College of Miami President Julio Frenk, a Mexico-born international well being skilled, will turn into the subsequent chancellor of UCLA and first Latino tapped to steer the nation’s prime public analysis college, successful unanimous approval Wednesday by College of California regents — because the campus faces a darkish time of divisive protests.
Frenk, 70, will carry deep experience in public well being, a medical diploma and expertise as Mexico’s former well being minister to the Westwood campus — equipping him to supervise its complete community of hospitals and clinics together with the massive tutorial enterprise of 46,700 college students. Frenk has additionally proved to be a prodigious fundraiser, main a $2.5-billion marketing campaign for the College of Miami’s centennial subsequent yr and quadrupling contributions as Harvard’s dean of the college of public well being — serving to safe a historic $350-million endowment reward.
Frenk will succeed Chancellor Gene Block, who will step down July 31 after a 17-year tenure that included steering UCLA via a monetary disaster and international pandemic to achieve new heights in increasing enrollment, range, philanthropy and analysis funding.
Frenk is not going to take the reins till January 2025. Darnell Hunt, UCLA’s govt vice chancellor and provost, will function interim chancellor till then after Block returns to his college place as a researcher in sleep cycles and circadian rhythms.
UC regents unanimously authorized the appointment of Frenk, who was advisable by UC President Michael V. Drake. He’ll earn an annual base wage of $978,904.
“At this significant second for increased schooling, returning to the general public sector to steer one of many prime analysis universities on the planet — together with one of many 10 largest tutorial well being methods — is an thrilling alternative and a fantastic honor for me,” Frenk mentioned in an announcement after the vote. “I stay up for including my lifelong dedication to public service in schooling and well being care to the colourful, various, and cosmopolitan group that’s Los Angeles.”
Julio Frenk, left, will take over as UCLA chancellor in Jan. 2025. Darnell Hunt, proper, UCLA’s govt vice chancellor and provost, will function interim chancellor.
(Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Occasions)
Frenk will come to UCLA at a very fraught time, as protests over the Israel-Hamas warfare, labor strife, mounting burdens on college and lingering pandemic blues have roiled the campus. Regardless of UCLA’s prime tutorial rating and standing as probably the most applied-to college within the nation, many campus members report what they are saying is unprecedented division, acrimony, burnout and malaise. The division was mirrored in a detailed however unsuccessful college vote to censure Block and categorical no confidence in his management dealing with the college’s response to a pro-Palestinian encampment and mob assault in opposition to it.
In a number of latest interviews with UCLA college and college students about their hopes for the subsequent chancellor, the dominant challenge raised was the necessity to unify the shattered campus.
“Traditionally, I don’t assume we’ve seen this a lot division — it’s tough to carry the group collectively,” mentioned Andrea Kasko, UCLA Tutorial Senate chair. “The subsequent chancellor goes to need to rebuild belief with everybody, do a whole lot of listening. The group must heal.”
Frenk’s background could go well with him to that activity. Because the son of a German Jewish father who fled Nazi Germany within the Thirties, he has a private sensitivity to antisemitism; he additionally has lauded the facility of tolerance, inclusion, generosity and kindness he says Mexicans provided his displaced household and helped them succeed.
“Universities are extra important than ever earlier than — particularly as we transfer towards this advanced setting with divisive discourse pitting some teams of society in opposition to others,” he mentioned in an interview a number of years in the past in Thrive World. “Now we have to face out as a logo of utilizing motive to take care of our variations in a respectful method — of having the ability to embrace range in all dimensions. However that range must be accompanied by the concept we are able to tolerate totally different views, as a result of it additionally consists of range of opinion.”
Frenk, nonetheless, has not handled the extreme pro-Palestinian protests and counterprotests which have ignited violence, aggressive police actions, arrests and pupil disciplinary circumstances at UCLA and different campuses throughout the nation. College of Miami college students haven’t organized a pro-Palestinian encampment; a campus discuss two months in the past by survivors of the Oct. 7 Hamas assault on Israel seems to have drawn no protests.
At UCLA, Frenk additionally will face controversy over policing and security practices. Whereas UCLA management has been criticized for failing to safe sufficient regulation enforcement to stem assaults in opposition to pro-Palestinian protesters on April 30 and Could 1, others are extremely essential of the present degree of policing.
