“I just came back from a dinner, where I had my drug of choice, which is a martini.”
Or, The Chancellor Speaks Out In Eshleman

Aside from this choice quote, Chancellor Birgeneau gave quite a few interesting quotes. There were some good points, and some bad ones (like, "It takes a Ph.D. to be a professor."). Here's a choice selection for all you commenters to fight over like the last drumstick in a bucket of KFC.

On the LRDP – “Student housing has highest priority… in the 1990 LRDP, we had a number of parking spots planned to build, and 1000 less were built… our numbers in public housing are representative of public universities nationwide.”

On a dry campus - “I don’t see any reason to drive alcohol consumption off campus.”

(Note: There had been some rumors circulating that the whole UC system was considering going dry. Other than the fact that this would be futile, apparently there is no solid support for dry campus regulations that are circulating throughout the UC system. The issue didn’t come up in today's UC chancellors’ meeting.)

On diversity (hottest topic, to no one's surprise) –

“Outreach is a very high priority to my administration…”

“We are working to find ways outside of Prop. 209 to increase on-campus diversity… when push comes to shove, I think we all need to convince the public to understand the damage that Prop. 209 has done.”

“How are we ever going to have a more representational faculty body if we don’t have a more representational undergraduate body?”

On Divestment from Israel - “I don’t support it, nor would I support the opposite. I don’t want to get involved with international politics… if I made a list of every country where I didn’t like its policies… it [divestment] just isn’t practical.”

On the Greek Community – my daughter was in a sorority, her husband was in a fraternity, so I can’t be very hostile … fraternities can be a very productive group on this campus… I will greatly support fraternities, but we need to have respect for underage drinking and respect for women.”

On university speech regulations (in regard to the Patriot semi-controversy): “Personally, I believe that people should be considerate for each other… I usually err on the side of free speech, because it can obvious be very easily turned against you. This is a complex tension on campuses… I’m not interested in being the censor in the sky…”

“It’s up to you all [the ASUC] to create a positive atmosphere on this campus.”

On the Multicultural Center and TWLF protestors - “I never respond to demands as an administrator… You can make requests, have a discussion or a dialogue… I will accommodate common sense requests…”

“It’s more up to you [the ASUC] than it is up to me for resolving this issue.”

On LBL, etc. - “…I have a lot of experience in the Department of Energy… my view is that for LBL, where we are in the middle of a competition right now, I can not see this university not managing the LBL.”

On Los Alamos – “The people of New Mexico greatly want us to continue using that land… I’d rather have civilian control over the weapons laboratories, frankly… I would prefer that we continue to govern the weapons laboratories.”

On campus and city safety – “I took my wife by the place [People’s Park], and she wouldn’t go in… its our mission to ensure the safety of students and staff… ”

On his Facebook profile – “It was really nice to see how I look with facial hair…”Email This Post!