Successor to McCray Is Hard to Find, Officials Say : Education: Popular Cal State Long Beach president is leaving for more pay at a smaller college.

University officials and educators faced with finding a replacement for popular Cal State Long Beach President Curtis McCray agree on one thing: It will not be easy.

“It’s going to be a tremendous challenge to find someone of (McCray’s) caliber,” California State University Chancellor Barry Munitz lamented. McCray announced last week that he is leaving Long Beach to become president of a private college in Illinois.

“We really have a nightmare on our hands,” Munitz said.

The Cal State Long Beach budget has steadily declined, the president’s salary is lower than comparable schools in other states and faculty and staff morale is low, officials said. “Attracting someone with leadership skills will be rough, especially with the political climate in California,” said Bruce Hamlett, an associate director of the state Post-Secondary Education Commission. “When you are cutting back your institutions, you can’t expect to get strong administrators who are used to building things up.”

Munitz agreed. “There is great uncertainty in the budget,” he said. “I think this is a very uncomfortable place for an educational administrator to be right now.”

Because of a shrinking state education budget, McCray has had to cut more than $33 million from the university’s annual budgets over five years and has reduced the student population by about 5,000. A year ago, he made the unpopular decision to cut the football program because of lack of funding.

Adding to the problem of finding a new president is what Munitz calls an “abysmal salary compared to other states.”

The salary range for a CSU president is $116,000 to $130,000, he said, and a mortgage-free home also is offered to the president at Cal State Long Beach.

But salaries nearing $200,000 at comparable universities--including Idaho State, Indiana State and the City Universities of New York--are common, according to a report by Towers Perrin in San Francisco, a management consulting firm that researches executive pay.

That study, commissioned last year by CSU, concluded that the mid-range salary for a CSU president should be $161,000. It also said pay at the larger universities, such as Cal State Long Beach-- with 30,000 students the second largest in the 20-campus system--should be near $193,000.

McCray is paid about $120,000 a year in Long Beach. He said last week he will receive a pay increase when he moves to Millikin University, a liberal arts college with fewer than 2,000 students, but he declined to say what his salary will be.

At San Jose State earlier this year, a candidate turned down an offer to be president because she is paid more as a provost at Penn State. The CSU Board of Trustees eventually appointed a long-term interim president until another search could be conducted, a spokesman for the chancellor’s office said.

Hamlett, who helps California’s private and public colleges with long-range planning, said university administrators make difficult decisions, and “expect to be well-compensated.” The pay is critical, he said, because the pool of applicants is shrinking.

“They need to look at qualified folks from nonwhite backgrounds and women who already have a range of employment options,” he said. “There is a limited number of these candidates, and salary is a key factor.”

One possible candidate being mentioned on campus is McCray’s right-hand man, Karl Anatol, the senior vice president of academic affairs. Other potential replacements, some say, are former president at Cal State Fresno Harold Haak and one-time vice president at Cal State Long Beach June Cooper, who acted as interim president between McCray and his predecessor, Steve Horn. The chancellor’s office would not release the names of any applicants or candidates they are pursuing.

Whoever is chosen will face an uncertain climate of layoffs and cutbacks, said Jack Munsee, who heads the campus faculty union.

“The new president will have the problem of maintaining morale in the faculty and staff,” he said. “The morale is terrible here, and it’s not because of McCray. I’d leave too, if I were him.”

Despite the painful financial decisions McCray has made, his democratic, non-confrontational management style has made him a well-liked and respected figure on campus. The California Faculty Assn., which had a bitter relationship with former President Horn, enjoyed positive rapport with McCray.

“Everyone had great access to him, and he would take time to listen to what everyone had to say,” Munsee said.

Munitz plans to meet with Cal State Long Beach faculty, students and administrators next week before appointing an interim president. McCray has said he will leave in late February, and a replacement probably will not take over until fall semester next year, Munitz said.

A five-member CSU board of trustees will select the new president, with advice from a panel of alumni, students, faculty, staff and the president of another Cal State University, Munitz said.

Besides advertising in educational journals for candidates, the board may hire a recruiting firm to conduct a nationwide search for a replacement, Munitz said.