The Role of the Chancellor at UC San Diego

Just as UC San Diego has grown and evolved over the years, so has the role of the chancellor. A successful chancellor has to be an executive with the political skills to respond to internal and external constituencies; an administrator with the technical expertise to manage billion-dollar budgets and thousands of employees; and an entrepreneur who can create a compelling vision for the future of the campus that inspires faculty, students and staff, as well as private donors whose support the chancellor must cultivate.

The chancellor is essentially an academic and thought leader, mayor, CEO and lead fundraiser rolled into one. The chancellor oversees a campus that is larger than some cities, with more than 43,000 students within eleven academic, professional and graduate schools and eight undergraduate residential colleges. UC San Diego is also home to the prestigious Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the UC San Diego Health System, which includes two hospitals and multiple outpatient centers. UC San Diego is the largest civilian employer in San Diego County.

The chancellor must also manage a campus that is an economic and innovation engine, injecting $16.5 billion into the state economy each year. For 2023, annual revenues were $7.8 billion, and sponsored research topped $1.76 billion in funding. UC San Diego faculty and alumni have also created more than 1,000 start-up companies, including many of the local high-tech and biotech firms in the region.

Due to the continuous decrease in state funding, the chancellor must be a resourceful and creative problem-solver. It is critical that the chancellor have the ability to forge relationships and partnerships in order to develop reliable funding sources, to align talent and resources to support the mission of the campus, and to meet the needs of our community and the citizens of California.