FULLERTON : New Dean to Run CSUF Extension

An administrator from the University of Washington takes office this week as Cal State Fullerton’s new dean of extended educational services, with a mission to emphasize academic quality in courses for extension students.

Harry L. Norman, who has run extension programs at the Seattle university and at the University of Arizona for more than a decade, will arrive at the Fullerton campus today for his first meeting with the Council of Deans, a university spokesman said.

Norman, 49, was chosen from among 150 candidates after a six-month search, said Gene H. Dippel, chairman of the search committee. Cal State Fullerton President Milton A. Gordon selected Norman this summer from among three finalists approved by the committee.

Norman will run a division of about 30 employees with an annual budget of $5 million, funded entirely from course fees paid by students. He will be paid a yearly salary of $82,000, a university spokesman said.

Norman replaces Patrick Wegner, who left the Fullerton campus to join the California Council on Science and Technology late last year. Wegner held the title of associate vice president for research and external programs. University officials decided to change the title to dean of university extended education services to better emphasize the academic nature of extension courses.

“We were looking for someone who would be sensitive to faculty and academic requirements, someone with an appreciation for the quality of education,” said Dippel, associate vice president for information services.

In some extension programs, “you can end up having a lot of cruise ship tours and giving credit for them. That dilutes the quality of the program,” Dippel said. “All these programs have some of this, of course. . . . But we did not want the frills to dilute the focus of the program, which is to extend education.”

Norman received his doctorate in zoology from the University of Arizona, where he was a lecturer in biological sciences from 1974 to 1980. From 1980 to 1984, he handled extension programs at the Tucson-based university. In 1984, he moved to the University of Washington, where he eventually headed the 30,000-student extension program.