From the COVID-19 pandemic, a budget crisis, union negotiations and political encampments, University of California President Emeritus Michael Drake, M.D., had a lot to reflect on while speaking at UC Santa Barbara last week.

Drake, who closed out a five-year term as UC president last year, spoke about his career last Thursday at UCSB’s Campbell Hall. The free event was part of UCSB Arts & Lectures’ Justice For All programming initiative.

Drake served as the 21st president of the University of California from August 2020 to August 2025. Before taking over the UC system in 2020, he served as the fifth chancellor of UC Irvine from 2005 to 2014 and the 15th president of Ohio State University from 2014 to 2020.

He also spent 2000 through 2005 as the UC systemwide vice president for Health Affairs.

Professor Susannah Scott, 2025-26 Academic Senate vice chair and a leading researcher in sustainable chemistry, led a Q&A at the event, asking Drake about his experience running the UC system.

Drake became UC president not long after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. He told the crowd he was initially offered an interview for the job in February of that year, but declined. He later changed his mind when he saw how much pressure was on the UC system. 

“We had a really intentional plan of using public health common sense and guidance and science to help protect our community, and we had a remarkable success rate,” Drake said. 

He said UC employees had a “dramatically lower” fatality and hospitalization rate than workers of the same age in surrounding California communities. 

Drake said he is also pleased with the UC system’s positive relationship with the state government, which he said led to an agreement where the UC would get 5% budget increases from the state over five years in exchange for enrolling more California residents.

One thing Drake said he wished he was able to accomplish was an employee tuition support plan. The system got close to finalizing a plan before the economy soured in summer 2023, he explained.

“I think that would be a great thing for us, and I know that we can get there,” Drake said. “I think it would be great to have that acknowledgment for our employees that you’re a special part of the family and you get the friends and family rate.”

During his five years as UC president, Drake faced several crises, but he said the most difficult was the graduate student contract negotiations in 2022.

A six-week strike led to a new contract with high salaries and more benefits for graduate student researchers and academic student employees. 

“​​It pitted us against our graduate students when I felt we were entirely in the opposite position. We love our graduate students,” Drake said. “We needed to make a change. I think that the unionization helped to move that change into the future, but I was entirely eager for us to make those changes.”

However, he said he wished the two sides appreciated the change more: that universities recognized changes were necessary to treat graduate students fairly, and that union organizers were “more appreciative” of the challenge it caused for universities. 

Drake also addressed how students have responded to the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in Israel and the ongoing destruction and war in Gaza.

“We had each side being appropriately outraged and damaged by the horrors from the other side, but trying to manage through that,” Drake said. “In a campus and campus community where we need to represent everyone, we’re a place for everyone, trying to balance those forces, it was challenging for the world as a whole, and challenging for us as campuses.”

Since Oct. 7, 2023, Jewish students have reported feeling unsafe on college campuses, including at UCSB.

In spring 2024, students across the country created encampments on college campuses to protest the war in Gaza and demanded that universities divest funding from companies that support Israel. 

At one point that spring, students had built encampments at all 10 UC campuses, including UCSB. The encampment at UCSB lasted longer than the others in the system until UC police raided it right before summer classes began in June 2024. 

“The horrors that people were responding to, each person was correct in saying that what they were responding to is the most horrible thing that they could imagine,” Drake said. “But they were different things and from different perspectives, and part of our challenge was to recognize the truth of each person’s perspective, even those that were entirely incompatible with one another.”

Toward the end of the event, Drake reflected on the future of the UC system and how it can grow. His advice was to focus on what’s been proven to work, learn from the progress that has already been made and apply it to the future.

“The people who come here to try to learn and make themselves and the world a better place, what a great privilege is to be involved in that, and then what a great privilege is to take that knowledge out into the world after and see those things actually work,” Drake said.

“I think we have to remember that, remember all the things that it took to get us here, all that we have in our means, and then to apply what we have to try to make the world better today and tomorrow.”

As one of his final acts as the leader of the UC system, Drake chaired the search committee that selected Dennis Assanis as UCSB’s new chancellor. Assanis took over for UC Chancellor Henry Yang, who served for 31 years, in September.

“Under his leadership, the University of California expanded its strong commitment to access, affordability and academic excellence,” Assanis said of Drake. “He’s an advocate for diversity, equity and inclusion. I couldn’t think of a more fitting person to be here in our Justice For All series.”

Assanis said he and Drake have crossed paths numerous times throughout their careers and added that he always admired Drake’s perspective. 

“My immense respect for Dr. Drake was a big factor for us coming here,” Assanis said. 

James Milliken took over the role as UC president in August. He came from the University of Texas system, serving there from 2018 to 2025.