UCI chancellor inaugurated

Michael Drake, UC Irvine’s fifth chancellor, was officially inaugurated at a ceremony on campus Friday.

In July, Drake stepped in as UCI’s chancellor after his predecessor, Ralph Cicerone, left for a post with the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C. Although Drake has presided over the campus for nine months, Friday’s ceremony formally recognized the start of his tenure at UCI.

In a two-hour ceremony in the Bren Events Center, UC President Robert Dynes presented Drake with the UC Chancellor’s Medal. Dynes and United States Surgeon General Richard Carmona were among those addressing the crowd before Drake made his inaugural address.

“We searched the leadership ranks throughout the nation, and we found the person here at UC,” said Dynes, who surprised many when he recommended Drake out of more than 600 candidates.

In his remarks, Drake, 55, cited a number of recent achievements at UCI ? including the university’s top-ranked men’s volleyball team and its record amount of grant money over the last year ? and said he would work to keep the university as a vital presence in the Orange County community.

“Our task going forward is simple,” Drake told the crowd of about 200, approximately half of them faculty members. “Not simple as in easy, but as in straightforward.”

Later, he added, “Working at this place, at this university, is a joy. I’m committed to working with you to do our collective best to get it right.”

Drake, born in New York City, entered UC San Francisco as a medical student in 1975 and joined the faculty later as a professor of ophthalmology. Before his appointment at UCI, he served as the UC system’s vice president for health affairs.

Carmona, the 17th surgeon general of the United States, delivered the keynote address, speaking at length about his hardscrabble childhood in Harlem and the need for institutions such as UCI to reach out to minorities. When Drake took the reins at UCI last year, he cited diversity as one of his key values as a chancellor.

“Unless all of us reach out, we will lose generation after generation and never achieve the diversity we need,” Carmona said.

Also speaking at the event were representatives from the UCI Associated Students and the Associated Graduate Students, the Alumni Assn., the Academic Senate and other groups. Brett Goldsmith, president of the Associated Graduate Students, delivered a humorous tribute to Drake, noting that the new chancellor owes him a beer from their first meeting.

“I want to thank him for saving our pub and setting a good example for consistently listening to graduate students,” Goldsmith said.dpt.08-drake-2-CPhotoInfo8E1PP56M20060408ixdrn4ncDOUGLAS ZIMMERMAN / DAILY PILOT(LA)U.S. Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona speaks to the audience gathered for Chancellor Michael Drake’s inauguration at the Bren Events Center at UC Irvine. dpt.08-drake-1-BPhotoInfo8E1PP4H720060408ixdrmfncDOUGLAS ZIMMERMAN / DAILY PILOT(LA)Michael Drake, right, laughs during his inauguration as the fifth chancellor of UC Irvine. The ceremony was held Friday.