Cal State Northridge President to Keep Post

As the fall term began Monday, Cal State Northridge President Blenda J. Wilson spent the morning as a finalist for the presidency of Wayne State University and something of a lame duck on her campus.

By midafternoon, Wayne State’s Board of Governors had chosen a New Jersey educator to head the Detroit university, and Wilson was pledging to stay put.

“There’s a sense of personal relief, in a way,” Wilson said minutes after learning she was passed over. “I’ve had . . . mixed feelings about leaving here.”

The job opening at Wayne State provided “a unique set of circumstances, both personal and professional,” Wilson said. She had hoped to return to Detroit, where she and husband Louis Fair Jr. spent five years and have many friends. Wilson, 56, was also looking forward to leading a research university.

But with that post no longer open, Wilson said: “I’m here for the duration, as they say.”

Abiding by Michigan open meeting laws, the eight Wayne State board members cast their votes at a public hearing Monday afternoon, unanimously selecting Irvin Reid, president of the 13,000-student Montclair State University.

In 1992, Wilson left her position as chancellor at the University of Michigan at Dearborn to take over at Cal State Northridge. She became one of a handful of African American women to lead a large U.S. university.

Just 18 months into her tenure, the Northridge earthquake struck. With its epicenter located virtually beneath the school, the quake caused $321 million in damage on the campus in a matter of seconds.

The temblor, the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history, cast a national spotlight on Wilson. And she flourished, reopening the university just a month later.

Although Wilson admitted to mixed feelings over the outcome, reaction locally was also mixed.

Sports fans had been grumbling about Wilson since she cut four men’s sports--baseball, soccer, swimming and volleyball--because of budget constraints and to comply with gender-equity laws.

Those teams were later reinstated for a year with the help of state and private funds.

Barry Munitz, chancellor of the Cal State system, said in a statement Monday: “Wayne State’s loss is CSU’s gain.”