Big Day on Campus for CSUN's President

Big Day on Campus for CSUN’s President

By ZANTO PEABODY

April 20, 2001 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Cal State Northridge President Jolene Koester just couldn’t stop smiling during her inauguration Thursday.

With threatening clouds above, a chill settling on the lawn of the Oviatt Library and protesters making a ruckus in front of Koester’s bosses on her big day, she opened up the lobe-to-lobe grin Northridge students have come to recognize.

Perhaps, too, she got the joke that she was being installed officially in a position she has already held for eight months, a time span not uncommon in academia.

Koester, 53, beamed as colleagues in full academic regalia heaped on praise for her work to involve students more in the communities around the campus and initiatives to lift graduation rates.

“It takes a unique leader to sustain the opportunity [for growth],” said Cal State University System Chancellor Charles B. Reed. “Since she arrived at CSUN, this university has continued to grow.”

Koester, the university’s fourth president in its 43 years, has begun work on a legacy of rebirth for Northridge. Since taking over last July, reconstruction of classroom buildings damaged in the 1994 Northridge earthquake has been completed, the men’s basketball team won its first trip to the NCAA Division I tournament and academic departments have earned scads of accolades.

She also filled four vice president positions that were vacant or occupied by interim staff when she arrived.

Associated Students President Robert Hanff told the crowd Koester already has steered Northridge away from its image as an apathetic campus of 29,000 students.

“Jolene, you are the perfect president for Cal State Northridge,” Hanff said.

A band of students disrupted the ceremony, protesting what they said was the underpayment of a Latino employee of a construction company working on a campus earthquake retrofit project.

Koester, still smiling, interrupted the closing remarks of a Cal State trustee to tell the crowd that the protesters were acting out of principles they had learned at CSUN. The students, she said, had been taught the importance of “having values and being willing to act on those values.”

The newly inaugurated president’s day ended with a gala dinner at the Universal Sheraton for faculty, community dignitaries and distinguished alumni.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

JOLENE KOESTER

53, born in Plato, Minn.

Previous positions

Cal State Sacramento, 1983-2000, positions ranged from professor of communications studies to provost and vice president for academic affairs.

University of Missouri-Columbia, 1980-83, professor of communications studies.

Education

Bachelor’s, communication, University of Minnesota 1971.

Master’s, communication arts, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1972.

PhD., speech communication, University of Minnesota, 1980.

Fulbright scholar, for study in India, 1968-69.