Alexander Gonzalez is the first new president at California State University, Sacramento in 20 years -- and he's got some big plans in mind. He also has a large map on his office wall, "purposeful" to see, he says, because it "shows the changes." It's there "so I can talk about it." One change that's mapped out: the campus. What's primarily a commuter school will become more residential. "We're going to go from 1,100 students (in dormitories) to 5,000 students who will live on campus," says the 57-year-old Gonzales. His plan "will give us a residential component that will have a tremendous positive effect" because the presence of more students after-hours will foster a stronger sense of community.

Another change: "Several of our older buildings in the core area of the campus date from the 1940s and 1950s. Rather than spending millions of dollars trying to rehab buildings that are half a century old, we're going to remove them and have a park-like setting in the core area, a place that will be pedestrian-friendly and attractive," continues the university's new leader. "At the same time, we're going to develop land on the periphery of our campus to increase our overall square footage (under roof). It will be a much more efficiently developed campus than it has been.

"Over on the south side of the campus is the city's 65th Street redevelopment. Folsom Boulevard will be widened. What we want to do is have a major entrance on the south that will connect the campus to Folsom Boulevard and Highway 50 to cut down on some of the traffic that comes in on College Town Drive (off Howe Avenue)."

Gonzalez promises another big change, one that many students -- long bedeviled by parking problems -- will likely welcome: "Two huge parking garages, with space in each for 3,200 cars. We're starting the first one this spring. It will be the largest parking garage in the CSU system," he says.

But don't think cars are taking over. "We want to get people onto campus, get them out of their cars and then we'll have a shuttle bus loop that will go around the perimeter of the campus," explains Gonzalez. "You'll be able to get off wherever you want and walk into the center of the campus, which will be restricted to pedestrians. It will have a real feel of attractiveness; people will be able to get together and mingle."

In the process, CSU Sacramento will grow. Projections are the university, which has an enrollment of 28,600 students now, will host 40,000 students in 2010.

CSU also is developing plans for a branch campus in Placer County. Under an agreement being finalized, billionaire developer Eli Broad would donate 246 acres near Fiddyment Road, north of Roseville. Initial programs likely would include information technology, communications, computer science, computer engineering and education.

"(The branch campus) is all in the developmental stage, but we're in agreement we're going to be doing it," Gonzalez says, noting there's precedent, with seven satellite campuses in the 23-campus CSU statewide system. "San Marcos began as a branch of CSU San Diego. CSU Hayward has a Contra Costa branch and CSU San Bernardino opened one in Palm Desert," he points out.

Is it realistic to plan all this growth at a time when the state is dealing with a $14 billion-plus deficit and funding for university programs is being cut? Gonzalez doesn't hesitate.

"Now is the best time to be planning because nothing happens overnight. What we need to do on this campus, and in the CSU system, is do the planning so that when we come out of the bad budget times, we're ready to go," he says.

"If we sit around lamenting while we wait for things to turn around, it's no good. We need to have our plan ready to go, and we can start raising funds for the parts of the plan that will be funded privately. But the majority of the classroom buildings will depend on state bond money."

As well as Proposition 55, a $12 billion facilities bond for education will go before California voters in March and was leading favorably in the opinion polls as of January.

And what about sports? On January 21, Gonzalez accepted and endorsed a set of recommendations from an Athletics Task Force he formed last October, shortly after he came onboard as CSU Sacramento president.

Gonzalez and the task force favored development of plans for a multiuse activity center, probably seating around 8,000, that would host athletic events, concerts and commencements. He also indicated he'll explore moving the university into a different athletic conference to give CSUS programs greater visibility.

"We're supporting the athletic program," he says, "and in order for us to really move ahead with it in a meaningful way, we're going to have to look at developing the physical resources of the program -- the facilities, as well as other things."

Having spent 18 years of his career at California State University, Fresno where sports, particularly football, are highly popular, Gonzalez assures that he understands the value of athletics. He says he expanded the fledgling athletic program at CSU San Marcos, which barely existed when he came on board as president there. "We added track, golf and cross country and started planning for soccer," he says.

Gonzalez also is on a campaign to raise the university's profile in the community. He's making the rounds as a speaker at service clubs and doing interviews with newspapers, magazines and broadcast outlets at every opportunity.

His message underscores what the university means to regional business and the community at large. "From a business point of view, look at the activity that happens here," he suggests. "Our budget, with grants and contracts -- you're talking $340 million. We have 28,600 students and 3,300 full-time employees, a huge number of people concentrated on less than 300 acres. The university's economic impact on the region, with primary and secondary effects on the overall economy, works out to $743.5 million and 15,946 jobs."

The university also sends out about 5,000 graduates yearly, with more of them taking degrees in business administration than any other subject area (1,028 business graduates in 2001-02). The same number leave with degrees in health and human services (1,027) and many in those degree programs are quickly employed by local companies.

Many CSUS graduates remain in the region. Of the roughly 2 million people who live here, one in 26 is a graduate of CSU Sacramento, or about 78,000 alumni; the Sacramento State Alumni Association has a membership of 5,000.