Carlos Santos, an affiliate professor of social welfare, mentioned the brand new chancellor should tackle rising issues about what some campus members see as extreme use of police drive and punishment in opposition to peaceable protesters.
And the way effectively Frenk will transition from a profession at smaller personal universities — the College of Miami has 18,000 college students — to the a lot bigger public UCLA and the 10-campus UC system stays to be seen.
At UC Berkeley, as an example, college advocated for an inner candidate to switch outgoing Chancellor Carol Christ, given the campus complexities, and obtained one in enterprise faculty Dean Wealthy Lyons, who will take the helm July 1. Some UCLA college have raised comparable questions concerning the skill of an outsider to know and handle UC’s largest campus with out expertise within the system.
Shane White and Michael Meranze, former UCLA Tutorial Senate chairs, mentioned college numbers haven’t saved up with increasing pupil enrollment, resulting in bigger workloads and burnout. Between 2011 and 2023, UCLA’s pupil enrollment elevated by 18.8% however Tutorial Senate college members grew by lower than 2%.
As well as, Kasko mentioned, staffing shortages have saddled college with extra bureaucratic duties, resulting in much less time for educating and analysis.
The three college leaders additionally mentioned that graduate college students have to be higher supported with funding or the campus should shrink their numbers and threat dropping the younger mental expertise essential to UC’s highly effective analysis enterprise.
“We want extra lecture rooms, college and graduate college students,” White mentioned. “We’re purported to be the mind belief for the subsequent inventors and Silicon Valley startups to ship what society wants.”
James Steintrager, the UC systemwide Tutorial Senate chair, mentioned Frenk’s skill to straddle the worlds of college analysis and well being care supply made him a superb match for UCLA. “The pool of candidates to steer this premier public college was outstanding, but Dr. Frenk stood out for his distinctive mixture of scholarly, medical, administrative, and political experience,” he mentioned in an announcement.
Amongst college students, many say the price of housing, meals, transportation and different monetary wants is an ongoing drawback. Adam Tfayli, UCLA pupil physique president, mentioned the subsequent chancellor must be extra attentive to these wants and extra accessible to college students to listen to their issues, corresponding to campus security and rising emotions of alienation lingering from the pandemic and distant studying.
“The present campus local weather is at an all-time low,” he mentioned. “Persons are not essentially as related.”
Frenk addressed such wants on the College of Miami when he took workplace in 2015. In his inaugural speech, he introduced two main commitments: create 100 new endowed positions to draw and retain the most effective college, and lift help for college kids to satisfy 100% of demonstrated monetary want.
He additionally has praised pupil activism. In a column for the College of Miami pupil newspaper, he lauded his college students — a few of whom had been graduates of Marjory Stoneman Douglas Excessive College in Parkland, Fla., the place a gunman killed 17 individuals in 2018 — for his or her advocacy in opposition to gun violence. He mentioned their “refusal to remain silent within the face of violence and intimidation” impressed him.
Frenk’s greatest skilled ardour is international well being. A fourth-generation doctor, he earned his medical diploma from the Nationwide Autonomous College of Mexico in 1979. He additionally acquired masters levels in public well being and sociology and a joint PhD in medical care group and sociology from the College of Michigan at Ann Arbor.
Frenk served as well being minister underneath President Vicente Fox from 2000 to 2006 and is credited with introducing common medical health insurance, Seguro Common, which expanded entry to healthcare for thousands and thousands of uninsured Mexicans. He expanded entry to household planning and contraception — which drew criticism from some conservatives. He additionally labored as a senior fellow for the worldwide well being program on the Invoice and Melinda Gates Basis and was a director on the World Well being Group in Geneva.
At Harvard, Frenk is credited with balancing the college of public well being’s funds, diversifying analysis and serving to land the $350-million reward, the most important in Harvard’s historical past.
Frenk is married to Felicia Knaul, a well being economist; the couple have two youngsters. Along with scholarly articles, he has written two youngsters’s books concerning the human physique, and enjoys opera, biking, soccer and soccer.
“Dr. Frenk has demonstrated a strong dedication to the well being and well-being of individuals, establishments, and methods around the globe,” Drake mentioned in an announcement. “His management will construct on the expansion and power the campus has achieved underneath Chancellor Block and speed up UCLA’s good trajectory in service to Los Angeles, the nation, and the world.”
