Chancellor Robert Birgeneau will lead a national effort to study and support public universities after his retirement as chancellor in June.
The effort, called “The Lincoln Project: Excellence and Access in Public Higher Education,” is an initiative by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The initiative seeks to advocate for public higher education as “engines of economic growth, innovation, and upward mobility,” according to a press release from the academy.
The Lincoln Project is named for president Abraham Lincoln, who signed the Morrill Act in 1862 — an act that the press release lauds for laying “the groundwork for the nation’s unparalleled public university system.”
Other participants in the initiative include Chancellor Gene Block of UCLA, Dean Henry Brady of UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy and President Mary Sue Coleman of the University of Michigan.
The announcement will be made Monday at 5:30 p.m. at an academy symposium on higher education in the Faculty Club, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Jaehak Yu is a news editor. Contact him at [email protected].