Search for New UCLA Chancellor Continues...

From today's Los Angeles Times:

Deborah A. Freund, the Syracuse University provost who had been the top candidate to replace Albert Carnesale as UCLA chancellor this summer, has withdrawn from consideration, forcing the University of California to reopen its search for a new leader of the Westwood campus.

A respected health economist who has held the No. 2 post at Syracuse since 1999, Freund pulled out of final negotiations with UC President Robert C. Dynes late Thursday, mainly because her husband was not offered a faculty position at UCLA, according to sources close to the search....

On Friday, UC spokesman Michael Reese said the hunt for a new chancellor would not start from scratch.

"We have a search committee and a clear sense of what the campus needs in its next chancellor," he said. "We even have a group of candidates who were at various stages of the process." He would not identify the other candidates.

This is interesting. Carnesale is set to step down on June 30; there's no word on whether he will be asked to stay on a while longer if the search doesn't turn up someone before then.

Immediately after Carnesale announced that he would be leaving his post, hopes were high on campus that former Executive Vice Chancellor Rory Hume would be selected as his replacement. Hume was well-liked and well-respected, and would bring a certain charisma and warmth that Carnesale, for all his intelligence and fundraising prowess, was sorely lacking. (Hume is an Aussie and has quite an adorable accent, I must say.)

However, in June 2005, he was named Executive Vice Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs for the University of California system. Word has it that he's quite happy in this position, so it is probably not in the cards for him to return to campus.