Maxson urges recruiting

Saying that his main goal is to attract "the best and the brightest" students in the area to Cal State Long Beach, President Maxson is stepping up recruiting efforts to bring a higher quality of students to CSULB.

The plans - which will not necessaarily increase the number of students on campus - include aggressive recruitment, campus tours and the involvement of CSULB students.

Maxson and his staff will spend time with counselors in all of the high schools and community colleges in the area surrounding CSULB. They will also bring students to campus to show them what CSULB has to offer.

"I will invite students to see classrooms and to attend sporting events, and I will go with them," Maxson said.

Maxson will ask CSULB's upper classmen and student leaders to visit local classrooms and encourage higher learning. "No one can promote the university better than students can," Maxson said.

There are also plans to invite parents of high school students for tours of the campus.

Maxson said the recruitment efforts should increase enrollment, but not drastically. However, if numbers do go up faster than expected, Maxson said the school will accommodate students by asking for budget increases from the state.

"We don't need more students, we have about 30,000," Maxson said. "We just want this to be a university of first choice; we want bright high school seniors who have the ability to go anywhere but want to come here to get a good education."

By "the best and the brightest," Maxson said he means students who have excelled academically, are well adjusted and show leadership qualities.

Student involvement in extracurricular activities is also a priority to the president. He said he will continue to encourage present and incoming students to take part in fraternities, sororities, government and other activities.

"If all a student learns at this university is what they learn in the classroom, they have not received a complete education," he said.

Maxson stressed that his commitment to existing students will not change with the new policy, and that his administration will never abandon the non-traditional student. "We have good students, yet anytime you increase the quality of learning it enriches us all," Maxson said.

The administration will start the recruitment programs this fall, and Maxson said they hope to see results by next September, when a new class of freshman arrive.