University of Miami President Julio Frenk, a Mexico-born global health expert, will become the next chancellor of UCLA and first Latino tapped to lead the nation’s top public research university, winning unanimous approval Wednesday by University of California regents — as the campus faces a dark time of divisive protests.
Carlos Santos, an associate professor of social welfare, said the new chancellor must address rising concerns about what some campus members see as excessive use of police force and punishment against peaceful protesters. And how well Frenk will transition from a career at smaller private universities — the University of Miami has 18,000 students — to the much larger public UCLA and the 10-campus UC system remains to be seen.