By Bertie Brouhard
Sound advice from Jim Croce in his 1972 ballad “You Don’t Mess Around With Jim” But I did tug with some success.
Long gone are Clark Kent and Lois Lane but I have found their replacements on the UCD Campus.
Last week I was ushered into the office of Chancellor Gary May on the fifth floor of Mrak Hall. Hanging on the wall of the Chancellor’s dark paneled office was his Superman cape. (I should have asked for a photo of him in his cape but lacked the courage.)
After exchanging smiles and a handshake we sat at his conference table. My “tugging” began. He, now 62, was relaxed in his white starched shirt with black cufflinks and stylish necktie. He easily, confidently projects an image of leadership competence, attention and approachability. You’d gladly welcome him as your manager, boss, supervisor – Chancellor.
A curious townie with no knowledge or previous experience with the workings of a large university campus I’m most grateful for the time and interest he gave to our interview. I had earlier submitted questions; softball tosses I’m sure.
It was graduation season and my handshake was one of the more than 8000 he’d make. 7500 of which were with undergrads and the balance with those receiving professional school degrees; nursing, vet med and med, law, business school and others all of which he’d share with the Provost.
We began with his mentors, his role models growing up. “Education was a highly valued commodity” in his family. Prized by his mother and father. Mom was a teacher and one of the first in the fifties; integrated into the University of Missouri. His postal worker father gave him a dollar for every “A” on his report cards. I suspect there were many paydays.
His engrained work ethic carried him far at Georgia Tech where he caught the eye of Professor Augustine Esogbue; the Institute’s first and only at the time black engineering professor. “He was a father figure to many of us engineering students and took a particular interest in me for my good grades and leadership skills. He encouraged me to go to grad school.”
After earning degrees at Berkeley he returned to Georgia Tech rising from a faculty position to department chair where he was selected by President Wayne Clough to be his Executive Assistant to the President. It was an “Chancellor Apprenticeship” assignment with “the person most responsible for me becoming a Chancellor. I’d made a name for myself with my scholarship and leadership. He taught me what makes a university run.”
I asked if he felt engineers make good Chancellors? He and others seem to think so since from Berkeley alone have risen two other of Gary’s contemporaries; Reggie DesRoches at Rice and Darryll Pines at The University of Maryland. UCs San Diego, Santa Barbara and Riverside like UCD have engineers in their Chancellor positions. Finally slide rules and plastic pocket protectors with mechanical pencils are in style.
I asked if he and wife of 32 years, LeShelle would be recognized at our Farmer’s Market? He said, “Certainly and probably in Sacramento. But less so elsewhere; like Woodland or Stockton.” Are You, the University, great neighbors in Davis; a real asset for the town? “Yes I think that’s true.” Gary is very proud of the joint effort during the “Healthy Davis Together” response to COVID. It was an original rising from the need to keep the university running even in a suspended state. Keeping students, faculty and staff healthy. Its Genome Center for testing and especially Richard Michelmore brought rapid testing of tens of thousands. Saving lives.
That campaign brought such acclaim and high status to UCD in our city.
I asked Gary if we the town are on the UCD Campus or is the campus in the City of Davis? With its health campus we both are about 60,000 souls. UCD has a 9 billion dollar budget and always wants more to make a difference in the lives of its students and community. Gary’s answer was “I think we’re in the city of Davis. We have a really good partnership and neither would exist without the other. The University couldn’t survive without the city.”
UCD is the largest in acreage campus in the system. And has room to expand but Gary stressed what a balancing act growth is; faculty, enrollment, housing and students. He and his team have played housing catchup and are proud to have added 7000 housing beds since he arrived. I naively asked if they spend all the money given them? His reply was “Oh, we spend more than they give us!” Being closer than the other UCs to the state capital comes with more attention – with good and bad reviews.
Why and who attends UCD? It’s BIG but the city gives it a small college town feel. Gary feels comfortable with where it is now. It’s one of the most comprehensive universities, offering more than a hundred undergraduate degree programs. Engineering alone has twelve and 6 – 7 thousand students. In-state tuition is reasonable at about $15,000 with a high graduation. completion (86%) rate. 40% of its student population are first generation college students, they’re more rural than urban and becoming more ethnically diverse each year. “Almost anything you want you can study here. Every student, every background has a home,” said The Chancellor.
Catch LeShelle and him on social media. Maybe an episode of “Thursday Thoughts.” I was surprised when he told me, “LeShelle and I never talk shop.” Maybe never ask each other, “How was your day?” She’s employed by CNN: a software engineer writing, testing, teaching code. However, to see them together is always informative, exciting and fun. Their close bond shows. “Gary” (I asked him how he likes to be addressed?) wants people to know him as a person. And welcomes your comments; “the majority of which are very, very kind.”
He strives to have a managerial style that is “inclusive: getting consensus by talking to a lot of people. I’m a hands-off manager that doesn’t micromanage.” He added that he doesn’t take himself too seriously and wants to “have fun at meetings.” He strives to respect the expertise of others. I found it very telling that he wants his charges to disagree with him. “Don’t agree with me all the time. It’s not useful. Feel empowered to say what you think.”
And how would he like to be remembered? “When I leave here some years from now I want people to be able to say their life was somehow enriched or improved by having known me, worked for me or whatever our relationship was.”
He hopes the university continues on what he thinks is a “positive trajectory. More recognized, appreciated for the good things we do for our students, community and society research-wise.” He’s proud of what’s been accomplished during his nine years at UCD! He listened to his grandmother when she told him in his youth to leave something better than the way you found it. He has. She’d be very proud of him. As are we.
He runs a couple of miles most mornings at the ARC. And while not “faster than a speeding bullet, nor more powerful than a steam locomotive and probably not able to leap tall buildings in a single bound” (opening lines of the 50’s TV show “Superman,”) you might catch a glimpse of our
“Man of Steel” there in his cape. Or maybe flying high over campus.
— Long a Davis resident and retired from a successful HVAC sales career, I enjoy travel, reading and now finding my writing voice. I value your input so please email me (bertieb1970@gmail.com). Thank you. Bertie.
Davisite 
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