For the new chancellor, that meant a de facto board of advisors that would serve as a strong link to the business community. He points out that continuing reductions in state funding has not proven a temporary phenomenon, but a permanent change. Indeed, the state's share of monies to the University of California has dropped from 60 percent of the total in 1960, to 37 percent in 1981, to 24.4 percent for the fiscal year ending June 1995. He continues to brainstorm ways in which the university might reap much-needed financial gain from its research talents. Such actions are not an option, but genuinely necessary, in light of the state's permanent funding reductions.
Dukes is clearly pleased to once again be a part of a growing campus.
In tones that others reserve for an encounter with baseball legends, he speaks of a recent breakfast with UCI's Nobel laureates F. Sherwood Rowland and Frederick Reines. 1995 encompassed both the glory of UCI's first Nobel Prizes and the difficulties surrounding the now-closed Center for Reproductive Health. We've had it with all of the negative publicity surrounding the fertility clinic issue. At the same time, many Roundtable members responded to his imperative with advertisements saluting UCI's achievements in the Times, the Orange County Business Journal and the Orange County Register. Dukes considers such advocacy vital.