UCSF-STANFORD: Faculty Supports Discontinuing Merger

      Only 23% of University of California-San Francisco faculty members want to continue UCSF Stanford Health Care, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. The poll comes at a time when UC President Richard Atkinson and Stanford President Gerhard Casper are reevaluating the merger and had been scheduled to release a report on Oct. 1, recommending either to keep, end or modify the relationship. The report is now not expected for a few more days. The poll results were culled from an e-mail survey sent by the Faculty Association, a 400-member group not officially affiliated with the university, to UCSF's 1,500 faculty members. Of the 477 faculty members who participated, 52% said they wanted to end the UCSF-Stanford merger, while 25% had no opinion or "were not sure." Additionally 25% of respondents said the merger had worsened their ability to meet teaching responsibilities, 2% said the merger improved the situation and 65% reported no change. About 24% also reported that the merger had hampered their ability to conduct research, 4% indicated that the merger had improved research and 59% reported no change. Finally, 32% of respondents said their ability to meet clinical responsibilities had worsened, while it improved for 3% and remained unchanged for 34%. UCSF Chancellor Michael Bishop said that faculty support "is needed in the long run if a merger is to work, but ... the decision is in the hands of" Atkinson and Casper. He added, "We don't run the university by plebiscite. You run it by consultation, and eventually somebody has to make the decision" (Schevitz, 10/15).