Black Woman to Succeed Cleary as CSUN President : Education: The system’s board is reported to have selected the chancellor of the University of Michigan at Dearborn over two other finalists.

Blenda J. Wilson, a University of Michigan chancellor, has been appointed president of Cal State Northridge, making her the first black and first woman to head the 35-year-old campus, The Times has learned.

Wilson was chosen late Monday afternoon by the California State University Board of Trustees after the board interviewed her and two other finalists for CSUN’s top job, sources close to the selection process said Tuesday.

Cal State officials are expected to announce the appointment Thursday.

Wilson, 51, who is chancellor at the University of Michigan at Dearborn, emerged as one of the favorites after a recent daylong visit to CSUN.

She was out of town Tuesday and could not be reached for comment. But Wilson’s husband, Louis Fair, said from their Dearborn home that his wife “was very pleased and very excited” about the decision.

“These kind of things always have a delayed reaction,” Fair said. “As with anything else, it takes awhile to sink in, and then it’s Wooooooow !”

Wilson will succeed James W. Cleary, whose 23-year tenure--the longest in the Cal State system--is scheduled to draw to a close with his retirement at the end of next month.

It is not known when Wilson will take office, but CSUN officials and students are eager for Cleary’s successor to take over as soon as possible to tackle the university’s escalating fiscal crisis and to address racial issues on the 30,000-student campus and its controversial move into Division I athletics.

News of the appointment Tuesday pleased a random sample of professors and students, many of whom appeared to have been charmed by Wilson’s humor and candid style during her May 7 campus tour.

“She’ll be a dynamic, enthusiastic president,” said William F. Eadie, a speech communications professor. “She’ll bring a real presence to the campus. She’s honest; she seems to be willing to talk to people on their terms.

“She also seems very good at getting beneath the surface of things--ferreting out what’s really there and addressing it directly,” he added. “Her directness will please people both here and in the community.”

“She probably appealed to the students most; she was probably the most personable of all the candidates,” said Sal Damji, 22, an engineering senior who is president-elect of CSUN’s Associated Students. “She was just across-the-board perfect for the job.”

Damji, who with other student leaders quizzed Wilson extensively during her visit, also hailed the choice of a minority candidate as the university’s third appointed president.

“Her being an African-American woman will have an immensely positive impact on our campus. Right now, we already have a problem with lack of diversity among our faculty and administration. She’ll be able to solve a lot of problems regarding possible racial tension,” he said.

Wilson, who beat out nearly 100 applicants for the post, has a Ph.D. in higher education administration from Boston College and served as an associate dean at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education.

For the past four years, she has headed the University of Michigan at Dearborn, once a mostly white campus where she persuaded officials to pledge the university to recruiting students from nearby multiracial Detroit.

Wilson, a self-described “first-generation college student,” told CSUN faculty members that the university’s commitment to minority students has been her proudest achievement.

She also reiterated to the faculty her support for CSUN’s emphasis on undergraduate instruction over research, as outlined in the Cal State system’s blueprint.

Wilson will likely earn between $116,000 and $124,000 a year at her new post--one of several details to be hammered out with Cal State officials.

Colleen Bentley-Adler, a spokeswoman for the CSU chancellor, would neither confirm nor deny Wilson’s appointment. But she added that the chancellor had successfully concluded negotiations Tuesday with the board’s chosen candidate.

Wilson was one of three finalists considered by the trustees, who questioned each candidate separately for about an hour Monday afternoon. The other finalists were Claire A. Van Ummersen, chancellor of the University System of New Hampshire, and H. Ray Hoops, vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Mississippi.

Asked about his fellow finalists, Hoops had praise for Wilson.

Wilson would make “a fine president,” he said. “I know of her record . . . and she has an excellent reputation.”