A letter from Peter Rock, Dean of Mathematical & Physical Sciences UCD to Arnie Leiman was forwarded to me by Arnie. Rock attended the UCD forum. He was highly critical of the UCORP report. He strongly believes that all current UC-LAB collaborations would cease if the contracts were not renewed. In the discussion, he asked me whether UCORP had interviewed each faculty member with collaborations with the LABS. I told him that we did not have the time or budget to conduct such a series of interviews with UC or non-UC scientists collaborating with the LABs. I also told him that UCORP had interviewed a number of such faculty (e.g., head of physics at UCB, etc.), as well as analyzing other National LAB arrangements. Furthermore, the faculty with such collaborative arrangements were strongly supported by the campus reps, e.g., Carroll Cross at UCD. UCORP felt it had a clear idea of the feelings of such faculty. There was great concern that the collaborations would not continue. In fact, some suggested that LBNL would not continue.
Dean Rock was unsatisfied. And shared his feelings with Arnie Leiman, Vice Chancellor Grey and Dan Simmons. The key statements from the letter are as follows:
"It was clear to me from the presentations and the following discussions that UCORP did not make an appropriate effort to consult directly on a case-by-case basis with those UC faculty and LL and LA National Lab scientists who have ongoing collaborative research projects, as to the potential consequences of the failure to renew the UC/NL oversight/management agreement. In this important respect the UCORP Report is seriously flawed. The argument .... that such collaborations will continue essentially at the present levels was not supported by any data whatsoever and in my view is incorrect. It is precisely because of the special nature of the UC/LLNL, LANL relationship that such collaborations involving UC are so extensive. Furthermore, it is demonstrably clear that no other university comes even remotely close to UC in the number of such collaborations."
Warren Gold
Chair, UCORP