May 14, 2001 UC President Atkinson visits campus, tours facilities By Elizabeth Irwin UC President Richard Atkinson visited UCSC on Friday for an informal meeting and campus tour. Graduate student Colleen Kastak explains some of the research involving elephant seals to President Atkinson during his visit to Long Marine Lab. Chancellor Greenwood and Churchill Grimes, director of the nearby National Marine Fisheries Service laboratory, are in the background. Photo: Victor Schiffrin Above, President Atkinson, center, is joined by Provost Simpson and Chancellor Greenwood; below, he and his wife, Rita, pose with Chancellor Greenwood. Chancellor M.R.C. Greenwood and representatives of the administration and faculty hosted Atkinson and his wife, Rita Atkinson. Among the highlights of their brief itinerary were tours of the Seymour Marine Discovery Center and adjacent research facilities, the Educational Partnership Center, the Lick Observatory Labs, construction sites for new buildings, and other points of interest. "It was a very informal visit," said Chancellor Greenwood. "But I was delighted with the opportunity to show off some of the campus's exceptional facilities and programs and introduce a few of our faculty." Commenting during the visit, Atkinson praised Chancellor Greenwood's leadership and mentioned the excellent programs that characterize UCSC. "It is clear that this campus is focused on quality," he said. "UCSC has some wonderful traditions, and the key strength is the quality of the faculty and the quality of the programs." Noting that the campus--and the university--are in a period of rapid growth, he observed that UCSC is in a unique position to benefit from opportunities that come with growth, such as the advancement of plans for the Silicon Valley Center and the state's investment in new programs, such as the Institute for Bioengineering, Biotechnology and Quantitative Biomedical Research (QB3). Return to Front Page