Chancellor, California State University
CSU Board of Trustees – Chancellor’s Report
Long Beach, CA
January 29, 2014
Thank you, Chair Linscheid. I shared most of my major thoughts this morning, so I just have a few brief items for my report.
Presidential Searches
We announced our new Long Beach president today. I am confident that we have made a terrific choice
— Jane Close Conoley, who currently serves as dean of the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education at the University of California Santa Barbara.
Our Humboldt presidential search is underway. We are set to preview resumes on February 21. We will then hold airport interviews on March 7 and we expect to hold Trustee interviews on March 24.
Leadership Searches
Our search for a new Executive Vice Chancellor and Chief Financial Officer is underway.
Also Gail Brooks, our Vice Chancellor for Human Resources, has recently announced that she will be retiring at the end of June 2014.
Gail has helped us with her strategic and thoughtful leadership across the spectrum of human resources. She has a national reputation as an expert in university human relations issues. We have great respect for her and come the summer, she will be greatly missed.
We are launching the search for her replacement.
Super Sunday
I want to echo Chair Linscheid’s comments about Super Sunday, which is coming up next month. Last year was the first time I attended and I found it an incredibly uplifting experience. I encourage all of you to participate.
Aware Awake Alive
At our July meeting, we heard from Scott and Julia Starkey about the loss of their son Carson to alcohol poisoning. I made a commitment at that meeting to expand the CSU’s efforts in educating our students, faculty and staff regarding this serious issue on our campuses.
This week, on Thursday and Friday, the CSU and Aware Awake Alive will be hosting a conference focused on making alcohol poisoning prevention tools available to our campus teams. We are hosting the conference here at the Chancellor’s Office to underscore our commitment. We hope that this will expand our educational efforts and launch a dynamic movement across all 23 campuses within the system.
Many of you know that our colleague Paul Zingg is not with us today because he is in Chico managing the aftermath of a horrific alcohol-related car crash that involved three Chico students this past weekend.
The juxtaposition of this tragedy with our efforts in Aware Awake Alive is numbing. Our hearts go out to the families of the students, and to the entire Chico community.
This tragedy humbles us and yet it once again strengthens our resolve to create a meaningful and effective awareness program. Thank you to everyone for your ongoing support of this effort.
Chair Linscheid, that concludes my report.