Provost Makes Pitch for CSUN Job

Jolene Koester, a candidate for the presidency of Cal State Northridge, stressed her experience as an administrator within the Cal State system in a public forum Tuesday.

Koester, who is provost and vice president for academic affairs at Cal State Sacramento, was the second of four candidates to meet with the public in forums scheduled this week. All four will be interviewed next week by the California State University Board of Trustees.

“You are all here because you are curious,” Koester said. “You are curious about me and what I might be like if I came to Cal State Northridge.”

Koester, 51, said she was one of five children born to German immigrant parents in Plato, Minn., population 250. Although her parents were high school dropouts--her father is an auto mechanic--all her siblings went to college, she said.

“I came from a community of extreme cultural homogeneity,” she said, evoking some laughter. “It wasn’t Lake Wobegon, but if any of you have heard Garrison Keillor’s show the descriptions are very similar.”

Her horizons widened dramatically, she said, when she studied at the University of Minnesota, where she earned her bachelor’s and doctorate degrees. Koester, a communications scholar and the author of dozens of books and articles on intercultural communication, earned her master’s at the University of Wisconsin.

“I have a fundamental belief in the transformative power of higher education,” she said. “I also have a strong belief in the importance of diversity as a way to understand who I am and diversity as the basis of society in California.”

Throughout much of the hourlong question and answer session, Koester drew on her experience at Cal State Sacramento and her knowledge of the state university system.

Touching on Executive Order 665, Chancellor Charles B. Reed’s controversial move to phase out most remedial education programs on Cal State campuses, Koester said it was important for the university system to work with K-12 schools and community colleges while being “as flexible and creative as we can.”

“There is always going to be a need for remedial education in public universities,” she said.

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Koester also said she favors merit pay for faculty members, another controversial measure instituted by Cal State trustees. Some professors say the practice impinges on their academic freedom.

On fund-raising, Koester said she was encouraged that 80% of Cal State Northridge’s recent graduates live in the San Fernando Valley. She said having so many alums in the area should enable the university to help build closer ties with the wider community.

“It’s a problem we’ve had on our campus,” she said. “The university and its academic programs represent an asset.”

Koester said Cal State Northridge’s faculty, staff and students should receive awards, promotions and other incentives for individual acts of community involvement.

About 80 people attended the forum in the Performing Arts Center.

Faculty members said they were pleased with Koester’s breezy style, good communication skills and strong academic background.

“She was very specific,” said Elizabeth Berry, a CSUN speech professor. History professor Charles W. Macune said he liked Koester’s wit, but added that picking a new university president “is like a marriage; only time will tell what kind of relationship is going to develop.”