New CSUN President to Keep High Profile : Education: Blenda Wilson, who worked wonders at the University of Michigan, will face thorny problems in her Northridge post.

Four years ago, the University of Michigan at Dearborn was what one professor called “the best-kept secret in southeast Michigan,” a secret shared mostly among the 7,500 students and 200 faculty members on campus.

But with the arrival of Blenda J. Wilson as its new chancellor in 1988, things changed. Within a short time, the university became known beyond the confines of the 90% white suburb of Detroit it occupies, and the name of its high-profile leader began drawing nods of recognition in state lawmaker circles.

“What she did was make us visible in terms of the quality of our institution,” Spanish professor Emily Spinelli said. “She’s a very dynamic, very high-energy, charismatic, gracious and intelligent woman. She put us on the map in about four years.”

On Wednesday, Wilson, 51, was officially named the next president of Cal State Northridge, after the appointment was first revealed in The Times. CSUN’s first black woman president, she is likely to maintain the same high profile both on and off campus as she did at Dearborn, by her own acknowledgment in an interview as well as the predictions of friends and colleagues.

But a thicket of thorny problems will immediately confront Wilson when she takes over in the next few months--possibly September.

Her appointment comes at a time when the campus is struggling with a racially diverse student body, which has made increasingly more demands on the administration. The university’s recent thrust into Division I athletics is opposed by some students and faculty members. And CSUN faces one of the severest budget crunches in its 35-year history, with some administrators predicting cuts of 11%.

In tackling CSUN’s financial crisis, she will also probably familiarize herself with California politics and finances, as well as shake the hands of many area legislators to circulate the university’s name in Sacramento, she said. In Michigan, several education officials cited Wilson’s success with legislators in the capital of Lansing.

“The circumstances are similar here in that we sort of took our turn . . . before California did. We went through the experience in the ‘80s and in the last two or three years with very severe reductions in state aid,” said Deane Baker, one of the university’s eight regents.

“She was able to carve out for Dearborn a particular position with the state Legislature which allowed for funding on a higher level than the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor or Flint.”

“I fully expect that I will get to know those legislators who take an interest in the university and that they will get to know me,” Wilson said in a brief telephone interview Wednesday.

Wilson’s preference for a high civic profile may serve CSUN well after years of a more inward focus, although some faculty members and students fear that community involvement and fund-raising efforts could eclipse campus concerns.

But Wilson, when she appeared on the CSUN campus earlier this month during the presidential search, assured the faculty and student body of her support for CSUN’s academic program and its emphasis on undergraduate instruction.

However, she took care not to commit herself to which budget items she would defend, despite a recent CSUN faculty resolution urging the new president to protect the academic program as much as possible, even at the cost of cutting athletic and other programs.

“I don’t believe that the instructional program is completely independent from the co-curricular programs on campus. All the pieces are important to a co-educational environment,” she said, responding to a question about the future of CSUN athletics and other non-academic programs. “So we would need to look at priorities . . . and try to maintain things that would maintain our strength.”

Facing a possible loss of more state revenue than campus administrators originally expected, the importance of private donations has suddenly increased.

The California State University board of trustees’ search committee signaled its concern that CSUN’s new president be more outward-looking when it included in its four finalists an East Coast university official who boasted impressive credentials in fund raising and “university development.” Baker, the Michigan regent, said Wilson made some strides in community fund raising at Dearborn, particularly by involving the family of auto maker Henry Ford, whose former estate became the site of the university.

Those who know her say her appealing personality, humor and warmth will be to her advantage. Also, early in her tenure at CSUN, Wilson will have the opportunity to appoint at least two high-level administrators. This fall, the university will choose a new vice president for student affairs and, several months later, the vice president for academic affairs--two key positions that will allow her to shape her management team.

Unlike retiring President James W. Cleary, Wilson is expected to employ an accessible management style that stresses consensus, seeking input from throughout the university on almost every major issue.

“She’s very open. She receives advice on virtually every important issue that goes on in the institution,” said Spinelli, who chairs the Faculty Advisory Committee on Campus Affairs at Dearborn.

“She’s a tremendous process person, and she’s very good about involving people in that process,” said Peggy Campbell, a member of the university’s Citizens Advisory Committee. “I never feel she makes arbitrary decisions.”

Much will depend on the relationships Wilson will establish not only in the San Fernando Valley but throughout the Los Angeles area. Colleagues said Wilson earned the respect and rapport of the city of Dearborn, an enclave headed by a segregationist mayor into the 1970s.

“There was a lot of anxiety in the community--as there is with any new chancellor--but particularly with a black woman,” said Campbell of the Citizens Advisory Committee. “But when Blenda walks into a room, she puts people at ease. People like her instantly.

“She entered a mostly white community, and she has been tremendously received. . . . I don’t know of anybody who would not say that the University of Michigan at Dearborn is a much better place for having had her for four years.”