UCLA Chancellor Gene Block to step down after boosting enrollment, diversity, rankings
LOS ANGELES — UCLA Chancellor Gene Block announced Thursday he is stepping down from the helm of the nation's top-ranked public university after steering the Westwood campus through a financial crisis and global pandemic to reach new heights in expanding enrollment, diversity, philanthropy and research funding.
His tenure was also rocked by a huge scandal involving a former UCLA gynecologist, James Heaps, who was sentenced in April to 11 years in prison for sexually abusing patients. Block called the case, which cost the UC system nearly $700 million in settlements to hundreds of former patients, one of his "most painful" moments at UCLA and said he was hopeful that greater training, reporting protocols and other reforms at UCLA Health would guard against future abuse.
Block, 74, said he is eager to return to his UCLA faculty position as a researcher in sleep cycles and circadian rhythms — which he called his primary identity — when his 17-year chancellorship ends on July 31, 2024. Until then, he will help launch two new satellite sites in downtown L.A. and San Pedro, hire more diverse faculty and lay the groundwork for an ambitious new fundraising campaign.
