The first time Alexander Gonzalez became president of a California State University campus, there were growing pains to soothe, employee relations to calm and racial tensions to confront.

As Gonzalez moves from the relatively young campus in San Marcos in San Diego County to the more established confines of CSU Sacramento, the new leader will be faced with challenges just as daunting: a state budget crisis and increasing enrollment demands at a campus already serving 29,000 students.

The 57-year-old Gonzalez assumes the CSUS presidency Monday, becoming the campus's first new chief in nearly two decades. He is also the first Latino at the CSUS helm -- an achievement he calls "significant."

Donald Gerth is retiring from the post after 19 years.

"I know that I'll be tested early on," Gonzalez said last week. "Hopefully, I'll be able to respond and show what I'm worth."

Among his biggest and earliest tests will be steering the campus through tight fiscal times, a period likely to bring student fee increases of 30 percent. Gonzalez says the increases are unfortunate but necessary.

"I'm supportive of the increases, knowing that students who need assistance at the lower income levels will receive it and those who are well-off won't be burdened," he said. "Those in the middle will feel it. But it's a relative pain. We are still very inexpensive."

Making the most of a lean budget won't be unfamiliar to the new president, says John Welty, president of Fresno State University, where Gonzalez started his career in the CSU system. Gonzalez rose through the Fresno State ranks to become psychology department chairman before Welty tapped him for provost -- the campus's top business executive -- in 1991.

"Those were tough budget times, too," Welty said. "Obviously when you go through that, you remember things that work and things that don't. He brings invaluable experience."

Besides making delicate budget decisions, Gonzalez said he intends to embrace and promote plans to build a college-town atmosphere around the CSUS campus.

"That is going to be a critical part of Sac State's future," he said.

Raised in East Los Angeles by Mexican immigrant parents, Gonzalez hadn't planned to go to college, much less become a high-powered administrator. He had enlisted in the Air Force and spent four years as a mechanic when a recruiter from Pomona College persuaded him to enroll.

From Pomona, Gonzalez went to Harvard Law School for a year before deciding he really wanted a doctorate in psychology. He enrolled at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and in 1979 he landed a job at Fresno State, launching what is now a 24-year career with CSU.

Some faculty and students are convinced Gonzalez's loyalty to CSU gave him the edge over other candidates for the CSUS job, and he doesn't disagree.

"I've been in the system a long time," Gonzalez said. "It's definitely an advantage."

Gonzalez said his humble beginnings still inform decisions he makes, especially those that directly affect students.

Honey J. Folk, a senior at CSU San Marcos, can attest to that. Folk, 25, said she approached Gonzalez when she couldn't afford the travel and living expenses of a summer internship with the AFL-CIO.

"I was two steps from not being able to go," said Folk, now president of the Associated Students at San Marcos. "I took a chance and wound up in his office. I told him my problem, he listened, and he gave me $500."

In her role as a campus leader, Folk said she also saw Gonzalez support programs that were important to minority students, such as funding for special graduation ceremonies for African American, Latino and American Indian students.

Still, Gonzalez has drawn some complaints from students. He caused a flap last year when he dramatically increased parking fees, a move he said was necessary to pay for parking lots that had to be built on a granite hillside.

And though he is credited with supporting minority students, some thought he could have been more aggressive in boosting enrollment of African Americans, Latinos and American Indians.

"The only group of color that has steadily increased are Asian students," Folk said. "I'm not sure (minority enrollment) has been as much of a priority as it could have been for him."

No one disputes the stability Gonzalez brought to San Marcos in 1997 as the campus was coping with an ongoing investigation into racial incidents that targeted African American faculty members.

"It was a very tense time," said John R. "Dick" Montanari, a business professor at San Marcos and president of the Academic Senate on campus. "Alex was sensitive and calm, and he kept the faculty informed of where the investigation was going."

Gonzalez's handling of that situation helped him overcome early resentment over his being appointed without faculty input or a national search, Montanari said.

But there were rocky stretches. Montanari said Gonzalez was slow to initiate communication with faculty on major campus issues and that his decision to order an audit of the college's business school created rancor and distrust.

Throughout Gonzalez's term, though, Montanari said, faculty were impressed with his gift for fund raising and building solid relationships with community leaders.

Those are skills Gonzalez said he intends to transfer to his new job.

"Fund raising doesn't just mean money," he said. "It's getting people involved in their university, whether they are alumni or businesspeople and politicians in the community."

Gonzalez said one way he'll do that is hosting events with his wife, Gloria, at their new home in Natomas.

"My wife is a great cook ... and that has always been a key to my success in building those critical relationships," he said.

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Alexander Gonzalez
Age: 57
Previous experience: Twenty-four years in academia, including professor of psychology, provost and vice president for academic affairs at CSU Fresno from 1979 to 1997; and president and professor of psychology at CSU San Marcos from 1997 to 2003
Education: Doctorate in psychology, University of California, Santa Cruz
Family: Married with two children