UC Irvine Vice Chancellor Manuel N. Gomez Announces Retirement

The following email was sent to the UC Irvine community today from Chancellor Michael Drake.  What it means in terms of impact for the Jewish students on campus or the school’s relations with the Jewish Community at large remains to be seen.

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Dear Colleagues:

Vice Chancellor Manuel N. Gomez has announced his retirement at the end of August, capping an exemplary 38-year career at UC Irvine.

In multiple capacities since 1972, Vice Chancellor G&oacutemez has consistently demonstrated an unwavering commitment to students, equity, and access to higher education. Initially a social ecology student at UC Irvine, he has since served as a counselor in the Educational Opportunity Program, a program director for the U.S. Department of Education, an adjunct faculty member in the UCI Department of Education, and interim vice president for educational relations for the University of California. For the past fifteen years, he has served as vice chancellor of student affairs, which is internationally recognized for co-curricular student service and support.

An innovator in educational collaboration, Vice Chancellor Gomez helped establish numerous partnership programs, including Project STEP, which over the past 20 years has substantially broadened access to higher education. He established the Center for Educational Partnerships, a systemwide model for educational outreach that currently serves more than 24,000 students in 200 school districts. In addition to overseeing UCI’s NSF-funded CAMP program in the sciences, Vice Chancellor G&oacutemez developed and served as principal investigator for numerous grants from the Carnegie Foundation, Hewlett Foundation, Pew Foundation and the Ford Foundation’s Difficult Dialogues Program.

Vice Chancellor Gomez has maintained an unflinching commitment to the whole student, pursuing collaborative initiatives aimed at enriching student life on campus. He supported student projects across disciplinary and ideological spectrums, and developed numerous mentorship and student leadership opportunities, including the UCI Dalai Lama Scholarship. He established the Silk Road student exchange with China, and has been an instrumental sponsor of UCI’s Olive Tree Initiative, which addresses critical and sensitive issues in the Middle East. He is a nationally recognized leader on issues of academic freedom and free speech.

In addition to his impressive list of contributions to our campus, he has been a valued colleague for all who have had the privilege of working with him. Details regarding a campus event on the occasion of his retirement will be forthcoming. In the meantime, please join us in thanking Vice Chancellor G&oacutemez for his extraordinary service to the university.

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As of this afternoon, the announcement has not yet been posted on the UC Irvine Today website nor the main UCI home page

Orange County Jewish Organizations Urge UC Irvine to Act

There is an old saying that begins something like this. “There were three Jews the room and there were five different opinions……” At times, it is hard for Jews to agree on something, anything. This is not one of those times. Four different groups, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), Hillel Foundation of Orange County, Jewish Federation Orange County and the American Jewish Committee issued a joint statement today regarding the latest news from an anonymous source regarding the Muslim students arrested in February.

Here is their joint statement.

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Orange County Jewish Organizations Urge UC Irvine to Act

(Irvine) — A number of organizations and individuals have received information from an anonymous source regarding the disruption of Israeli Ambassador Michel Oren’s February 8, 2010 speech at the University of California, Irvine.

The evidence and allegations in the packet, if accurate and authentic, are deeply disturbing. They point to a well-planned, highly organized, premeditated effort to disrupt Ambassador Oren’s speech. The shocking details contained in these materials would clearly establish that MSU leadership and members deliberately deceived University officials about their planned protest and expressly instructed participants to deny that the MSU was involved.

The contents of the packet, if true, constitute disturbing evidence that members of the Muslim Student Union at UCI were willing to engage in egregious and intimidating behavior in an effort to deprive Ambassador Oren of the opportunity speak freely and openly in a forum provided by the university. The packet’s contents also suggest this disturbing tactic may be part of a larger national effort to engage in similar disruptive acts.

We urge the University to investigate the contents of the packet thoroughly and expeditiously. If the information is genuine, it points to serious violations by individual students as well as the Muslim Student Union of acceptable standards of public discourse and UCI’s own student code of conduct.

Because we cannot verify the source or authenticity of the material in the packet, we have turned it over to law enforcement for their investigation.

Rabbi Marc S. Dworkin

Executive Director

American Jewish Committee, Orange County

Shalom C. Elcott

President & CEO

Jewish Federation Orange County

Jordan L. Fruchtman

Executive Director

Hillel Foundation of Orange County

Dr. Kevin O’Grady, Ed.D.

Regional Director

Anti-Defamation League, Orange County/Long Beach Regional Office