By Peter Schrag
There was no great surprise in last month’s proposal to devolve more control of the University of California’s ten campuses – and thus more autonomy — to the campuses themselves. And it’s even less surprising that it came from Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau, former Provost C. Judson King and other Berkeley officials.
All ten are supposedly equal, but it’s no secret that Berkeley, possibly with UCLA and San Diego, are more equal than others. Similar proposals have come from Berkeley administrators and some outside critics for twenty years or more.
But neither is it a secret that UC, in trying to re-create every new campus – from Davis to Riverside to Merced – in Berkeley’s image, has locked itself into an arteriosclerotic governance and policy structure that’s become ever more unwieldy.