SANTA CRUZ — UC Santa Cruz Chancellor George Blumenthal announced Tuesday that he is retiring at the end of this academic year.
Blumenthal, 72, has been at the helm of the university for 12 years. He has been there since 1972, when he arrived on campus as an assistant professor.
“I have decided that the time is right for me to step aside and allow someone else to assume the leadership of this remarkable institution,” Blumenthal said in a prepared statement.
“I am tremendously proud of the strides we have made over the past dozen years in advancing diversity, encouraging philanthropy, enhancing town-gown cooperation, and improving the academic standing of the campus,” he said.
During his time, Blumenthal said that undergraduate enrollment of minority students has doubled, and that first-generation college students make up about 40 percent of each freshman class.
“We are literally changing the lives of thousands of students, their families and their communities,” he said.
Blumenthal also said that the institution has established a “culture of philanthropy,” which includes the 2013 creation of the Campaign for UC Santa Cruz, which surpassed goals by raising more than $335 million.
In 2008, college officials signed an agreement with the city and county of Santa Cruz, as well as with neighborhood groups, which resolved longstanding litigation over water, housing and traffic issues. That agreement has served as a model for universities and communities nationwide, Blumenthal said.
Blumenthal pointed to the college’s renovation and expansion of Porter and Merrill colleges, and the impending revitalization of Kresge College.
UC Santa Cruz has opened a satellite campus in Silicon Valley and created a coastal biology facility in its Coastal Science Campus, Blumenthal said.
Blumenthal also touted the school’s academic reputation, saying that it was ranked third in the world for research impact, grouped with MIT, Stanford and UC Berkeley.
University officials will immediately begin a search for a replacement.
“I consider the 12 years I have spent as chancellor — it will be a lucky 13 when all is said and done — to be among the most fulfilling of my professional life,” he said. “This university is filled with people eager to make a difference, change paradigms, and challenge conventional ways of doing things.”
Blumenthal said he plans to remain on campus, teaching and writing, and volunteering.
