Wilson Put CSUN on Corporate Radar Screen

When businesspeople say Cal State Northridge is “richer” for the leadership of departing president Blenda Wilson, they aren’t just proffering platitudes.

Thanks in large measure to Wilson’s almost religious zeal, the university, one of the largest in the Cal State system, has formed new alliances within the Los Angeles business community that have netted the school not only an additional $3 million in annual donations, but also, in many quarters, a newfound respect.

“I think she put the university on the map,” with the business community, said Daniel Slusser, chief executive of Digital Theater Systems Inc., based in Agoura Hills, and a member of the CSUN President’s Business Council, which Wilson created two years ago.

“There’s no other way to say it.”

Under Wilson’s leadership, corporate donations to the university rose from just under $2 million in fiscal 1995-96 to more than $5 million in the last fiscal year.

The number of university staff who are members of the Valley Industry and Commerce Assn. has grown to more than 20 under Wilson, who invited appropriate staffers to join and took the dues out of her own office budget.

Perhaps the most visible result of Wilson’s outreach effort is the high-profile alliance forged with bio-med standout MiniMed Inc. of Sylmar--which later this month is expected to begin construction of its new $80-million headquarters on the CSUN campus.

But it has not been all gold and glory.

Despite its overtures, CSUN has been unable to forge the kind of relationship with a partner in the entertainment community that it has with MiniMed. Even some members of the business council are puzzled as to why there has not been more support from the entertainment community.

And some small businesses in the shadow of CSUN say they feel that the school, in looking to partner with larger firms with semi-deep pockets, is overlooking the very firms at the school’s doorstep.

Still, in assessing Wilson’s legacy as she prepares to leave her post of six years to head a Massachusetts-based educational organization, most observers said the gregarious “team builder” set out to raise the school’s profile within the business community and accomplished that, and then some.

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Gary Dickey, a partner with the accounting firm of Deloitte & Touche, who serves as chair of the CSUN Foundation’s board of directors, helped launch the business council in 1997 and served as its first chairman. Why?

“Blenda asked me if I would do it,” said Dickey, who said he has been involved with the university for more than 25 years.

“We had had a number of conversations [about] how to expand the involvement of the Los Angeles business community with the university and how to find a vehicle to help foster that contact,” Dickey said.

The result of those talks was the council, which in two years has grown to include 107 members--names like Microsoft, McDonald’s and Boeing. The Los Angeles Times Valley Edition is also a member.

The mission of the council, Dickey said, is fairly straightforward: “To expand the number of corporations [that] are making donations to the university. To increase both the number of companies and the amount of the contributions.”

For an annual donation of at least $5,000 to the university, businesses get such perks as use of campus library resources, invites to special events, listing in an annual honor role and, above all, access.

Via the council and its 21-member steering committee, businesses have an open channel through which to funnel comments, questions and suggestions about the university’s curriculum.

“If the business community is involved . . . they can communicate what they would like to get back in terms of potential hires,” said Dave Power, founder and chairman of J.D. Power & Associates of Agoura Hills, the noted consumer research firm.

Power is also a member of the business council steering committee and serves as an adjunct professor at the school. He argues that if the university is in touch with the community, it can respond faster and more effectively to the needs of the community, including the business community.

What the university gains, aside from the dollars, is the opportunity to showcase its strong suits to the end users of its “products.”

“Any time a university goes from relative obscurity to being on the lips of people when they talk about higher education, that’s good for the community,” said one key businessman who asked not to be quoted by name. “The kids that walk out of there today are not looked at by the employment community as being from a community college.”

Wilson is mindful of the school’s role in producing future employees, and sees the ties she has helped to bind as being part of an overall effort to get business more concerned about education.

“It’s a way to cement personal relationships between our faculty and staff and the business community,” Wilson said of efforts like the increased membership in VICA.

Also, the university is a charter member of the Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley, having donated $12,500 cash and $12,500 in in-kind services, including meeting space.

“That is another way to get businesspeople to the campus,” said Wilson. “We’re not so subtle.”

But if the university has been obvious in its drive to attract attention from L.A. businesses, there are some who have not gotten the message.

Owners of several small companies adjacent to the campus said they were unaware of the university’s extensive business outreach. None of the businesses on CSUN’s steering committee lists a Northridge address, though one, Replacement Parts Industries, is based in nearby Chatsworth.

And like other small-business owners along Reseda Boulevard, Jan Spector, who has owned Delicious Bakery for 10 years, was unaware of the business council.

Echoing a concern raised by others, Spector said she wishes the university would do more business with the businesses nearby.

“We support the radio station; we give cakes for special events,” said Spector, who employs several CSUN students and overall had a favorable view of the school. “We support the sororities and fraternities with donations for bake sales.

“But I wouldn’t say that a major part of my business comes from the university,” added Spector, who said her small business could not afford to pay the $5,000 entry fee for council membership.

“They ask for a lot, but I don’t think we get the return.”

Wilson, who pointed to university efforts to help create a business improvement district in the area, noted that the President’s Business Council targets large corporations that can afford the ante.

As for buying more goods from local shops, Wilson said it is difficult for the university, which is required by state law to seek the lowest bid, to buy from small shops, which often cannot match the pricing power of larger companies.

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With Wilson leaving CSUN after next month’s commencement exercises to take a job as president and chief operating officer of the Nellie Mae Foundation, one might wonder what will become of the drive to forge more business ties.

No one on the council, some of whom say they too feel the zeal, seemed worried that the effort would backslide.

“One person can have a big effect, but she’s leaving behind a stimulated group of people that will continue on in that regard,” said Power.

Though Dickey’s involvement with the council started with a request, he now finds “personal satisfaction in being able to make a difference.”

“I certainly hate to predict doom and gloom,” said Dickey. “I’m hopeful that we’ve done a good enough job of creating the contacts that will not only sustain themselves but continue to grow.

“There’s an infrastructure on campus to focus on the outside community that wasn’t there before,” Dickey added. “That isn’t going to go away.”