CSUN Narrows List of Presidency Candidates to 4

Four finalists were announced Thursday for the presidency of Cal State Northridge--three women and an African American man, including two from out of state and one affiliated with the California State University system.

All four will visit the Northridge campus next week for public forums, and the CSU Board of Trustees will interview the finalists the following week.

Chancellor Charles Reed called the four “the strongest pool of candidates in my 15 years of looking for presidents--they are simply outstanding leaders in higher education.”

Reed said the candidates were chosen for their depth of academic experience, their outreach efforts at other universities and their strength in fund-raising.

The finalists are Gretchen Bataille, provost and academic vice president at Washington State University in Pullman, Wash.; Antoine Garibaldi, provost and chief academic officer at Howard University in Washington; Jolene Koester, provost and vice president for academic affairs at Cal State Sacramento, and Jane Pisano, senior vice president for external relations at USC.

Bataille, 55, began her administrative career at Cal State Polytechnic in Pomona, where she was an associate dean of instruction from 1987 to 1988. She then chaired the English department and served as an associate dean at Arizona State University before becoming provost of the College of Letters and Science at UC Santa Barbara in 1994. In 1997, she became the No. 2 administrator in the three-campus Washington State University system.

Sam Smith, president of Washington State University, said Bataille was an extraordinary fund-raiser, netting $45 million to $50 million a year for the system. He praised Bataille’s management style and called her an “insightful and very thoughtful person.”

“She’s got a very good academic leadership style,” he said. “She has the ability to listen and discern what individuals are trying to say.”

Bataille has a reputation as an administrator who is comfortable with students in social settings and listens to their concerns, said Patrick McAdams, vice president of the Associated Students of Washington State University.

“She attends a lot of events and shows her face to students, so they know who she is,” he said. “She gets down from the upper administration role. She’s well-rounded and gets along with alumni, students and administrators.”

Garibaldi, 49, worked for the U.S. Department of Education before chairing the education department and becoming dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Xavier University, a historically black institution in New Orleans. In 1996, Garibaldi was named provost and chief academic officer at Howard University, one of the oldest black schools in the nation.

Garibaldi said Xavier and Howard prepared him to take the helm of a university such as Cal State Northridge, which is among the most diverse universities in the region.

“One of the misunderstandings about historically black colleges is that they only serve black students,” he said. “Actually, these universities have more white students than predominately white colleges have black students.”

Garibaldi, who received his doctorate in educational psychology, said his strong background in education will help him fulfill Cal State Northridge’s role in teacher education. His experience working on urban campuses will also serve him well, he said.

“Some of the programs that Cal State Northridge has are programs that I’ve been involved with here at Howard and also at Xavier as chairman of the education department,” he said.

Tyrrell Eiland, an officer with the Howard University Students Assn., called Garibaldi a mentor and a problem-solver. Garibaldi is widely respected and admired by students and faculty alike, Eiland said.

“If he is chosen, it will be the second administrator we have lost to another university in a year and a half,” Eiland said. “[His departure] would have a large impact on the student body.”

Koester, 51, was chairman of the department of communication studies at Cal State Sacramento before being named in 1989 as assistant to the vice president of academic affairs. In 1991 she became the associate vice president and in 1993 was elevated to the vice presidency. She has been provost and vice president for academic affairs since 1996.

Koester said she would bring to the Cal State Northridge presidency “a passion and commitment to their fundamental mission.”

As an administrator of another large Cal State University campus, Koester said she understands the role of the Northridge campus in the San Fernando Valley and would work to foster better relationships with the community. She said she also was a strong fund-raiser.

“We had a very successful capital campaign here,” she said. “We raised $50 million over five years.”

“She has been critical to our campus,” said Cristy Jensen, professor of public policy and administration at Cal State Sacramento. “I have mixed feelings about the whole thing. I am thrilled with the possibility for her because I know she will do a good job, but I am saddened by the [possible] loss.”

Pisano, 55, worked for the National Security Council, various firms as a freelance management consultant and executive at Times Mirror before becoming dean of the University of USC’s School of Public Administration. In 1994, USC President Steven Sample hired her as senior vice president for external relations, which put her in charge of community outreach.

Widely regarded as a strong administrator and fund-raiser, Pisano has spearheaded a host of community partnerships at USC, including the university-funded community safety program Kidwatch and the Family of Five tutoring program.

In an interview published by The Times last month, Sample called Pisano “articulate in person and on paper and so well-educated. She also came with great academic credentials, which is unusual for such a post but a real help, because she could motivate the faculty, and that is how you get things done around here.”

Albert Kinderman, Cal State Northridge’s faculty president, said he was pleased with the finalists, who were selected from a pool of about 100 candidates. He and Chancellor Reed said the candidates’ strength was a testament to CSUN’s rising fortunes since the 1994 earthquake devastated the campus.

“They all know that we’ve spent $350 million rebuilding the campus,” Reed said. “That’s attractive to them because they know that facilities is not going to be the biggest issue they will be dealing with.

“Instead, they will be able to focus on enrollment growth, connecting to the community, fund-raising, building quality academic programs.”

Chicano studies professor Rodolfo Acuna, however, said he was disappointed there were no Latino candidates for a campus that is serving an increasingly Latino student body.

“We worked with the applications we had,” Kinderman said, adding that all candidates were asked why they wanted to come to Cal State Northridge.

“They all felt that the CSU system was a good system to work in and Northridge had a good reputation nationally and had a lot of potential,” he said. “Most importantly, they were all excited about the mission of CSUN--we’re a university that serves many different cultural groups and many students that are first-generation college students. By coming to CSUN they felt they could make a difference.”

Blenda Wilson left as CSUN president in June to head the Nellie Mae Foundation, an education reform organization in Braintree, Mass.

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CSUN Candidates

Gretchen Bataille

Current position: Provost and academic vice president at Washington State University.

Age: 55

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Antoine Garibaldi

Current position: Provost and chief academic officer at Howard University.

Age: 49

*

Jolene Koester

Current position: Provost and vice president for academic affairs at CSU Sacramento.

Age: 51

*

Jane Pisano

Current position: Senior vice president for external relations at the University of Southern California.

Age: 55