WOODLAND HILLS : CSUN President Asks Help From Business Sector

Cal State Northridge President Blenda J. Wilson on Tuesday asked Woodland Hills business leaders to help pick up some of the slack created by three consecutive years of state cuts in funding to the university.

Speaking to the Woodland Hills Chamber of Commerce, Wilson said shrinking resources have forced administrators to turn to the private sector for help.

CSUN “needs the help of business people to continue providing quality education to the young men and women, most of whom are from the Valley and most of whom will stay in the Valley after they graduate,” said Wilson, a tireless campaigner for the university who was inaugurated as CSUN’s third president five months ago.

Wilson, the only African-American woman to head a major university in the United States, told about 100 Woodland Hills entrepreneurs at the Warner Center Marriott luncheon that CSUN is looking to operate more efficiently. But, answering a question from a chamber member, she defended the practice of allowing faculty members to spend most of their time outside the classroom.

“I do not believe that there is much efficiency in having teachers teach more because I think what we would find is an erosion in quality,” Wilson said. “We’re not going to get good teachers unless we give them time to think and study.”

And she told the mostly Anglo crowd that the school needs to concentrate more on the education of non-Anglos.

“We must address the need to prepare the largest growing sector of our young--African-Americans, Latinos and other ethnic minorities--for their economic opportunities and their goals,” she said.