Blenda Wilson

It’s too bad your reporter, in his article on Blenda Wilson’s presidency at Cal State Northridge (“Next CSUN Boss Must Rebuild on Many Fronts,” March 13), sees the glass as half empty rather than half full. As a longtime active, informed and involved Valley resident, I know that her energy, enthusiasm, talent and academic vision have made a world of difference at CSUN and in the San Fernando Valley.

I had the pleasure recently of sitting in on interviews with Presidential Scholar applicants, a program that Wilson initiated to bring top students to the Northridge campus. These young people were academically talented, confident and attractive. Current Presidential Scholars also sat in on the interviews, and I learned that some of them had selected CSUN despite being accepted at Berkeley and UCLA! Why? Because of the personal interest shown in them and because it was a top-notch academic institution.

When Wilson came to the Northridge campus, there was virtually no independent fund-raising. She created a foundation composed of alumni and interested business and community people. Successful fund-raising requires identification and cultivation of givers--not an instant process but one that is underway at CSUN and beginning to show results.

Academically, CSUN has several renowned and underappreciated departments, the nationally top-ranked Geography Department among them. Many professors are engaged in research that aids economic and public policy decision-making by elected officials and businesspeople.

Let’s look at the many positive accomplishments of Wilson’s too brief tenure at CSUN. Her community outreach was unequaled, and her vision of a first-rate university will enhance the San Fernando Valley well into the coming millennium.

JOY PICUS, Woodland Hills