Key Post at CSUN Remains Unfilled

After a six-month, nationwide hunt for Cal State Northridge’s first vice president for university relations, the school has reopened the search, leaving it one of just two institutions in the Cal State system still lacking a post considered vital as public funding becomes scarcer.

President Blenda J. Wilson disclosed her decision this week, saying that neither of the two finalists fit the bill for the powerful, $120,000-a-year job.

Word that CSUN will begin another school year without such a development guru comes as campus officials struggle to contain the largest public relations debacle of Wilson’s tenure--the gutting of men’s sports because of lack of funding to comply with gender-equity laws.

But even if the university had found and hired the perfect candidate soon after the search began in January, according to CSUN officials, it is highly doubtful that that person would have been in place to muffle the outcry that erupted when Wilson suddenly cut men’s baseball, swimming, volleyball and soccer last month. (Soccer has since been given a one-year reprieve after coaches said they could find alternate funding.)

The news of an extended search also comes just after the end of the 1996-97 fiscal year, during which university fund-raisers brought in approximately $5.1 million in private donations. That is up $1 million over the previous year, thanks to a $1-million gift from a wealthy alumnus, but just halfway to the university’s goal of $10 million a year by the turn of the century.

And the $5.1-million figure is only a few hundred thousand dollars more than what was being brought in prior to Wilson’s arrival.

“We’re behind schedule in hiring a fourth vice president,” Wilson conceded. But, she added, “in the final analysis, [the two finalists] just weren’t the right fit. And if you’ve never had a vice president [for university relations] before, there’s no model in everybody’s head.”

One of the finalists for the post, Forrest C. Brostrom, currently executive director of development at USC, agreed that finding a candidate with the right personal and professional qualifications is crucial in such influential positions. And, he added, in the university development game, reopening such searches to find the perfect person is not uncommon.

“They are trying to be so careful [because] this is their first time out of the gate,” Brostrom said of CSUN. “Is there something odd about this? I don’t really think so. I had a good experience. I think I was fairly treated.”

The other finalist, Rick Ventura, who is executive director of development at UC Riverside, could not be reached for comment.

Still, CSUN lags behind 20 of the Cal State system’s 22 schools in appointing such an administrator, a post Chancellor Barry Munitz began promoting several years ago in response to shrinking sources of public funding and the increasing need to raise money privately. Most have filled the position in the last year or two. Cal State Monterey Bay remains the other institution without such a vice president, the chancellor’s office said.

“To maintain the excellence, we need this kind of private support,” said Douglas X. Patino, vice chancellor for university advancement.

“The numbers are beginning to look good,” Patino said in reference to fund-raising systemwide. According to figures provided by his office, CSUN’s fund-raising is on par with similar Cal State campuses, with San Diego and Long Beach topping the list last year with $28.5 million and $22.8 million, respectively. Monterey Bay, the system’s newest campus, raised $345,110 last year.

“I believe that Northridge will pick up,” Patino added. “They have the potential.”

Indeed, some community and business leaders have come forward since CSUN’s athletic department cuts, saying they would have been willing to help out financially had they only been asked.

Since Wilson arrived at the campus in 1992 from her post as a chancellor at the University of Michigan at Dearborn, she, like Munitz, has placed the goals of improved fund-raising and better community and corporate relations at the top of her list.

The Northridge earthquake in January 1994, however, toppled campus buildings, devastated enrollments and forced upon administrators a whole new set of priorities.

Enrollments are now back to pre-quake levels, and the university should began the final phase of demolition and reconstruction this year.

Even though no vice president has been hired, Wilson has been slowly building the fund-raising and public relations departments, said Bruce Erickson, CSUN’s director of public relations.

“I think Blenda’s strategy was to build from the ground up, rather than the top down,” he said, adding that the development staff has nearly doubled in recent years to include about 15 fund-raisers throughout the university.

But, Erickson added: “I would say that we’re not moving forward as quickly as we would want to.”

The chancellor’s office funded the first search to the tune of about $30,000, CSUN officials said, but it was unclear if any of that money was left, or if money for a new search would come from the chancellor or from CSUN.

William V. Flores, dean of the college of social and behavioral sciences and chair of the committee conducting the search, said the panel will begin reviewing candidates in late September but will continue to accept applications for the post until it is filled.

“We think by starting this early in the [academic] year, it will give us more lead time to do a thorough search,” Flores said. “Everyone realizes what a critical position this is. It’s not just someone who is going to lead our fund-raising. This is a person who is going to be in charge of all the component parts of community relations . . . and really to spearhead our advancement efforts.”