100 Days OFF The Beach
My last message shared some of my campus activities and the insights that followed. I probably spend equal amounts of time on and off The Beach as I work to further our organizational goals.
Our 293,000 alumni are our best story of excellence. I’ve enjoyed meeting Alumni Association board members and had special fun meeting notables like pop music great Richard Carpenter and Dirtbag legend Dario Pini.
We anticipate that after our 2015 commencement we’ll have 300,000 alumni. This represents a full 10 percent of the CSU system’s 3 million graduates! Alumni deserve to hear stories that will reinforce their Beach Pride. We need their involvement with athletics, academics, research, public service, and our efforts to spur California’s economic development. Their time, influence, mentorship of current students, job placement of graduates, and treasure are all critical for our continued success.
Speaking of economic development, our partnerships with area industry sectors (aerospace, health care, goods movement, education) are strong and growing. We are now fully engaged with several economic and educational coalitions. We benefit immensely from MOUs with regional schools, community college districts, and hospitals and health systems.
Connections to the arts, entertainment, and hospitality industry sectors are also strong and growing. Our special role in our region is to add to its prosperity. We do this primarily by graduating great students and by offering specially tailored professional development. Having spent most of my career at big Land Grant Universities, I'm drawn to this mission with great passion.
The expansion of the Long Beach College Promise to include the City of Long Beach (spearheaded by our own alumnus the Honorable Robert Garcia) promises to add to an already great partnership with LBCC President Oakley and LBUSD Superintendent Steinhauser. We can and should do more with this relationship. Our most effective regional economic development strategy will be to assist Long Beach natives in achieving transformative university degrees.
I've been doing a fair number of newspaper interviews and editorial meetings and met with many of our elected officials. With help from my government relations staff, I'll learn what we should be proposing in Sacramento and Washington, DC, to further our mission. While uncritical ideology has slowed government down, I am a believer in the power of your stories to influence investment in our work.
Of course on that front we get good advice from other CSU presidents and provosts, the CSU Board of Trustees, the chancellor and vice chancellors, and CO staff. I think you all will notice changes in how the CSU system works with campuses. I predict these will be good for The Beach and all the other campuses. Healthy differentiation will make our system even stronger.
Collie and I have been warmly welcomed into the homes of Beach friends, and the Miller House is busy as we host at least one event per week to tell Beach stories of influence and excellence to neighbors, students, CSU presidents, and current or possible friends of campus. The Miller House is our university’s living room. Let’s make good use of it with people who care about our mission and are willing to invest in it.
I'm honored to serve as chair or as a member of a number of boards, including the Los Angeles Economic Development Council, LA Coalition, LB Chamber of Commerce, Ronald McDonald House, Ukleja Center for Ethical Leadership, CSULB 49er Foundation, and the CSULB Research Foundation. Some of these relationships position my understanding of The Beach in our SoCal region, state and world, while others will give me an even deeper appreciation of where we need to go to continue and enhance our commitment to student success.
From now on, we'll talk about outcomes.
