Birgeneau Berkeley-bound?

Four years into his seven-year mandate as President of U of T, Dr. Robert Birgeneau may be headed to San Francisco to serve as the new Chancellor of the University of California at Berkeley. With speculation about his intentions surfacing in both the US and Canadian media, Birgeneau’s future at U of T is in doubt.
Word that Birgeneau was interviewed for the position first emerged in the San Francisco Chronicle several weeks ago. Since then, Birgeneau and the administration have been tight-lipped about the prospect of the President leaving his post. Administration spokesperson Jane Sterling, would only say “the president is on a short list of candidates,” but would not speculate as to when a decision might be made about the position, or if Birgeneau would take the job if it were offered. Sterling told The Varsity that the President is not speaking to the media until he has made a decision. “More interviews just take away from the job he is doing here,” she said, but hinted that the decision might come as early as next week.
University of California spokesperson Paul Swartz was even less forthcoming. Swartz said in a telephone interview that the shortlist of candidates for the position of Chancellor has been narrowed to “a handful,” and confirmed that the current chancellor of Berkeley, Robert Berdahl, is leaving his post due to retirement. Several Canadian and American newspapers report Birgeneau is expected to be offered the job.
If he were to take the position, Birgeneau, 62, would be overseeing a substantively different institution than U of T. Berkeley is one of ten campuses that make up the University of California, and a small institution in comparison to the one he currently presides over. Berkeley currently has approximately 30 000 students with an annual budget of about US$1.2 billion. The campus is also highly diverse, with non-white students making up about 70% of the undergraduate student body. For Birgeneau, who has spoken often about increasing U of T’s racial diversity, this could be a powerful draw.
Birgeneau’s personal friend and former colleague Robert Dynes is currently president of the University of California. Dynes is responsible for recommending a new Chancellor to UC’s board of Regents.
Word of the president’s potential departure has been greeted with hostility by students and faculty at home. The president’s willingness to comment in the American press-in contrast to his unwillingness to discuss the matter openly with the U of T community-has left many angry and bewildered. Adding to the resentment is a comment Birgeneau made in an interview with the Chronicle: “Berkeley is simply the best teaching and public research university.” Many viewed the comment as disparaging U of T.
Birgeneau has overseen a string of senior resignations during his tenure as president, including provost Shirley Neumann, who, like Birgeneau, was touted as an example of the so-called reverse “Brain Drain” when she was lured to U of T from Michigan. A source close to the administration told the Globe and Mail “the way he’s handled governance is appalling.” SAC president Rini Ghosh told the Toronto Star that she thinks Birgeneau’s departure could give the impression the administration is unstable.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Berkeley’s former Chancellor made US$315,000, but that number was probably closer to US$500,000 if “other compensation” is taken into account. Birgeneau told the Chronicle he “doesn’t care about money.”