Cal State System Plots New Course : Education: Chancellor W. Ann Reynolds’ resignation is an opportunity to give more autonomy to the 20 campuses, say faculty, trustees and officials.

The forced resignation of Chancellor W. Ann Reynolds has unleashed a movement to trim the power of the California State University’s central headquarters in Long Beach and give more autonomy to the system’s 20 campuses.

From Humboldt State, nestled comfortably among redwoods in the north, to the overcrowded, urban campus of San Diego State in the south, the diversity of the Cal State system was not encouraged enough under Reynolds, say faculty, trustees and administrators.

And while her fall earlier this month was caused by controversies over secret spending on top salaries, it also creates a chance for the campuses to assert themselves, they said.

“I believe that you will be seeing a lot more emphasis on the strengths of the individual campuses,” said trustee Martha Fallgatter, who is a contender to become vice chairman of the system’s governing board next month. “We will be looking to that rather than having everything so centralized.”

Hugh O. La Bounty, president of Cal Poly Pomona, agreed: “I would hope that whatever new administration comes in would support the notion that each university has its own goals and objectives and separate identity. That has been a battle.”

Reynolds’ departure also means an indefinite delay in Cal State’s plans to build as many as five more campuses and a temporary halt to the university’s attempts to offer doctorate degrees independent of the University of California, officials say. Instead, they stress, the Cal State system must first repair its reputation, damaged by the spending controversies, and repair ties with legislators and the governor.

“Our first job is to get into the process of healing. That is the priority issue,” said Herbert L. Carter, executive vice chancellor. “We can’t allow those things to stand as they are. They have to be healed in the interest of the 360,000 students enrolled in this system.” Carter is to head the system between the time when Reynolds leaves office, possibly Oct. 1, and the selection of a new chancellor.

In a telephone interview last week, Reynolds declined to discuss events leading to her resignation April 20, as she faced possible firing for her handling of the 21% to 43% raises for herself and 26 other officials. In agreeing to talk about the system generally, however, she said decentralization was a “top priority” since she became chancellor in 1982.

“In any system, there is always that tension (between central headquarters and campuses). And I think sometimes people think if it weren’t for Golden Shore,” she said, referring to the location of her Long Beach office, “they would have more money.”

She contended the culprit is the rigid state formula that awards money to campuses based solely on the equivalent of full-time enrollments and does not take into account the many remedial programs at urban campuses or the cost of keeping buildings open at night for part-time students. Reynolds said campuses will receive extra monies to use as the schools see fit if voters in June approve Proposition 111, which would increase gasoline taxes and raise the state’s spending limit.

However, the Legislature may be so suspicious of the Cal State system because of the pay raise controversy that lawmakers may be unwilling to change spending formulas, said Kenneth O’Brien, executive director of the California Postsecondary Education Commission.

He and other education experts stress that a new chancellor must be more skillful than Reynolds in dealing with the Legislature. Moreover, Gov. George Deukmejian is concerned that Cal State’s image of profligacy jeopardizes passage of Proposition 111.

Allan Ostar, president of the American Assn. of State Colleges and Universities, said the Cal State system became more centralized under Reynolds and her predecessor, Glenn S. Dumke, than other institutions around the country.

“I think business and industry have moved a long way from centralized management to a decentralized system and higher education has been lagging behind,” Ostar said in a telephone interview from Washington.

In 1960, the Cal State system was created out of what had been 16 independent state schools. Longstanding resentment against central administration grew because of what her critics complained was Reynolds’ autocratic style. Now, some professors hope for a purge of other officials at the Golden Shore headquarters, and sharp cuts in that office’s budget.

But others hope that Reynolds’ removal and the rollback last week of the pay raises will appease legislators and taxpayers.

“Let’s get back to what we are doing, which is figuring out how to accommodate these many thousands of students and how to teach them and how to keep them in school,” said a San Francisco State official, who asked not to be identified. “Those are the real questions and what we should concentrate on now instead of these tacky questions about the pay raises.”

Some officials are worried, however, about how well the system can function during the search for a new chancellor and whether campus presidents will have too free a hand.

“The momentum of this large, old bureaucracy will probably keep on going through this transition. Students won’t feel anything different,” said Patrick Nichelson, president of the Cal State professors’ union. He said that he hopes Reynolds’ push for more minority students and teachers, widely recognized as one of her major successes, doesn’t get lost in the shuffle.

The acquisition of land for an educational center in Ventura will be allowed, but other plans for Cal State expansion will have to await a new chancellor, a delay of up to a year, Carter and others said. Also, a proposal for Cal State doctorate programs in education--now allowed only in conjunction with a UC school--appears to be a victim of Reynolds’ fall.

Another byproduct of the Reynolds controversy seems to be new assertiveness--or at least, talk of it--by the Cal State Board of Trustees, the panel appointed by the governor to oversee the university. In the past, trustees often rubber-stamped decisions of the chancellor. And in the wave of bad publicity for their part in the pay raises, trustees contend that they were misled by Reynolds’ staff. They pledge never to let that happen again, going so far as to hire their own independent attorney.

“The board has reached and passed its frustration point,” said Trustee Lee A. Grissom of San Diego. “We have gone from being the least of aggressive boards to the most aggressive without changing one name.”