Candidate • F.
King Alexander speaks to students as
a part of the forums to help the campus
community get to know the candidates,
held last week. File photo Tracy Roman
/ Daily Forty-Niner.
It’s
good to be King (Alexander, that is)
By Daniel Linck Savino
Online Forty-Niner
Staff Writer
F. King Alexander will be the sixth president of Cal State Long Beach, sources
said Wednesday. A lengthy list of candidates had been winnowed to four
main candidates in recent weeks. But by the final closed-door meetings
of the California State University trustees yesterday, only two candidates
remained.
Alexander, president of Murray State University, in Kentucky, and Gary Reichard,
provost of CSULB, had their final interviews Wednesday. Both Richard H. Wells
of the University of Wisconsin and Wilson G. Bradshaw of Metropolitan State
University Minnesota withdrew Wednesday.
Craig Smith, faculty representative on the Board of Trustees and film and electronic
arts department chairman at CSULB, said there could be a number of reasons for
their withdrawals.
“
Somtimes they see where the tide is turning,” he said. “Sometimes
they get an offer from their campus.”
Pay raises from their home campuses, he noted, were a real possibility, considering
the comparatively low salary paid to CSULB's president.
In making the final decision, Smith said, Alexander and Reichard faced straight-forward
but significant questions about bringing in funding, coping with CSULB’s
continued growth and other issues.
“
The criteria… were pretty clear, and we simply pursued those questions,” Smith
said.
He also noted some of the strengths Alexander would bring.
“
He has a sense of funding that is something we’re looking for,” he
said.
“
He did a great job in cleaning up the athletic department [at Murray State].”
Also speaking highly of Alexander was Doug Robinson, vice president for Student
Services.
“
I think he’ll make an excellent president,” he said. “He
is very, very bright. He understands data. He has a commitment to equity
and diversity. He will build on Maxson’s foundation.”
Like President Robert C. Maxson, Alexander will stay at CSULB for a significant
period of time, according to Robinson.
“
He will spend a minimum of 10 years here,” Robinson said. “That
is a pretty good chunk of time. He won’t be in and out.”
In the run-up to yesterday’s vote, information and opinions streamed
in from many directions. Representing the diversity of the campus was the Advisory
Committee for the Selection of the President, which reported directly to Chancellor
Charles B. Reed. Among the members were three faculty, an alumni, a staff member
and a student representative. Several academic administrators from the region
were also involved.
Charles Noble, one of the faculty representatives and chairman of the political
science department, described the committee’s role.
“
We participated directly in choosing who would come to campus,” he
said.
They helped screen the candidates, but did not vote on the final choice.
“
The trustees were listening to a number of different constituencies, not just
the advisory committee,” he said. “The way we got input in the
end was each of us spoke individually to Chancellor Reed.”
“
They never really asked the advisory committee to choose the president,” he
added.
The choice of Alexander, though, was at slight odds with the general feelings
of the committee yet in keeping with tradition.
No CSU provost has been promoted to the position of president in recent memory,
Noble said.
“
I think that often the people who chose presidents have something like a
CEO in mind, someone who can run a campus from the top down,” he said.
With an “insider,” a significant worry is that they are too connected
to people to effectively run the campus, he said.
Reichard, to his credit, though giving basis to that concern, received high
marks from the campus.
“
The support on the search committee for Reichard reflected strong support
on campus for Reichard,” Noble said.”“The large majority
of faculty who contacted me expressed support for Reichard.”
“
I know there was strong support on the advisory committee for Reichard,” he
added. “I know that for a fact.”
The committee members spoke individually to Reed recently, conveying that support.
Reed will officially announce the new president this morning at the chancellor’s
office.
Jamie Rowe and Joseph Serna contributed to this article.
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