Cal State Student Leader Gets Post on State Panel

A Cal State Northridge student has landed a position on the state’s Postsecondary Education Commission.

Robert Hanff, president of CSUN Associated Students and a political science major, is Gov. Gray Davis’ sole student appointee so far to the 16-member commission. Still vacant is a position reserved for a student from an independent college.

The agency, which reviews all major state-level issues involving colleges and universities, recently studied a proposal for a new University of California campus in Merced and has searched for ways to narrow the gap between pay of UC faculty and that of Cal State faculty.

“I don’t think there should be a great divide between them,” Hanff said. Cal State “is, like, the working horse for the state. They produce a number of teachers and a number of engineers and other professionals. They really fuel our economy with their graduates.”

Commission spokesman Daniel Parker said that Hanff, during his two-year term, can expect to help issue opinions on how the state should accommodate the expected glut of 700,000 additional college students by 2010. The commission also will look at how high-tech education and traditional college campuses work together, Parker said.