SUBJECT:	Appointment of Dr. Paul W. Drake as Senior Vice Chancellor –
	Academic Affairs

I am pleased to announce the appointment of Paul W. Drake as UC San Diego’s new Senior Vice Chancellor – Academic Affairs, effective October 1, 2007. A distinguished member of the UC San Diego faculty since 1984 and Dean of the Division of Social Sciences for the past 12 years, Paul is a widely respected leader and scholar in both the UC San Diego and international academic communities. Paul’s appointment was approved by the UC Regents today at their meeting at UC Davis.

I have had the pleasure of working closely with Paul for the last three years and have come to appreciate his superb judgment and outstanding skills in working with faculty, students, staff and supporters of the university. As Dean of the largest academic division at UC San Diego, Paul has played a leadership role in many of the campuses’ key academic initiatives and has succeeded in recruiting some of our top faculty. He assumes this important academic leadership position at a critical juncture in UC San Diego’s development and I am confident that he can help us in leading the university to ever higher levels of success.

As Dean of Social Sciences since 1995, Paul and his department chairs effectively competed with the very best public and private institutions in the nation for the most outstanding faculty and the most promising graduate students. Paul has said that meeting these challenges calls for creative solutions in a time of dramatically rising salaries, perquisites, start-up costs and space demands. This same creative and strategic approach to maintaining the high quality of our faculty is paramount to UC San Diego’s continued ability to prosper as an academic institution.

During Paul’s tenure as Dean of the Division of Social Sciences, many departments within the division have risen notably in academic stature and now rank in the top ten academic programs in the nation. The Division has also grown to encompass the largest number of faculty (over 200) on campus with nearly 50 percent of undergraduate seniors now majoring in the Social Sciences. These achievements reflect Paul’s dedication to shared governance based on a shared vision of excellence.

As Senior Vice Chancellor, Paul will continue to build on our academic strengths while identifying new innovative interdisciplinary academic initiatives and programs where UC San Diego can have a major impact. As Dean, he helped launch several new interdisciplinary programs, including Human Development and the Kavli Institute for Brain and Mind. Paul also played an important role in the development of the academic plan for UC San Diego’s interdisciplinary Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies.

Paul should also be credited for his broader campus leadership on behalf of diversity among students, faculty, and staff. Working with the Academic Senate, he co-chaired the initial Task Force on K-12 Outreach. It resulted in the establishment of the Center for Research in Educational Equity, Assessment, and Teaching Excellence (CREATE) and The Preuss School, where he has continued to serve on its Board of Directors. He also helped design the interdisciplinary cluster hire on California Cultures in Comparative Perspective, co-chaired the Task Force on Underrepresented Faculty, and served on the University of California’s Committee on Affirmative Action. In addition, he promoted new staff development programs, including the MSO Academy.

Paul is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Miami University, in Oxford, Ohio. He received his Ph.D. in History from Stanford University in 1971 and was a professor of History at the University of Illinois from 1971 to 1984, before joining UCSD. He received teaching awards at both Illinois and UCSD.

A longtime member of the faculty in UC San Diego’s Department of Political Science, Paul also maintains adjunct appointments in History and IR/PS. A Distinguished Professor, Above Scale, he holds the Institute of the Americas Chair for Inter-American Affairs. Paul served as both director of the Center for Iberian and Latin American Studies (CILAS) from 1984-89 and chair of the Political Science department from 1989-1993. As director, he made CILAS a leading National Resource Center funded by the U.S. Department of Education. As chair, Paul was a key contributor to Political Science’s impressive rise to the ranks of the best departments in the nation.

As a renowned scholar of Latin American politics and history, Paul has published 10 books, dozens of major research articles and has been awarded a wide range of grants and citations, including fellowships from Fulbright, the Ford Foundation, the Wilson Center, and the Social Science Research Council. He was also elected president of the interdisciplinary Latin American Studies Association. Among his many scholarly distinctions, Paul received the Bolton Prize in 1979 for the best book on Latin American History and the Bryce Wood Book Award for the best book written in any discipline on Latin America in 1989-90.

I greatly appreciate the service of the search committee, chaired by Vice Chancellor – Research Art Ellis, and I would like to thank Marjorie Caserio, who has served so capably as interim Senior Vice Chancellor.

Please join me in congratulating Paul Drake on his appointment and in welcoming him in this critical new role.

Marye Anne Fox Chancellor