The Man for Tomorrow

So many officials involved in last winter's student uprising at Berkeley had their public image scarred that the University of California regents decided to find a brand-new face to run the campus. Last week they chose as chancellor the University of Michigan's highly regarded vice president for academic affairs, Roger W. Heyns, 47. He succeeds Martin Meyerson, acting chancellor for the past seven months, who returns to his permanent job as dean of Berkeley's College of Environmental Design.

One of twelve candidates considered for the chancellor's job, Heyns (rhymes with signs) has spent his entire 21-year academic career at Michigan, rising from graduate teaching assistant to psychology professor to head of its College of Literature, Science and the Arts. At 40, he was the youngest man to hold the post. Ann Arbor considered him the logical successor to President Harlan Hatcher, who will retire in 1967; to keep him on campus, some faculty members suggested that Heyns be given a special executive position ranking above the university's six other vice presidents. "I am no disciplinarian," Heyns says, but he once squelched disorderly students, protesting the campus presence of former Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett, by grabbing a microphone and ordering: "All right, cool it off!"

No Dreamer. Both Cal's regents and its faculty are high on Heyns. To the regents, he represents a fine blend of diplomatic tact and no-nonsense firmness. "He is strong but open-minded in dealing with young people, though not so wild a dreamer that he will go off into orbit with them," says Mrs. Norman ("Buff") Chandler. "He's a man who wants to be working in the tomorrow of education," adds Financier Norton Simon, "and tomorrow is already here at Berkeley." Faculty members are impressed by Heyns's demonstrated emphasis on teaching at Michigan, consider him as open to new ideas as was Meyerson.

Making a dryly witty press-conference debut at Berkeley, Heyns indicated that he has no use for student demonstrations--but does have quiet sympathy for student problems. He called the riots "frankly, a very uncongenial way for a university to conduct itself," adding: "The academic man moves more quietly, motivated by reason and the spirit of inquiry. Civil disobedience is really a breach of academic manners." But in an interview at Michigan he also noted: "If procedures and mechanisms for adjusting grievances aren't trusted by students and faculty, we have to improve them. If student groups feel that the only way to get change is to picket the chancellor's house, then something is wrong."

Not Bankrupt. Heyns undertook the Berkeley job at no financial loss: his $35,000 salary is about what he earned at Michigan. "Let's get one thing straight," he told reporters. "I don't regard the University of California as some kind of bankrupt organization that needs some knight in shining armor from the East to come in as a kind of domestic peace corps. I think Berkeley is a little chagrined and would like to settle down and get back to work."

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