Our View: The dynamo who leads UC Merced

UC Merced Chancellor Dorothy Leland stopped by the Sun-Star editorial board this week. She had some things on her mind -- campus construction and expansion, collaboration with private enterprise and Valley organizations, more funding and fewer cuts from the state government.

She gave an impressive tour of the horizon after six months on the job. She's hobnobbed with politicians from Washington and Sacramento, been keynote speaker at several top-drawer functions and still made time to walk through campus on a recent Sunday, wearing a baseball cap and informally chatting with her students.

What impressed us a lot is her clear identification with students. As a top administrator in the UC system, facing its toughest test in history, she's tasked with Herculean labors.

Fundraising on a grand scale; preserving the intimacy among students and faculty in a 5,200-student campus; trying to monetize some of the research and patents done by her faculty and students; and overseeing a lot of bright and independent people.

But when health care reporter Yesenia Amaro asked her about UC Merced medical school students, Leland showed her human side.

Fully aware of the sometimes crushing debt students leave campus with, she said she wants to ensure that those med school students get enough financial help so that they'll stay in the Valley to practice their profession.

She called fee and tuition hikes "dizzying" and added, "If there are students coming out (of med school) with too much debt, that will drive where they choose to practice. All their good intentions to come back and serve the Valley are forced to the wayside."

That's an uncommon common sense approach by someone with a thousand responsibilities. We hope the public agencies, private companies and the state itself understand that to keep competent people here, they'll have to chip in when the chancellor comes calling.

Editorials are the opinion of the Merced Sun-Star editorial board. Members of the editorial board include Publisher Eric Johnston, Executive Editor Mike Tharp, Online Editor Brandon Bowers and Guest Editor Jessica Boerner-Grissom.