Cal State Bakersfield President Tomas A. Arciniega announced his retirement Monday after more than 20 years with the university.

Only the third president in the history of the campus, Arciniega will officially retire July 1, 2004.

Arciniega, 65, joined Cal State in July 1983 when the campus was 13 years old.

"I've been in the presidency for over 20 years. The average tenure of a university president in the United States is about six or seven years. I just felt it was time," Arciniega said.

Officials at the California State University chancellor's office in Long Beach said a time line for the search for a successor has not been determined.

Although Arciniega is stepping down as president of Cal State Bakersfield, he is not retiring from the California State University system.

Arciniega will take on a special assistant to the chancellor position within the CSU system. He will work on various leadership development initiatives. Arciniega said he will likely maintain his regular salary, which is slightly more than $204,000 per year.

"I'll be working on the development of those initiatives. I've also got a number of writing projects that I've made commitments to," he said.

Colleen Bentley-Adler, director of public affairs for the CSU chancellor's office in Long Beach, said it is typical for retiring university presidents to take on advisory roles with the chancellor's office. Bentley-Adler said the chancellor usually has one or two former presidents in this type of position. They usually don't stay at the job for longer than two years, Bentley-Adler said.

"When you're a special assistant, the parameters are pretty wide open. It's whatever the chancellor believes they would be pretty good looking at," she said.

As president, the sometimes controversial Arciniega garnered a reputation for being an aggressive educator who sought to push the campus away from its original liberal arts design and make it more comprehensive and in tune with local needs.

"Dr. Arciniega was hired at a crucial time for the university," said local attorney Milt Younger, a university foundation board member. "He has been exactly what the university has needed. He transformed the concept of Cal State Bakersfield from a small liberal arts college to a school more than double in size, which was designed to meet the needs of the district it serves."

In his years with the university, student enrollment has grown from about 3,400 in 1983 to close to 7,800 students in 2002.

Arciniega helped Cal State Bakersfield receive its university status in 1987 and increased campus diversity. In 1983 only 11.4 percent of the campus' students were Latino. In 2002, Latinos made up more than 36 percent of the student population.

During his tenure at Cal State, Arciniega also sought to make the university more comprehensive, adding new professional degree programs and adding a satellite campus in Antelope Valley. He oversaw construction of the five-story Walter Stiern Library, the nearly 4,000-seat Icardo Activity Center, the Student Union and the recently completed five-building Business Development Center complex.

"I've been here 10 years and I've worked at seven universities ... and I've reported to about 12, 13 different presidents and I found Tomas to be the most student-centered president of my 38-year career," said Michael Chertok, vice president for university advancement.

Chertok described Arciniega as a man whose passion is education, who is especially dedicated to making college a reality for more and more students.

"He knows the value of a university degree in this world," Chertok said.

For Arciniega, it is this dedication to students and their needs that he is most proud of in his time with the university.

"So many of the young people who graduated from our high schools come from families where if they go to college they are the first in their families to go," Arciniega said. "Cal State Bakersfield has made it possible to pursue that dream.

"This is really the key to the future development of California. We must increase the percentage of the population that goes on to college."

Along with the achievements, Arciniega has had his share of controversy with the university, from his initial appointment in 1983 when some charged that he was not qualified for the position to the university Academic Senate's vote of "no confidence" in Arciniega almost three years ago.

Relations between Arciniega and the faculty would eventually improve despite the fact that the vote of no confidence was never rescinded.

Current Cal State Academic Senate Chairman Laird Taylor said in the year he has been chairman, he has had no problems with Arciniega.

"The relationship I've had with him this past year has been very good," Taylor said.

Arciniega's retirement came as a surprise to many.

Taylor, also a math and computer science professor at the university, said there had been no indication that Arciniega was considering retirement.

"I was surprised because I had been working with him. Some of us on the executive committee of the Senate had been working with him on long-range planning," Taylor said.

Jess F. Deegan II, a professor and chairman of the psychology department, said many faculty members were under the impression Arciniega would be with the university for at least three or four more years.

Although the Academic Senate has been at odds with Arciniega in the past, Deegan, who is secretary of the Academic Senate, said he had no desire to "rehash all the old stuff."

Deegan said he is only hopeful Arciniega's retirement will lead to positives for both the president and the university in the future. Deegan was especially concerned about what Arciniega's retirement would mean for the university in the midst of the current state budget crisis.

"He has been in the position for a number of years, but given the current budget situation, I'm not sure it's a good thing (for him to retire)," Deegan said.

Still, Deegan and Taylor were optimistic.

"I'm wishing him well," Taylor said.