Robert Reich urged by faculty group as new UC Berkeley chancellor

Former U.S. Secretary of Labor and current professor of public policy at the Goldman School at UC Berkeley Robert Reich is seen on Thursday, Sept. 3, 2015 in San Francisco, Calif. Former U.S. Secretary of Labor and current professor of public policy at the Goldman School at UC Berkeley Robert Reich is seen on Thursday, Sept. 3, 2015 in San Francisco, Calif. Photo: Russell Yip, The Chronicle Photo: Russell Yip, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 4 Caption Close Robert Reich urged by faculty group as new UC Berkeley chancellor 1 / 4 Back to Gallery

As the University of California begins the search for a new chancellor at UC Berkeley, a group of faculty on Tuesday identified a candidate they’d love to see get the job: Robert Reich.

Reich — a former U.S. labor secretary under President Bill Clinton who teaches at Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy — is an intellectual of the left and popular with faculty and students alike. As the Occupy movement surged in 2011, Reich delivered a speech about social justice on the Mario Savio steps of Sproul Plaza that drew more than 1,000 students, faculty and staff. He’s since been a visible presence on campus, joining such student efforts as the fight to win higher wages for fast-food workers.

“Robert Reich? That would be really cool to see. I’ve been to protests with him — he shows up and talks about labor violations,” said Iman Sylvain, a doctoral student in microbiology who is one of more than a dozen students, faculty, staff, alumni and foundation representatives serving on the chancellor search committee that meets for the first time Thursday.

The Berkeley Faculty Association, a more activist group of professors than the larger Academic Senate, put forth Reich’s name Tuesday as part of its “Statement of Principles” calling for greater transparency in the chancellor search and highlighting their desire for a new direction in campus leadership.

UC Berkeley is wrestling with a $150 million budget deficit, its administrators have repeatedly meted out soft discipline to high-profile employees who violate sexual harassment policies, and many students and faculty say they’ve lost trust in the administration. In the face of such struggles, Chancellor Nicholas Dirks said in August that this will be his last year at the helm.

The faculty association not only wants students and employees to play a role in selecting the new chancellor, but it wants the person to favor a range of values popular with students and professors: stopping the hiring surge of senior managers, capping executive salaries, increasing student diversity, and raising the focus on good teaching and research.

And it wants Reich to run the show.

“He symbolizes all that is good and great about Berkeley,” said sociology Professor Michael Burawoy, co-chair of the faculty association. “He represents an alternative vision of the university, away from the treacherous path of the last two decades,” he said, referring to the idea that Berkeley has tilted away from its roots as an affordable university of the people and toward an elitist institution.

Associate Professor of English Celeste Langan, also a co-chair, called Reich “clearly committed to public service and the public good.”

Neither had asked Reich if he would serve. Reich, who writes an opinion column that appears in The Sunday Chronicle, had no comment, an assistant said Tuesday afternoon.

UC President Janet Napolitano, who also serves on the chancellor selection committee, was not available to comment, said her spokeswoman, Dianne Klein, who added that committee members would not comment on potential candidates anyway.

Klein defended the transparency of the university’s search process, however, noting that “there is a wide consultation process, and anyone can nominate candidates.”

The new chancellor is expected to be named in March.

Nanette Asimov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: nasimov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @NanetteAsimov