Gonzalez wants those graduates to lend their support to their alma mater, a traditional means of fundraising and expansion at most universities, but a resource that CSU Sacramento hasn't fully developed. "We hope to build up our contacts with our large alumni base and make them part of the campus," he says.

Gonzalez sees the university as "a partner" in 65th Street redevelopment. "We're already members of that effort, weighing in and working with city government," he says. It's not just a matter of extending the university's influence south into the neighborhood, but establishing a two-way relationship.

"We want to get the entire community onto the university campus as much as we can. As we build our new venues -- for instance, if we build a performing arts center, and when we build out our athletics complex -- those venues won't just serve the campus, but the community.

"What I'd like people to realize is that we're part of the business community," Gonzalez says. "Education isn't just some separate entity out there. We're part of the engine that fuels the economy and produces graduates who become employees. We're in a partnership with business. Some people have a conception of the university being only a liberal arts institution. But we also have engineering, nursing and business programs. These are really part of the economy of the region. We're a major resource in the area."

Who's the man behind these ambitious plans? Gonzalez wants to talk about the university more than himself, but he does share some insights in an interview about his life and the route that brought him to Sacramento State last summer.

Ironically, when Gonzalez finished high school (Garfield High in East Los Angeles), he didn't intend to go to college, much less become a university president. "But a friend and I decided we weren't going to hang around East L.A. and do nothing," he says. "My friend and I decided we were going to join the Navy so we went to see a recruiter. The Navy recruiter wasn't there, but an Air Force recruiter was. So we ended up going into the Air Force on the buddy system."

Gonzalez made two major decisions when his four-year hitch in the Air Force was up. First, he decided to get married. "I met my wife, Gloria, in Los Angeles when I returned from duty in Asia," he says. "She was my youngest sister's best friend. We hit it off and we've been together ever since. It will be 33 years in June."

Gonzalez took advantage of his education benefits under the G.I. Bill and enrolled in Pomona College, a small, private liberal arts school in upscale Claremont near Los Angeles. After graduating with honors in 1972, he was accepted by Harvard Law School and moved to Massachusetts.

After studying law for a year, though, and working briefly as a clerk in a Los Angeles law firm, Gonzalez concluded that he wanted to pursue something other than law and enrolled at the laid-back University of California, Santa Cruz with the goal of earning a Ph.D. in psychology and becoming a professor.

Not only did he switch majors and coasts, he moved into a very different kind of university. "I had gone to two private colleges," he says. "Santa Cruz was my introduction to public education at the university level."

Gonzalez completed his doctorate in psychology in 1979, began looking for work and found "there were no jobs in California at that time. I had an offer from Johns Hopkins University, but my wife and I are both from Los Angeles and our oldest son (Alex) was 2 years old," making an exit from California unappealing.

He heard of an open position at CSU, Fresno, visited and liked the campus and what he saw of the students, but says what struck him most "was the mission of the state university system. Students, many of them the first in their family to attend college, could obtain a quality education at a very, very reasonable price." The value of the state university system as a "gateway for many, many students, who would never have the opportunity to go to college otherwise," has stayed with him.

Gonzalez began teaching in Fresno State's La Raza studies program in 1979 and moved to the psychology department two years later. He earned tenure in 1983 and became department chair in 1987. That opened up a new goal, one he hadn't previously contemplated, administration. In 1991, he became Fresno's provost and vice president for academic affairs.

Then in 1997, another big change for Gonzalez. After 18 years in Fresno, he was called to a relatively new campus, California State University, San Marcos in northern San Diego County. "It was supposed to be an interim assignment (as president) for a year," recalls Gonzalez, who wasn't ready yet to cut his ties with Fresno State.

The San Marcos community, however, was lobbying to keep on board the school's interim president, and Ken Lounsberi, a lawyer and longtime member of a local group that advises the CSU San Marcos president, says, "Frankly, Alex made such a positive impression on our University Council, we were increasingly supportive of his permanent appointment.

"We saw Alex as a very effective ambassador at a time when the university was on the threshold of really changing the whole regional community," he says. "He was very aware of the importance of the university and of industry to each other. Alex was very, very good at getting into the community. He met that challenge perfectly."

Others also saw Gonzalez as an asset. In 2000, San Diego Magazine tapped Gonzalez as one of "50 People to Watch," dubbing him a "no-nonsense educator (who) forged relationships with local community leaders."

Gonzalez' own assessment of his six years at San Marcos: "While I was there, we set in place an advancement program and did a lot of fundraising, very successfully. A lot of construction happened on campus under my watch, both state-funded and non-state-funded."

He was approached about the CSUS top administrative and management post when longtime president Donald Gerth announced plans to retire. Now, as he settles into that new role in higher education, Gonzales believes he's entering it with certain advantages.

"This is my 25th year working in the CSU system. I've stuck with it," he says. "This is my third campus, but all within the same system and there are a lot of similarities in terms of how a CSU campus works. It's also very nice to come back to a large campus."