By Jane Han
NEW YORK ― When Kang Sung-mo took the top seat at University of California, Merced more than four years ago, he knew he wasn’t getting himself into a typical chancellor job. Classrooms were still being built, programs were limited and the campus was too small.
``It was like a start-up corporation,’’ said Kang, the university’s second chancellor. ``It’s a miracle that we came this far in such a short time.’’
Founded in 2005, the youngest UC campus was first built on a golf course with just a few hundred students. Now, more than 4,000 students are enrolled in the university recognized as the lead campus in solar energy research among all UC schools.
And much of this fast growth is credited to Kang, who took the driver’s seat at a critical time for UC Merced.
``There were many urgent and major tasks I had to tackle,’’ said Kang in an interview with The Korea Times.
Getting an environmental permit to expand the campus was one of the most immediate items on Kang’s list.
``Freshmen students came up to me asking whether there was going to be a campus. The land problem was huge since it was the future of the campus,’’ said the chancellor, who fought for the permit with hopes that student enrollments will increase to up to 25,000 in the next 10 years.
Efforts to protect the land surrounding UC Merced, which sits on rolling grassland in central California, held back the school from getting a key federal permit for future developments.
``We had to revise the plan over and over again. It turns out the process was far more complicated than I ever imagined,’’ said Kang, who helped win the approval in 2009, just a few weeks before UC Merced’s first-ever graduation ceremony.
This is the ceremony where first lady Michelle Obama delivered her debut commencement address, the fruits of a long lobbying campaign including 900 valentine cards to the White House and a video saying ``Dear Michelle, we believe in you.’’
``I feel like we’ve already achieved a lot but there’s no doubt we need to move forward harder,’’ said Kang, who announced his resignation earlier this month. He will serve until June 2011 and return to teach and research.
``I’m not getting any younger so I want to do the things I want before ending my academic career,’’ said the 65-year-old, who was a professor and administrator at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and UC Santa Cruz for more than 20 years.
Also an internationally recognized electrical engineer, Kang, who holds 15 patents in integrated-circuit design, plans to spend more time doing research.
Since coming to the U.S. in 1969 while studying at Yonsei University, the Korean-born educator and engineer says he kept looking forward, ultimately to stand where he is now.
``What makes me feel motivated is the fact that I’m a person who is highlighted as the first Korean chancellor of a major research university,’’ said Kang. ``I feel obliged to do even better, to continually be a role model.’’
``Look at me, if a person who is directly from Korea can become a university chancellor, younger generations who’ve come at a young age or those who were born here have a much better chance of doing far greater things in their lives,’’ he said. ``Make the right decisions and work harder. That’s my message for younger people.’’