Kudos for Maxson's 49er express

The business of any university is academics. This fact is often lost sight of amid the sound and fury of campus political debates or the pageantry of college athletics.

But it is the academic reputation of an institution which, more than any other factor, determines such things as the value of degrees bearing its seal, the funding for research and other projects it will draw and the caliber of students it will attract.

Cal State Long Beach President Robert Maxson's current efforts to foster interest in CSULB among the academic cream of each year's post-secondary crop is a bold recognition of this fact.

It is far more important for CSULB to draw students with intellectual ability than to recruit young men and women who can put a ball through a hoop or run fast. Academics are CSULB's business. And yet, only now, with Maxson's efforts to bring to this campus the "best and brightest" of graduating high school seniors, are good students recruited by CSULB in a manner comparable with that used to entice good athletes.

By recruiting proven scholars, Maxson will raise the academic and intellectual bar at CSULB, inspiring and necessitating harder work and higher achievement for other students.

And if Maxson is successful in transforming CSULB, every Cal State Long Beach alumnus will benefit in that the degree he or she holds from this institution will appreciate with every leap in prestige experienced by the university.

Ideally, Maxson's plan to attract the "best and the brightest" of students to this campus will create a lush intellectual environment from one which is now sadly wilted. His plan will, without question, improve the scholastic performance of this university. This will, in turn, attract even greater numbers of first-rate students.

Maxson has repeatedly stated his commitment to making CSULB a "school of choice" for high school seniors who have as options more prominent and currently more reputable universities. He has taken a bold first step in the fulfillment of this commitment. He is to be commended.