UC Outreach Chief Quits in Scandal

Alex Saragoza, the University of California’s highest-ranking Latino and the charismatic head of its high-profile outreach program, has resigned under pressure weeks after acknowledging his role in an academic fraud scandal at UC Berkeley.

Manuel N. Gomez, UC Irvine’s vice chancellor for student affairs, was appointed as Saragoza’s interim replacement.

Saragoza, who served 10 months as the university’s vice president for educational outreach, has acknowledged giving two former UC Berkeley football players credit for a course he taught at Berkeley in 1999, although they enrolled after the class was over and did not complete the work.

A longtime ethnic studies professor at Berkeley, Saragoza, 54, last month was suspended for six months without pay from his teaching post after an independent investigator found evidence of fraud. But he had managed to hang on to his job as head of the university’s outreach efforts to poor and minority students.

In recent weeks, however, UC President Richard Atkinson had come under increasing pressure from the university’s Board of Regents to oust Saragoza or urge him to step down, regents said.

This week, Saragoza did so, telling Atkinson in a letter released Tuesday that he was resigning out of concern that his outreach efforts had been “compromised by recent outside events.” Contacted at his UC office in Oakland on Tuesday, Saragoza declined further comment.

The UC president, who was in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, released a short statement in which he said he personally regretted Saragoza’s decision but described it as “necessary.” He declined to elaborate.

The university’s outreach efforts, which involve recruiting and preparing disadvantaged students to attend the university, have been considered increasingly crucial since the university voted to ban affirmative action in 1995.

Gomez, who accepted the position for six months, will begin May 14.

UC Irvine professors and administrators have praised him for improving student life on campus and for heading efforts to increase minorities on campus.

UCI had a 42.5% increase in underrepresented minorities accepted for next year, the largest jump in the UC system.

Gomez, 54, one of eight children born to migrant farm workers, graduated from Santiago High School in Garden Grove.

He came to UCI in 1972, and except for two years at the U.S. Department of Education, has been at the university since.

Gomez said he was very aware of the challenges he faced. He said the scandal involving Saragoza clearly was not helpful to the university’s attempts to maintain diversity in the post-affirmative action era.

“It’s such a crucial time, and it’s a very crucial role, guiding the university’s efforts in this regard. It depends on the cooperation of all the educational sectors, and I hope we’ll have that,” Gomez said.

UC Irvine colleagues had no doubt about his abilities.

“He does things with enormous energy and commitment and with tremendous integrity,” said William Schoenfeld, dean of the School of Social Science.

Others said one of his best skills was developing partnerships with colleagues and with people outside the school.

“He just brings people together and manages to get the best out of us,” said Susan Wilbur, UCI’s director of admissions, who has worked with Gomez since 1979. “I’ve loved working with him.”

Several observers agreed with Gomez that Saragoza’s resignation could hurt efforts to attract what the university calls underrepresented minorities.

Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, who serves as an ex officio member of the Board of Regents, urged the university to redouble its efforts to attract minority and poor students.

“No one should think this can be used as an excuse for not developing and implementing a more effective outreach program,” Bustamante said through a spokesman. “We need more bang for the outreach bucks . . . and we need to see results now.”

Saragoza, the son of San Joaquin Valley farm workers who earned a PhD in history and teaches at Berkeley, had seemed perfect for the job. In his 10-month tenure, Saragoza had proven an energetic advocate and articulate spokesman for the university’s outreach efforts.

But after the fraud scandal became public this spring, a majority of regents had urged Atkinson to dismiss Saragoza, fearful that his continued presence in the systemwide post could compromise the wide-ranging, expensive outreach program. In the past two years, the university has spent more than $250 million annually on the effort.

“There was a great deal of feeling among the board that the integrity of the university was an important issue, and that case was clearly made to the president,” said Sue Johnson, chairwoman of the Board of Regents.

Johnson called the resignation a “tragedy” for Saragoza. “I personally regret it,” she said. Regent Velma Montoya said she was disappointed at how Saragoza’s administrative career unraveled. She said she feared that it would stall UC’s efforts to increase the racial and ethnic diversity of its student body.

“We are sad for him, yet we try to make sure professors uphold the same standards expected of our students,” Montoya said. “If a student is found grossly cheating, then the student is dismissed.”

Times staff writer Jeff Gottlieb contributed to this report.