F.
King Alexander
Fourth
candidate Alexander to visit CSULB
By Andy Reyes
Online Forty-Niner
Contributing Writer
F. King Alexander, the fourth presidential candidate to visit the campus this
week, said his goals include keeping Cal State Long Beach moving forward and
keeping tuition costs low.
Alexander’s background experiences include director of Annual Programs
at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, coordinator of the Higher
Education Program at the University of Illinois, and is currently president
of Murray State University in western Kentucky.
About
his possible plans for CSULB Alexander
said he needs to carefully assess the campus
culture.
“[CSULB] is a university that has great momentum and is on the move,” Alexander
said. “[I] plan to work closely with the faculty, staff and students to
understand many of the strengths and weakness of the institution.”
Though Alexander’s present school, Murray State University, currently
enrolls about only 10,100 students, he said he has built up the experience
to take on the job of handling the more than 34,000 full- and part-time students
enrolled at CSULB.
Alexander said most of his experience has come from working at institutions
such as the University of Wisconsin, Madison and the University of Illinois,
both of which have more than 30,000 students enrolled.
Alexander said he also feels presidents all over the nation should battle for
keeping tuition costs lower for students. He said he pays close attention in
regards to how federal and state governments finance higher education.
“
Being someone that has been saddled with student loan debt, I understand
this issue quite well,” he said. “I’ve worked with provosts
of my past universities with everything from accreditation to tuition setting
policies. Through my research I’ve spent a lot of time working on
state policy as it applies to state tax efforts in support of higher education.”
Murray State University Student Government President Scott Ellison said Alexander
is a useful president because he is very active on campus.
“
He is really visible on campus so we get to ask him a lot of questions
to get to know what is going on around campus,” Ellison said. “He
takes issues straight from the students.”
Ellison also said Alexander puts an emphasis on higher education for students,
not only at Murray State University, but other universities as well.
Alexander said CSULB “has got a strong pull of candidates and any one
of us could keep the institution moving forward and gaining in not only state-wide
stature but national and international stature. It’s a wonderful university
and it would be a pleasure to come out and meet as many people and talk to
as many people as possible.”
Alexander
will discuss his plans about the future
of CSULB at two forums today open to
all students, faculty and staff. Everyone
is invited to meet and ask Alexander
questions at the Associated Students,
Inc. office in the conference room of
the University Student Union from 1:30
to 2:15 p.m.
An open forum for the campus community will follow at the Horn Center from
3 to 4:15 p.m.
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