CHANCELLOR SEARCHES POSE DILEMMA : CAMPUS PARITY DEBATED AS UC SYSTEM CONSIDERS CANDIDATES FOR TWO POSTS.

Byline: James Richardson Scripps-McClatchy Western Service

As the University of California system searches for new chancellors for its two premier campuses - Berkeley and UCLA - there is a great internal debate over whether to appoint UC's own to either post.

There are a handful of qualified candidates at other UC campuses - but to move them to a ``flagship'' campus would be acknowledging that not all nine UC campuses are created equal.

``To take a chancellor from one of the other campuses and relocate that chancellor at Berkeley or UCLA is saying implicitly that the other campuses are not as important as Berkeley or UCLA,'' said one source close to the chancellor searches. ``That would send the wrong message.''

However, some of those involved in the searches have argued that the candidates should be evaluated on their own merits and ``there may be a whole host of reasons why you would want to send one chancellor from one franchise to another,'' said one source close to the searches.

``We pay the Berkeley and UCLA chancellors more; let's admit we consider those jobs bigger jobs,'' that source added.

The issue has become pressing because two sitting chancellors - Henry Yang at UC Santa Barbara and Raymond Orbach at UC Riverside - are contenders for the jobs at Berkeley and UCLA, respectively.

There are those on the UC Berkeley search committee who have argued that Yang would be a good replacement for outgoing Berkeley chancellor Chang-Lin Tien, who will return to teaching June 30. But Yang has run up against an argument that picking him would send the wrong signal to the UC Santa Barbara campus.

The search for a Berkeley chancellor has been complicated by a similar search at UCLA to replace Charles Young, who is retiring in June. Orbach, a former UCLA administrator, is on the short list of candidates for that job, but his candidacy has been subject to the same issue that appears to be snagging Yang: whether giving Orbach the UCLA job would be seen as a slight to Riverside.

``Orbach would be a natural, but if we give it to him, why not Yang?'' said another source.

During the search for a Berkeley chancellor, several prominent names in UC circles have fallen by the wayside, including Judson King, who is provost for the nine campus UC system, and Daniel Mote Jr., vice chancellor for university relations at Berkeley, sources have said.

There are some close to the Berkeley search who have said that former White House economic adviser Laura D'Andrea Tyson is a strong contender for the job.

Historically, the UC Board of Regents, which has the final say, rarely moves a chancellor from one campus to another. The last time the regents made such a move was in 1987 when UC Riverside Chancellor Theodore Hullar became chancellor at UC Davis.

Although Hullar was generally well thought of at UC Riverside, his tenure at UC Davis was marred by campus discontent over his mercurial style and lavish office remodeling. He resigned in 1993 and was replaced by Larry Vanderhoef.