Thomas Rice to Step Down as Vice Chancellor for Academic Personnel
UCLA Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost
Administrative Officers, Deans, Department Chairs, Directors, Faculty and Vice Chancellors
Dear Colleagues:
Thomas Rice, vice chancellor for academic personnel, has informed me that he wishes to step down as vice chancellor and return to the faculty after his current term ends in July 2011.
Appointed in August 2006, Vice Chancellor Rice has served as the senior campus official responsible for academic appointments, promotions and advancements; academic recruitment and retention; faculty grievance proceedings; faculty disciplinary proceedings; faculty housing and loan programs; the Academic Personnel Office; emeriti faculty relations and relations with academic employee organizations and associations. He serves as the Chancellor’s liaison to the Council on Academic Personnel (CAP) and to several other committees of the Academic Senate. He also serves as a member of the Chancellor’s Executive Committee and represents the campus to the UC Office of the President on academic personnel and related policy issues.
During his tenure, Vice Chancellor Rice has sought to make the academic advancement process as fair and transparent as possible, while at the same time working to simplify it. Under his leadership, many changes have been made to The UCLA CALL to simplify and clarify policies on promotions and merit reviews, and deans have been given more autonomy to approve accelerated merits and the salaries associated with them. He initiated a joint newsletter with CAP to keep faculty apprised of developments in academic personnel policy; developed a comprehensive orientation program for all new faculty; and has recently embarked on a major initiative to develop an electronic dossier – and electronic review of dossiers – to replace the cumbersome paper process currently in place. Throughout his tenure, he has developed excellent working relationships with deans, department chairs and the Academic Senate, as well as current and retired faculty and staff.
Dr. Rice is a professor in the Department of Health Services at the UCLA School of Public Health, where he served as department chair from 1996 to 2000 and 2003 to 2004. He served as editor of the journal “Medical Care Research and Review” from 1994 to 2000, and he was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences in 2006. A health economist, Dr. Rice’s areas of interest include health insurance, competition, physicians’ economic behavior and Medicare. The third edition of his book, “The Economics of Health Reconsidered,” was published in 2009. Dr. Rice holds an M.A. and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of California, Berkeley, and a B.A. in economics and geography from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
As we continue our work with Vice Chancellor Rice throughout the upcoming academic year, we anticipate ample time and opportunities to thank him for his leadership and commitment to UCLA. We are deeply grateful for his dedicated service as vice chancellor, and we look forward to his continued contributions to UCLA as he returns to the faculty and continues his scholarly work in the years ahead.
In the coming months, I will form a search committee to identify candidates for Tom’s successor and will keep you informed as we initiate the search.
Sincerely,
Scott L. Waugh
Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost