From the Chancellor

By M.R.C. Greenwood



(Photo: Seraphina Landgrebe)

This is my first opportunity to present personal greetings to the readers of this magazine, and I am happy to invite your attention to its contents. Since I arrived as chancellor last July, I have welcomed many opportunities to meet with faculty, students, staff, alumni, donors, elected representatives, business leaders, and other friends of UC Santa Cruz. As well, I have enjoyed discovering further details about UCSC's achievements and potential--more than ever, I am delighted to be part of what I termed prior to my arrival "a jewel in the finest teaching and research university in the world."

Evidence of UC Santa Cruz's increasingly distinguished reputation is explicit in the stories that comprise this issue of the Review. I am especially pleased that it introduces a few of UCSC's remarkable young faculty, whose teaching and research will inspire students well into the next century. These relatively new faculty, along with their more senior colleagues, bring brilliant talent and exceptional innovation to their disciplines. Students benefit from their teaching, and the discoveries they are making in their respective fields influence scholarship around the world.

Similarly, the opening of a state-of-the-art music facility promises new opportunity for students and faculty scholars alike. I anticipate that this fine building, along with the reputations of the members of the Music Department, will attract other outstanding faculty and students.

The expansion of UCSC's engineering program illustrates the leading-edge thinking that characterizes our curricular development. Already the official UC campus for the Silicon Valley, UC Santa Cruz is forming even closer partnerships with leaders in high technology, education, government, and others in the region, as we develop programs that anticipate engineering careers of the future.

Today's students face a future in which the intensity of change will be unprecedented. To thrive in the coming "Age of Imagination," students must be comfortable with change and nimble in adapting to it. As important as helping students master knowledge, UCSC also teaches students how to learn, and we strive to help them develop skills to meet a change-filled future.

Innovation is a tradition at UC Santa Cruz. Our faculty, staff, and students often have been in the vanguard of change. This comfort with change--in fact, this facility in fostering positive change,along with existing and potential partnerships--places UC Santa Cruz in a unique position to serve our students, now and in the future.