CSU Monterey Bay Presidential Search Committee to Hold First Meeting

Contact: Colleen Bentley-Adler, (562) 951-4800, caba@calstate.edu

(September 20, 2005) - The California State University Board of Trustees will begin the search this month for a new president of California State University, Monterey Bay to succeed interim President Diane Cordero de Noriega.

The first meeting of the search committee will be held from 8:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. Thursday, September 29, in the Conference Room in the Alumni & Visitor Center (Building 97), on the campus.

This is the first and only meeting of the committee that is an open meeting.

Under the CSU Board of Trustees’ presidential selection policy, adopted in 1997, the chair of the board establishes a five-person Trustees' Committee for the Selection of the President, which is composed of the chair of the board, the chancellor and three trustees, one of whom is designated as committee chair by the board chair.

Board policy also requires the chair to appoint an advisory group to the trustees’ committee. The Advisory Committee to the Trustees’ Committee for the Selection of the President is composed of representatives of the faculty, staff, students and alumni, as well as a member of the campus advisory board, all of whom are selected by the campus constituent groups. Also on the advisory committee are a vice president or academic dean from the campus, and a president of another CSU campus, both selected by the chancellor. Both committees function as one group.

Trustee Roberta Achtenberg will chair the Trustees’ Committee for the Selection of the President. The other trustee members are George Gowgani and Bill Hauck, plus CSU Chancellor Charles B. Reed and Trustee Chair Murray Galinson. The latter two are ex-officio to the committee.

Members of the Advisory Committee for the Selection of the President include faculty members Amalia Mesa-Bains, director & professor of visual and public art; Daniel Fernandez, chair, Academic Senate; and Steve Watkins, coordinator of technology development in the University Library. Gregory Riley, president, CSUMB Alumni Association, will represent the alumni; Ren Herring, president, Associated Students, will represent the students; and Petra Valenzuela, an academic scheduler, will represent the campus staff. Others on the committee are Community members Bob Antle and Robert C. Taylor, Jr.; Tom Gray from the President's Advisory Council; Marsha Moroh, CSUMB interim provost and San Francisco State University President Bob Corrigan.

The purpose of this initial meeting is to discuss the role of the committee, set the schedule of meetings, review the descriptions of the campus and the presidential position, and discuss any other business related to the search process.

The committee will work over the next several months reviewing applications and will conduct interviews with semi-finalists. It is expected that the finalists will make public visits to the campus in the spring. The Board of Trustees most likely will select a new president in March 2006.

President Cordero de Noriega will stay on as president until a new president is selected and in place. She took the place of former President Peter Smith, who accepted a position with UNESCO this past summer.

For more information about the CSU presidential search process, see the Executive Search page.

CSU Monterey Bay is located between the Salinas Valley and Monterey Bay on the site of the former Fort Ord Army base. The university has earned national recognition for its work in helping students examine issues of justice, diversity and social responsibility through service learning. It offers individualized study, rich diversity, global perspectives and sophisticated technologies. CSUMB is one of the few residential campuses in the CSU system – 60 percent of students live on campus in affordable, spacious residence halls and student apartments. See www.csumb.edu.

The California State University is the largest system of senior higher education in the country, with 23 campuses, more than 400,000 students and 42,000 faculty and staff. Since the system was created in 1961, it has awarded about 2 million degrees, about 82,000 annually. The CSU is renowned for the quality of its teaching and for the job-ready graduates it produces. Its mission is to provide high-quality, affordable education to meet the ever-changing needs of the people of California. With its commitment to excellence, diversity and innovation, the CSU is the university system that is working for California. See www.calstate.edu.