Mark Yudof

From 1984 to 1994, Yudof served as dean of the University of Texas School of Law.[2]

From 1994 to 1997, Yudof served as executive vice president and provost of the University of Texas at Austin. In that position, Yudof initiated many improvements to undergraduate education, including creating a freshman seminar program and Academy of Distinguished Teachers.[7]

On July 1, 1997, Yudof took office as the 14th president of the University of Minnesota.[2] In his first year as president, Yudof took advantage of a state budget surplus to fund construction projects, historic preservation, and academic priorities at the university. Yudof helped to establish freshman seminars. In 1999 the university moved from a quarter to semester system.[8]

The university encountered scandal in 1999 after the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported that an academic counseling staffer at Minnesota claimed to have done coursework for many student-athletes on the Minnesota Golden Gophers men's basketball program over the past five years, as well as several other NCAA rules violations by Minnesota basketball.[9] Yudof oversaw self-imposed sanctions on the men's basketball program. Those sanctions included a $1.5 million buyout of the contract of head coach Clem Haskins,[10] a postseason ban for the 1999–2000 season,[11] and scholarship reductions.[12] The scandal led to the resignations of men's athletic director Mark Dienhart and university vice president McKinley Boston.[12] Members of the university board of regents praised Yudof for his handling of the scandal.[13] By 2002, Yudof united men's and women's athletics at Minnesota under a single athletic director.[8]

In 2002, a six-story apartment-style hall was built at the University of Minnesota and was named Riverbend Commons and then subsequently renamed after Mark G. Yudof. It is currently referred to as Yudof or Yudof Hall.[14]

Yudof became the ninth chancellor of the University of Texas System on August 1, 2002.[15] Simultaneously, he was president emeritus at the University of Minnesota and Charles Alan Wright Chair in Federal Courts at the University of Texas School of Law.[5] As University of Texas System chancellor, Yudof allowed individual campuses to set their own tuition rates.[16] He resigned on June 15, 2008, to become President of the University of California system.[17]

In March 2008, Yudof was selected as the next president of UC, to succeed Robert C. Dynes.[18] He began his term on June 16, 2008.

In November 2009, TIME Magazine recognized Mark Yudof as one of the "10 Best College Presidents", citing his efforts to provide opportunity and access to a quality education for California residents with financial need whose family income is less than $60,000.[16]

In January 2013, Yudof announced his plan to resign as president of the University of California, effective August 31, 2013.[19] He was heavily criticized for securing the maximum pension of $350,000 after only 7 years of service, including one year on paid sabbatical and another in which he taught only one class per semester.[20]

The California budget crisis resulted in massive cuts to higher education by the California State Legislature and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.[21] Struggling to grapple with the ensuing crisis, California legislative leaders cut more than 20 percent from the UC budget in one year - the largest budgetary reduction in the history of the UC. In a July 9 "Open Letter to UC alumni and friends,"[22] UC Regent Richard Blum; Russell Gould, then-chair; Sherry Lansing, then-vice chair; and UC president Yudof wrote,

"The UC model — providing universal access to a top-notch, low-cost education and research of the highest caliber — continues to be studied around the globe among those who would emulate its success. And yet, this model has been increasingly abandoned at home by a state government responsible for its core funding."[21]

As state budgetary support declined dramatically, Yudof kicked off an online grassroots advocacy effort in order to make the case for the University of California. In 2008, Yudof organized advocacy efforts on social media. Yudof called on all students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends to unite behind an aggressive push to make funding UC a state priority.

In 2009, Yudof further bolstered this effort through a campaign seeking to let legislators and the governor know how critical their support is in preserving the university's commitment to quality and student access.[23]

Also in 2009, Yudof came under criticism for an interview that he gave to Deborah Solomon of the New York Times,[24] in which he joked about taking a pay cut from his salary of over $800,000 to $400,000 in exchange for the White House and Air Force One.

In October 2009, seeking to help keep the University of California accessible and affordable for California students, President Yudof announced an ambitious effort that aims to raise $1 billion for student support over the next four years. Through the fundraising effort, Project You Can, all 10 UC campuses have committed to raise $1 billion in the aggregate over the next four years—doubling the amount of private support the system has raised for scholarships, fellowships and other gift aid in the previous five years.[25] The UC Board of Regents endorsed the effort at its November 2009 meeting. Yudof made the Project You Can announcement at Sunnyside High School, which for 10 years has propelled promising students toward health careers through its Doctors Academy, a program sponsored by UCSF Fresno. Despite facing social and economic barriers — 87 percent of Sunnyside's students are eligible for free or reduced lunch — all Doctors Academy graduates have gone on to college, 43 percent of them at UC campuses.