Sonoma State Executive to Head CSUF

Milton A. Gordon, a mathematician and high-ranking California university administrator, Tuesday was named president of Cal State Fullerton.

Gordon, 54, who now is vice president for academic affairs at Sonoma State University, beat out two other top educators in the California State University system for the Fullerton post.

“This is a very happy occasion for me,” said Gordon, a finalist for the Cal State Hayward presidency earlier this year and now the fourth black president in the CSU system. “Fullerton is a very proud institution . . . that is poised for greatness.”

CSU trustees Marianthi Lansdale and William D. Campbell announced Gordon’s selection at the university system headquarters in Long Beach after interviewing the three finalists Tuesday morning. He takes over Aug. 1 from retiring CSUF President Jewel Plummer Cobb.

Gordon said he would continue efforts to increase minority students and faculty at the 25,000-student campus. Another major goal, he said, is to increase private fund-raising. The university last year raised $5 million in grants and private donations, much of it to support a growing emphasis on research.

“Dr. Gordon will bring a sense of energy that will enable Fullerton to achieve its potential to become a truly comprehensive university of national stature,” said Campbell, who headed the two-month national search among 130 applicants and nominees for Cobb’s replacement.

Cobb, 65, the first black woman to head a major public university in the western United States, has led Cal State Fullerton during a nine-year period of unrivaled growth in prestige, enrollment and construction.

“Dr. Cobb has been one of our finest presidents . . . and Dr. Gordon will keep the direction (of Cal State Fullerton) going straight up,” Campbell said.

Many faculty members at CSUF were said to be delighted by the selection of Gordon, a native of Chicago and father of three grown children.

“I’ll tell you that the faculty is very, very happy,” said John Bedell, chairman of the CSUF Academic Senate, which had threatened more than once to quit the presidential selection committee if its representatives were not given a greater role in the background search process.

During Gordon’s visit last week to the campus for interviews with faculty, staff and students, Bedell said, he was very well received. “He generated a feeling of support and collegiality--he cares. . . . I think he’ll lead very quietly with persuasion.”

At the 7,000-student Sonoma campus, Gordon is regarded as a fiscal conservative who has had a healing, stabilizing influence since his arrival in 1986 in the No. 2 spot for academic affairs.

“Milt is a real gentleman, a real stable influence . . . and he has really pushed for affirmative action and brought in more minority students and faculty,” said Kenneth K. Marcus, a professor of political science and chairman of the faculty senate at Sonoma.

Gordon is not considered an innovator but Marcus said that has been a positive thing “because he . . . encourages (the faculty) to come up with new ideas.”

As the holder of the academic purse strings, Gordon has been criticized for holding back on filling budgeted positions. But at a time when the Cal State system is facing a worse than expected budget year for fiscal 1990-91, Marcus said, Sonoma State likely won’t face many cuts thanks to Gordon’s stewardship.

Gordon has bachelor’s degrees in mathematics and secondary education from Xavier University, a master’s in mathematics from the University of Detroit, and a Ph.D. in math from the Illinois Institute of Technology.

He has been a university level mathematics professor for nearly 30 years, after teaching in Chicago elementary and secondary schools. In 1966, he was hired as an associate professor of mathematics at Loyola University of Chicago, where he also was director of Afro-American Studies and launched a program for educationally disadvantaged students.

A key attraction of Cal State Fullerton is its diversity, Gordon said. About 30% of CSUF’s students are ethnic minorities.

“It’s real life there, and students that can be educated in a truly diverse environment are really prepared for leadership in a state like California,” he said.

One challenge facing Gordon is the campus controversy over football. The faculty senate next week is expected to consider dropping out of Division 1 football.

Opponents argue that football is a drain on other athletic programs that may face budget cuts and that fewer than 2,000 people may show up at home games, which are played at Santa Ana Stadium.

Cobb and her predecessor have strongly supported football and a push to build student identification with the school by working with the city of Fullerton to build a stadium on the Fullerton campus.

Gordon said he would not support athletic programs that took funds away from academics but added that he would review the football program with an open mind.

Gordon’s salary will be decided in negotiations with trustees, a CSU spokesman said.

Being named president has another bonus for Gordon. It will mean an end to his “commuter marriage” to Marge Gordon, who as dean of extended education at Cal State Dominguez Hills, has lived weekdays in Southern California during the last several years.

Other finalists were Tomas A. Arciniega, president of Cal State Bakersfield, and Bob H. Suzuki, vice president for academic affairs at Cal State Northridge.

A fourth candidate widely considered a front-runner for the post removed himself from consideration this week. David L. Goodstein, vice provost of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, said Tuesday that he was not yet ready to leave teaching or research.