Stanislaus State stakeholders shared their preferred attributes for the school’s next president with the California State University’s Presidential Search Committee during an open forum that was held Wednesday.

The committee, which is composed of CSU Board of Trustees, representatives from Stan State faculty, staff, students and alumni, as well as a member of a campus advisory board, heard comments for nearly two hours.

A concern that the committee heard almost immediately was regarding the confidentiality policy of the presidential search.

Mildred Garcia, chancellor of the California State University, began the open forum saying, “Because of the unique nature of this position, both candidates and the Trustees expect to conduct the search in a confidential manner. We will have the lives and futures of the candidates in our hands in this search. We owe the candidates a professional courtesy of confidentiality. Many of the very best candidates may not even consider engaging in a search with a non-confidential process. We all agree that we need to seek the very best next president, thus we need a deep, strong and diverse pool from which to select…”

David Colnic is a professor at Stan State and serves as the department chair of Political Science and Public Administration, as well as the campus representative for the California Faculty Association and chair-elect of the Faculty Budget Advisory Committee. He called for the search committee to reconsider the confidentiality of candidates.

“While I appreciate what’s been said, we need to have open forums for our future president. We do that for faculty, we do that for staff, we do that for administration. There’s no reason why the university president, the leader of our institution, should not meet the faculty before they are hired and interact with them, and the staff and the administration, to assess goodness of fit. It cuts both ways,” he said.

Colnic also stressed the importance of a president who is transparent with faculty, staff and administration on campus.

“In my nearly 20 years here, I’ve experienced many presidents, some of whom I have enjoyed very much, personally, and others maybe not so much… But the best presidents and the one that we need are those that engage and empower our faculty. We have the capacity to be transformative. We’ve proven that. Do this by not micromanaging, but engaging. Do this by working to advocate with both the system and the state to get us the resources we need. And when directives from either the state of the system are counterproductive, be honest and share that. Do that in a way that reduces chronic pay and workload issues that we have on our campus. Burnout is real and we are in danger of losing some of our best and our brightest. We already have.”

It was a sentiment shared by three other speakers during Wednesday's open forum.

Koni Stone, chemistry professor of nearly 30 years and chair of the University Educational Policies Committee, expressed her desire to have a president who can ensure consistency and continuity within the school’s administration.

“I want someone who is going to come here and grow with us and stay with us… This whole thing of hiring someone who is going to be here for seven years, and when they’re gone, they bring in all new people, then we just have this merry-go-round of administrators and leaders,” she said, referring to the fact that the longest sitting president in the history of Stan State was Marvalene Hughes, who served for 11 years from 1994 to 2005.

“The faculty has been here, but the administrators have been coming and going and building their careers. I want someone that will come here and will build their career by building us and growing with us and making a commitment to us,” Stone continued.

Student Laurel Mitchell shared similar thoughts, suggesting the next president be someone who has campus pride and who can relate to the campus and greater community.

“I can’t speak for everyone, but I have heard time and time again from students that they don’t feel pride or excitement to be a Warrior,” she said. “We need someone who believes in Stan State and can bring excitement back to campus.”

Mitchell also shared her belief that Stan State does not have a good enough relationship with the community in Turlock and the surrounding areas.

“At least from a student’s perspective, the city does not appreciate what we have to bring, and they like to shut us out and they just don’t see the opportunity that is there with having a college in their city,” she said. “I currently live in Tracy, and when I share that I attend Stanislaus, many have no idea that the campus exists, and I live only 40 minutes away from here. So I express to you someone who has experience at broadening a university’s existence and community awareness.”

Mitchell believes better community involvement and relations can help with the institution's low enrollment. In the fall of 2019, 10,975 students were enrolled at Stan State. Heading into the fall 2022 semester, that number had dipped to 10,155. Preliminary statistics from August showed the institution having just over 9,000 individuals enrolled.

Betsy Eudey, alumna and current professor and director of Gender Studies stressed the importance of having a president who represents the student body, which includes over 61 percent Hispanic and Latino undergraduates.

“We are a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI). We need to understand what that means in the region,” Eudey said. “We are a campus that stood through its mission, through its location being inextricably linked to our local community, and not just the economic components of it, but the cultural and social components of it. We don't have as much of that relationship as we should have. A president who comes in committed to building and growing and fostering the relationships that already exist, creating new ones and really being culturally responsive and responsible, I think it's going to be key.”

Kristina Stamper, director of communications and creative services at Stan State, also spoke to suggest a president who should have a strong focus on alumni relations in order to solve some of the concerns around campus marketing and community involvement.

“I’d like to ask the committee to consider a candidate that sees and understands embracing the alumni community that Stan State has in this region,” she said. “We have 60,000 plus alumni and many of them live and work right here in the region we serve, across California and the nation. Embracing their potential as economic drivers of this region, ambassadors for Stan State and empowering us as a campus to tell their story, that would be incredibly important to our marketing that we heard can be so critical for us in the next couple of years.”
Susan E. Borrego currently serves as interim president following the retirement of Ellen Junn in August. Borrego will serve as interim for approximately one year while the national search is conducted. As the process continues, the public is encouraged to submit questions and nominations, as well as take the Stakeholder Survey on the Stan State presidential search website at www.csustan.edu/president/presidential-search.