Highest-ranking Faculty Member in UC System

Engineering Prof. Chand Viswanathan Becomes Chair of UC Academic Senate

Engineering professor Chand Viswanathan this month becomes the highest-ranking faculty member in the University of California system when he begins his term as Chair of the UC Academic Senate.

Viswanathan has worked within the UCLA system for more than 40 years, first as a student, then professor and most recently full-time administrator.

A member of the faculty from UCLA's Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science since 1962, Viswanathan became Chair of the Statewide Legislative Assembly of the Academic Senate September 1. He will serve for one year, during which time he will face issues ranging from rising student enrollment to implementing the dual admissions policy. It has been a long journey from his early days as a graduate student from India.

"When I first arrived at UCLA in 1957, there were only 12,000 students and very few buildings," he said. "The path around Pauley Pavilion was nothing but marsh, and orange groves grew alongside Westwood Boulevard."

Now, UCLA has three times as many students, 220 buildings stretch over 419 acres and Westwood Boulevard is lined with construction crews building both a new hospital and the much-anticipated NanoSystems Institute.

Despite his current focus on statewide matters, Viswanathan has a special affinity for UCLA. He was one of the first faculty members with whom Chancellor Albert Carnesale enjoyed a close working relationship when he arrived in 1997. "I am continually inspired by the energy he brings to his work, passions... reflected in the extraordinary record of university service Vis has compiled," Carnesale said.

In fact, Viswanathan has spent most of his life on the UCLA campus. He was an unassuming honor student, one of fewer than 100 foreign students. "What really surprised me when I came here was the ease with which the students interacted with the faculty, which was unlike the rigid system that existed in my school in India."

Influenced by those early years as a student, Viswanathan adopted his own award-winning approach to teaching at UCLA. He received the Distinguished Teaching Award from the UCLA Academic Senate in 1976. And in 1997 he received the undergraduate teaching award from the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers for establishing a solid state electronics curriculum. "The greatest joy I get is being able to teach in front of a large class and see the faces brighten up," he said at the time he was appointed as vice-chair of the senate last year. "I'll miss that."

Henry Samueli, after whom UCLA's Engineering School is now named, was one of Viswanathan's pupils. He has high praise for his former teacher. "He was one of the best instructors I ever had…[he] truly cares about his students and always made them feel comfortable to approach him at any time."

After serving a year as vice-chair, Viswanathan takes the reins as chair of the assembly at a critical time, as the UC system prepares for almost unprecedented growth in student enrollment. California's public institutions of higher learning expect enrollments to rise by more than 700,000 students over the next ten years. This surge, dubbed Tidal Wave 2 by former UC President Clark Kerr, will cause UC's enrollments to grow by about 63,000 full-time equivalent students, to 210,000 by 2010 - that equals the university's total enrollment growth over the last 30 years and is equivalent to the existing enrollments of UC Berkeley and UCLA combined.

Viswanathan says that every campus will need to address the surge differently. UCLA, for example, already has a large population and limited space. The university must also take into account agreements made with the community about expanding.

The rise in the student population brings with it a host of other challenges. At least 7,500 new faculty members (of which 4,000 are needed to replace those expected to leave the university) must be recruited throughout the UC system by 2010, or about 750 a year. "We must maintain the quality of our faculty while meeting this goal and at the same time not sacrifice in other areas of our support system," said Viswanathan.

UC campuses will be addressing another issue this school year - raising the enrollment levels of black, Hispanic and Native American students. Some see the university's new dual admissions policy as a means to improve minority representation. Viswanathan hopes that this proves true, but he stresses that the dual admissions policy's main goal is to raise the number of student transfers from community colleges.

Many high school seniors are admitted to the University of California under something called "eligibility under local context." Under this scheme, the top four percent of a high school's student population is guaranteed admission to a UC school. The new dual admissions policy extends this guarantee to students who are between the top four percent and the top 12.5 percent -- provided they attend community college first. The result is that many high school students who are top achievers in their individual communities will have an opportunity to enter a UC school. The number of underrepresented students will likely grow as a result of the increase in community college transfers.

After his term as Chair of the Assembly ends Viswanathan hopes to have removed the notion that an engineer cannot be a good administrator. "I hope people say of me, there is a successful engineer who was also chair of the academic senate from UCLA."

Viswanathan knows he has been fortunate. "When I came here as a foreign student, all the doors opened for me. It is the beauty of this country and its constitution, and a tribute to the UC system and all the people in it that I have accomplished what I have."

-Chris Sutton