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Outraged by student protesters and radical movements, Reagan once accused California's public universities of "subsidizing intellectual curiosity." In his first year in office, he cut the university system's proposed budget by 17%. After campus disorders died down, however, Reagan cooled off as well. By the time he left office, the state's higher-education budget had actually increased by 100%. Some educators contend that the quality of the state university system declined somewhat during the Rea gan years. But Brown wants to hold the campuses to "a more austere standard of living" that university officials fear may jeopardize the system. Says McHenry: "In retrospect, a lot of people think that Reagan wasn't so bad. At least he did not question the fundamental role of the university as Brown is doing."
As Governor, Reagan brought a new style to Sacramento, which had grown accustomed to the backslapping ways of politicians like Democrats Pat Brown and Unruh. An intensely private man, Reagan stayed aloof from everyone in the state government except his closest aides. Even they found him to be reserved. Says former Press Secretary Ed Gray: "The staff was never buddy-buddy with him. He always maintained an employer-employee relationship."
While his staff often worked 16-hour days, Reagan usually started work at 9 a.m. and left for home promptly at 5:30 p.m. with a briefcase of homework. Recalls William Clark, who was Reagan's top aide: "He would often break into staff meetings at 5 p.m. and suggest that we all go home to our wives and children. Of course, we couldn't."
Order and brevity became watchwords in his office. His calendar of meetings and appointments was divided into ten-minute segments; only rarely was there any open time. To prepare for meetings, he demanded "mini-memos" that compressed complex problems into four paragraphs. Critics charged that the system was designed for Reagan's brief attention span and gave him a quick but shallow understanding of California's problems. Yet the brief memos were an effective way to sort out and organize the avalanche of information that required his attention. As a rule, Reagan made no important decision without first discussing it at his almost daily cabinet meetings or probing for more facts in lengthy sessions with agency heads and other experts.
During Watergate, aides pressed him to stop defending Richard Nixon. Said one: "It was pointless, and we told him so. He kept jiggling coins in his hands as he listened. Finally, he had enough. 'Goddammit, all right!' he shouted and threw the coins at an aide." But Reagan never disavowed Nixon, and the two still occasionally chat.
In 1968 Reagan made a brief, abortive run for the Republican presidential nomination. Backers got him on the primary ballots in Wisconsin, Nebraska and Oregon, where he won 23% of the vote against Nixon. Afterward Reagan toured several states to drum up support. At the Republican National Convention in Miami, however, he soon realized that his cause was hopeless and withdrew. Two years later he was re-elected Governor but decided that he would not run again; he had long said that no one should serve more than two terms in that office.