiable share of assets.
“He left us with a bigger police price range, extra financial insecurity for graduate college students and an irreconcilable battle on campus relating to the continuing genocide of Palestinians,” Rodriguez stated. “He was at greatest mediocre if not a failure throughout the board.”
Rafael Jaime, president of the 48,000-member educational employees union, UAW 4811, gave Drake credit score for his help of campus labor. “He performed an vital function in agreeing to a historic contract that made educational employment and analysis higher and extra inclusive,” Jaime stated.
He added that the union is able to work with him within the coming 12 months to resolve unfair-labor-practice costs stemming from a union strike earlier this 12 months over the Israel-Hamas warfare and one other set of negotiations starting in January for a brand new contract.
In different initiatives, Drake led the event of a systemwide plan to lift tuition annually for the incoming class, then freeze that degree for six years. The plan, which he applied in Ohio, has helped deliver monetary stability and predictability for households. He additionally has labored to supply extra monetary help to college students to assist them graduate with out debt.
Celene Aridin, the outgoing UC Pupil Assn. president, stated she appreciated Drake’s willingness to fulfill with college students and assist join them with at-times-unresponsive campus directors — particularly through the tense spring when some protesters have been arrested and “brutalized” throughout pro-Palestinian actions. She stated he “did his greatest, for probably the most half” and hoped he would come with extra scholar voices in ongoing efforts to craft plans to implement campus guidelines on free speech, protests and civil rights.
Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Training, stated Drake was one of many nation’s most completed academic leaders however operated quietly as an “unsung hero” who stabilized UC funding, introduced within the subsequent technology of chancellors at UCLA and UC Berkeley and stored the college system transferring ahead amid declining belief in larger training.
George Blumenthal, a former UC Santa Cruz chancellor and professional in higher-education governance, stated Drake’s successor may have a tall process forward overseeing the nation’s most advanced public analysis college system — a $50-billion operation of 10 campuses, six educational well being methods and three nationwide laboratories.
Along with upcoming labor negotiations, that are more likely to be troublesome, the following UC president might want to handle extreme monetary straits at a number of campuses together with an anticipated continuation of protests over the Israel-Hamas warfare and any fallout of the November presidential election.
Janet Reilly, UC Board of Regents chair, will quickly appoint a committee to start a nationwide seek for the following UC president. The search committee will embody scholar, school, employees, and alumni representatives, in addition to regents, and can search enter from the UC group and the general public.
“It has been a rare honor to work alongside Michael Drake, a considerate chief who has superior the College’s mission together with his forward-looking method. I admire his nice partnership with the UC Board of Regents as we’ve explored thrilling alternatives and tackled difficult points — all within the service of our college students, school, employees and the broader group,” Reilly stated. “President Drake has devoted a lot of his profession, his power, and his experience to the College of California and his contributions will most positively go away an enduring influence and an inspiring legacy on this establishment.”
Drake, who was born in New York Metropolis and raised in New Jersey and Sacramento because the son of a physician and a social employee, attended Stanford College earlier than transferring to UC San Francisco for medical college. He served as chancellor of UC Irvine and UC systemwide vice chairman for well being affairs earlier than taking the helm at Ohio State after which UC.
A music fan, he performs the guitar and is an avid bicycle owner. He’s married to Brenda Drake, an legal professional, and has two sons and 4 grandchildren.
