Dean Named Acting Vice President at CSUF : Appointment: Don A. Schweitzer of the Humanities School will hold post until a replacement is picked.

Don A. Schweitzer, the longtime dean of Cal State Fullerton’s School of Humanities, has been named the university’s acting vice president of academic affairs, President Milton A. Gordon announced Thursday.

Schweitzer, whose appointment is effective Tuesday, replaces current Vice President Jack Coleman, who retires officially on Monday. Schweitzer will serve as vice president pending a national search for Coleman’s replacement, which may take most of the current academic year. The academic affairs vice president is the second-ranking post on campus.

“Dr. Schweitzer has used his position as dean to maintain and enhance collegiality and the consultative process that encourages planning, objective analysis, experimentation and involvement of faculty members and administrators,” Gordon said in a statement Thursday.

Of his appointment, Schweitzer said: “I’m honored and pleased, and I’m frightened and uncertain.”

He was referring to the current state budget crisis that has prompted the campus to slash 200 classes, furlough lecturers and cap enrollments, as well as to the breadth of his duties, which include overseeing all the academic schools on campus, the library, and the offices of admissions and records.

“It’s a big job with a lot of responsibility,” the 50-year-old Placentia resident said. “But I think I’m up for the challenge that I know will be there. I’m ready to serve the campus.”

Schweitzer said it was “too soon” to say whether he would be a candidate for the permanent position. In the mean time, psychology professor Chris Cozby, now associate dean of the school of humanities, has been named acting dean, Schweitzer said.

Schweitzer first came to Cal State Fullerton in 1969 as a professor of social psychology. He was named associate dean of the school of humanities in 1973, acting dean in 1979, and finally dean of the school in 1981. Humanities is the university’s largest school with about 6,000 majors and more than 230 faculty members.

For more than a decade, Schweitzer has worked to increase educational opportunities abroad for Cal State Fullerton students, university officials said. He helped launch a London semester program and Pacific Rim studies on the campus. He also established reciprocal relations with the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Baja California, brought outside financial support for Islamic studies, and was instrumental in pushing a Japanese language program on campus.

Last year, he was one of only 13 social science professors awarded a Joseph J. Malone faculty fellowship for an Arab and Islamic studies program in Saudi Arabia. Last April, he was one of six educators nationwide chosen to participate in an International Education Administrators program that is funded by a Fulbright Foundation grant.

Schweitzer received a doctorate in social psychology from the University of Nevada, Reno. He taught at that university and at Oklahoma State University before being hired at the Fullerton campus.