Chancellor Names CSUN Provost as Interim President

Louanne Kennedy, Cal State Northridge’s provost and vice president for academic affairs, was named interim CSUN president Thursday by California State University Chancellor Charles B. Reed. She is expected to begin her new duties in June.

Kennedy will succeed current President Blenda J. Wilson, who announced in March that she was resigning to accept a position as president and chief operating officer of the Nellie Mae Foundation, a Massachusetts-based educational organization.

Wilson was only the third president of CSUN.

After Reed approached her, Kennedy, 60, said she was anxious and excited about guiding the 27,000-student campus for an interim period.

“I very much enjoyed working with Blenda over the past six years,” Kennedy said. “I’ve enjoyed the rebuilding of the campus. And the new initiatives in how we prepare new teachers.”

Reed said it could take up to a year to find a new president, and it would be up Kennedy to select an interim provost.

Kennedy, the only member of CSUN’s executive staff with more than a year of experience at the school, is familiar with the campus’ more vexing problems.

Kennedy said her top priorities will be projects already in the works under Wilson’s watch: post-earthquake reconstruction; thorny issue of a new stadium, which is opposed by neighbors and questioned by student leaders; the university’s 10-year accreditation review, and the budget.

“Louanne is a strong leader,” said Reed, who was at CSUN Thursday for meetings. “She has the confidence of students and staff. She is experienced. And she understands CSUN.”

Kennedy said she did not want to be considered for the permanent post and looks forward to eventually returning to her provost duties.

Reed said interim presidents cannot be candidates for the permanent posts under Cal State University policy.

Kennedy’s salary will probably be determined at a May CSU trustees meeting. Kennedy’s current salary as provost and vice president for academic affairs is $136,000.

Albert Kinderman, CSUN faculty president, praised the selection of Kennedy.

“What she brings is continuity,” he said. “With so much instability it’s important to have someone who is familiar with us and with whom we are familiar.”

Wilson said Kennedy’s collegial leadership skills with the staff, faculty, students and administration are crucial to CSUN.

“She has a strong sense of the academic priorities of the institution,” Wilson said. “She knows how to both lead and listen.”

Kennedy has traveled a long road in academia. A native of Wilmerding, Penn., Kennedy is the first in her family to have completed high school.

She was a college dropout, but at 27 she returned to complete her education, eventually earning a bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees from New York University.

Before her arrival at CSUN, Kennedy was vice president for academic affairs from 1990 to 1993 at Kean College of New Jersey, a public university.

She was associate provost at Baruch College in the City University of New York system from 1987 to 1990. She also served as a faculty member at Baruch, NYU, Smith College and other institutions.

Kennedy is married to Herbert Semmel, an attorney with the National Senior Citizen Law Center in Los Angeles. The couple has seven children and seven grandchildren.

“I love the academic area and working with faculty . . . that’s really my first love,” she said. “And when this is over, I look forward to going back to doing that.”