What’s Next • Journalism
Chairman Dr. William Babcock (left) took
Cal State Long Beach President F. King
Alexander to the journalism department
to survey the water damage in the basement.
Stacy Schwed / Summer Forty-Niner
F.
King Alexander discusses plans for his
reign
By
Patrick Creaven
Summer Forty-Niner
Sports Editor
New Cal State Long Beach President F. King Alexander has been listening and
learning a lot in his first six months. In his next six months he is planning
on doing more.
Improving the community atmosphere on campus, doubling the amount of people
living on campus, building a new recreation center, having a better relationship
with the city of Long Beach and meeting more students are all goals for Alexander
in the coming months.
This fall, Alexander is hoping to make CSULB more student-friendly. He said
there are going to be more activities on campus and more places to eat that
will be open later at night.
“Right now, students come to school, go to class, get something to eat,
go to class and go home,” Alexander said. “We want our students here,
we want them hanging out, we want them to feel like part of the school.”
One way Alexander is hoping to have a more cohesive student body is by increasing
the number of students living on campus from 2,100 to 4,200 in the next three
years. He is hoping to break ground on new construction of dorms in spring
2007, and there are already plans in place to upgrade the dining facilities
for on-campus students.
“The amount of students living on campus is way below the average for an
institution of our size,” Alexander said. “We have a waiting list
for students who want to get in, and we lose many high quality students who don’t
get into the dorms through the lottery.”
Alexander is also still pushing for CSULB to have its own recreation center,
which he would like to see built at the same time as the new dorms. According
to Alexander, CSULB is one of only two universities in the country with a population
over 25,000 that does not have its own recreation center.
“I have seen how [recreation centers] can be great gathering places for
students to get know each other,” Alexander said. “It is also one
of the few opportunities where faculty can come out of their departments, and
students out of their rooms, and bring them into an interactive area outside
the classroom.”
Off campus, Alexander wants to strengthen the ties between the university and
the city of Long Beach. Alexander said the university and Long Beach already
have a close relationship, but believes the city should start considering Long
Beach a university town.
“We have a large university that generates 490 graduating engineering students
a year, 250 nurses, 700 school teachers. These are the numbers we are putting
into our local economy.” Alexander said. “We are a huge economic
benefit for the city and when the city makes future plans, they need to make
sure the university is a very integrated component of what they expect to have
in the future.”
Lastly, Alexander wants to get to know his students. He said he was too busy
in his first six months to reach out to the student body as much as he would
have liked to, but he is looking forward to meeting more of his students next
semester.
“One thing I was uncomfortable with was not knowing as many students as
I knew at my previous job,” Alexander said. “But I want to make sure
the students know me and when they see me they can come to me about their concerns.”
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