The root of success

Deirdre Newman

Like the trees that have grown with the UC Irvine campus, William

Schonfeld’s roots at the university run deep.

Schonfeld, a 32-year faculty member, has served as dean of the School

of Social Sciences for 20 years, but he will retire at the end of the

month to resume teaching.

In his two-decade tenure as dean, Schonfeld has left an indelible

imprint on the school, including graduating more students than any other

school in the university.

Schonfeld was wooed away from Ivy League faculty positions by UCI in

1970 after earning a doctorate in politics from Princeton University.

Schonfeld said UCI offered what those schools couldn’t -- an

interdisciplinary approach to the social sciences.

“My interests were not neatly captured by political science,”

Schonfeld said. “I was interested in a lot of things that spilled over

into psychology, sociology and anthropology.”

After serving on the faculty for 12 years, including a four-year stint

in Paris doing research and teaching, Schonfeld was invited to become

dean of the School of Social Sciences.

Although he was only in his early 30s, he jumped at the chance to help

mold the still-evolving school.

“It was appealing as an institution in the making,” Schonfeld said.

“It called upon people to play a part in shaping it. The East Coast

universities were already shaped, and you were to play a role that was

already defined.”

Schonfeld took over a school that had been a revolving door -- five

preceded him over 17 years. He originally thought he would last about six

or seven years and set to work trying to enhance the reputation of the

school.

In addition to increasing the number of social science graduates,

Schonfeld built a strong foundation of quality faculty. The school now

has more members of the National Academy of Sciences and the American

Academy of Arts and Sciences than any other school at UCI.

And this year, the school increased the size of its entering doctorate

class by 60% without lowering standards, Schonfeld said.

In honor of his achievements, Schonfeld received the Lauds & Laurels

Extraordinarius Award this year after being nominated by every department

chair in the school.

“I felt very happy and supported,” Schonfeld said. “Usually, the more

administering you do, the more animosity you generate.”

As he prepares to step down, Schonfeld said there are still challenges

facing the school. First and foremost is hiring quality faculty, which in

turn increases the quality of the graduate program, which ultimately

enhances the undergraduate program, Schonfeld said.

Although he gave up the Ivy Leagues for UCI, he still holds Harvard

University in such high esteem that he would like to see UCI emulate it.

“The future challenge, as we move toward a full-size university and go

through faculty replacement, is to set our standards at the highest level

so we can get closer and closer to the best any university can be,”

Schonfeld said.

The dean, who is the longest-serving administrator in the school’s

history, said he is retiring now while he is at the top of his game to

move on to new challenges, such as teaching full time. Although he taught

a few undergraduate classes while he was dean, he said he looks forward

to the more intimate environment of working with graduate students.

After he spends most of the rest of the year in Europe, Schonfeld will

return to the classroom in January.

Schonfeld lives on the UCI campus with his wife, Elena, and has two

daughters and a grandson.

* Deirdre Newman covers education. She may be reached at (949)

574-4221 or by e-mail at o7 [email protected] .