Deukmejian Says He Won’t Oust Trustee

Gov. George Deukmejian said last week he would not ask the chairwoman of the California State University trustees to resign, although she made a “bad mistake” by misrepresenting her educational background.

In a press conference in San Diego, Deukmejian said Huntington Beach resident Marianthi K. Lansdale has apologized to him for claiming a community college degree she did not have when the governor first nominated her to the prestigious CSU Board of Trustees nearly four years ago. The claim was also forwarded to the state Senate, which confirmed her nomination for a term that expires in March 1993.

But the governor praised Lansdale for doing an “outstanding job” as a trustee and added: “At the present time, I am not intending to ask her to resign.”

“From all accounts, she has been doing a superb job,” Deukmejian said in his first comments on the matter. “She works very hard at it. She has been very effective. And she is a real fine representative for the system.

“But she shouldn’t have said what she said,” he added. “She has acknowledged that. She regrets it. It was a bad mistake.”

Lansdale admitted to The Times last month that she never received a 1959 Associate of Arts degree from Long Beach City College as she claimed at the time of her 1985 appointment.

Although Lansdale said she accumulated the 60 credits “equivalent” for an AA degree, she conceded she lacked a required course in either geography or history.

Lansdale’s admission caused such a furor that she issued a public apology and offered to give a personal explanation in January to the Senate Rules Committee, which is responsible for confirming gubernatorial appointments.

Senate President Pro Tempore David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles), who is chairman of the Rules Committee, said Lansdale should resign. The controversy also inspired proposed legislation by Sen. Gary K. Hart (D-Santa Barbara) to empower the Senate to remove any gubernatorial appointee caught lying about his educational background.

Meanwhile, CSU trustees last week passed a resolution expressing their “full support” of Lansdale. Deukmejian kept mum until Thursday, when he met with reporters before touring the Mexican border.

“There is no question she made a mistake, and she has acknowledged that publicly and to me personally,” Deukmejian said. “She apparently had sufficient credits to earn a degree but she did not actually have a degree.

“But she did represent that she had it and it was a big mistake for her to make,” he said.

“On the other hand, she has done an outstanding job as a member of the Board of Trustees to such an extent that her fellow members of that board have selected her to be the chairperson and she has been serving in that capacity,” he said.

Lansdale and her husband, Long Beach developer William M. Lansdale, gave Deukmejian more than $100,000 in money and in the use of an airplane during the 1982 gubernatorial campaign.

As chairwoman, Lansdale heads a 24-member volunteer board charged with making policy for one of the largest public four-year university systems in the world.