Reichard
kicks off presidential finalist forums
By Joseph Serna
Staff Writer
Online Forty-Niner
Gary Reichard met with students, faculty and staff members Monday, but instead
of acting as an administrator, he was answering questions about his presidential
candidacy.
In two forums held Monday afternoon, Reichard, provost and vice president of
Academic Affairs at Cal State Long Beach, answered, joked, and sometimes strongly
disagreed with participant’s points of view.
One question, what to do with the Puvungna burial grounds next to student housing,
evoked booing from one audience member as Reichard made it clear that he cannot
promise to leave the burial grounds untouched.
“
If I was to assume the presidency, I would not make the same promise that Maxson
made in 1994,” Reichard said.
As CSULB is expected to grow to 31,000 full-time students in a few years, some
have concerns about how the influx of new students will be accommodated, and
more importantly, where.
“
We need to figure out if we need those lands,” Reichard said. In the
student-only forum earlier in the afternoon, Reichard had mentioned possibly
setting aside one and a half acres of the land as a tribute for the burial
grounds,
and utilizing the rest for student housing.
A common theme of the day was maintaining the diversity that Maxson has so publicly
promoted.
“
We need to continue to have a message inside and outside the university that
celebrates diversity,” Reichard said. “We need to get the faculty
more conscious of the special needs of some students.”
Proposition 209, passed in 1996, prohibits preferential treatment for any individual
or group in hiring or being accepted to public university, among other institutions. “Prop
209 is a straight-jacket that restricts us all,” Reichard said.
Like any other school, CSULB depends on money to survive and run its programs.
Reichard’s consistent message was to maintain the ideals of Maxson and
to raise funds.
“
We’re not going to have a capital campaign for the abstract fun
of it,” Reichard said. “We have to be sure that nothing we do adversely
affects the experience of the student in the classroom.”
One of those investments will clearly not be a football team, Reichard explained.
Without a successful football team, having one is a “drain out of the bottom
of the university,” he said. “Our budget is finite, we need to make
our investments strategically.”
Though Reichard has no experience as a president at any university, he sees his
position as provost as a strength because of the size of CSULB.
“
I think being the provost at such a large campus may be more relevantÖthan
being the president of a smaller school,” Reichard said. “You can’t
work with Bob [Maxson] without picking up a few skills even if you’re
dumb.”
The student-concentrated forum, about 25 people made up of mostly administrators
and members of Associated Students Inc., took place in the Student Union below
the student government offices. The open forum in the Horn Center had about 100
faculty members, with few students in attendance. Both forums will happen at
the same time each day through Thursday for the remaining three finalists.
The CSU Board of Trustees will interview all four finalists individually Oct.
26, and they hope to announce the next president by the end of the month.
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