CSUCI’s Cabinet Now Fully Assembled

The final administrative pieces are in place at Cal State Channel Islands, and President Richard Rush thinks people are going to like the result.

After months of searching, Rush has assembled his executive cabinet, the group of senior administrators who will serve as his principal advisors while overseeing a range of programs essential to operating the Camarillo campus, set to open later this year.

The group includes Alexander W. McNeill, who left his post as a dean at the University of Alaska to become the new university’s vice president for academic affairs. Joanne M. Coville is vice president for finance and administration, and Maryann L. Dase is the university’s chief information officer.

William Gregory Sawyer and Alma D. Gonzalez were the last to arrive, reporting for duty last month. He’s vice president for student affairs, and she is vice president for university advancement.

“It’s a very strong group, and their credentials are impeccable,” said Rush, who can use all the help he can get making sure the campus opens on schedule for the fall semester. “They have the right values, they are people of substance, and they are dedicated to the task at hand.”

They’ve also accomplished plenty before landing in Camarillo.

Take Gonzalez, who was born and raised in East Los Angeles and earned a bachelor’s degree in Spanish literature from UCLA in 1977.

She has worked as the general manager for a pioneering Spanish-language advertising agency, headed corporate advertising for Hughes Aircraft, and held key positions with the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee in 1984 and the Los Angeles Host Committee for the 1994 World Cup.

Gonzalez also served as vice president of development and communications for the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Educational Fund before landing a job as director of development for the Rand Corp., a Santa Monica research firm.

That’s where an executive headhunter found her and asked if she would be interested in helping launch the Camarillo campus, the 23rd in the Cal State University system.

“It’s almost as if every position I held in the past led me here,” said Gonzalez, whose job is to promote and support the university in a variety of ways, from community relations to fund-raising.

“I had no interest in leaving Rand, I really liked it there, so this had to be very, very special,” she said. “I’ve done some of the ‘first-time-ever’ kind of stuff, the things you would consider an opportunity of a lifetime. This to me is one of those opportunities.”

Sawyer couldn’t agree more. And he’s been down this road once before.

As founding dean of student services at Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers from 1995 through 2001, he helped transform a branch campus of the University of South Florida into a full-fledged, four-year institution.

The same thing is happening at Channel Islands, where a branch campus of Cal State Northridge will evolve into Ventura County’s first four-year public university.

Sawyer Welcomes New Opportunity

“I liked the idea, and the challenge, of being able to deliver higher education to a county that has not had a four-year institution,” said Sawyer, who was born and raised in inner-city Columbus, Ohio. “I also wanted to be in a situation where--once again--I was helping start something like this from scratch.”

As with Gonzalez, it seems his entire career has been moving toward this moment.

He earned his bachelor’s degree in communication and theater from Mount Union College in Ohio, his master’s from Eastern New Mexico University and his doctorate from the University of North Texas.

He taught communication classes at colleges in Texas from Amarillo to Irving, and worked his way to dean of students at the University of North Texas at Denton.

Sawyer said growing up in his household, it was taken for granted he would succeed. Both his parents earned college degrees in an era when few other African Americans did. Their three children were expected to do as well, if not better.

It’s a philosophy that Sawyer believes will serve him well in the job of vice president for student affairs, which oversees everything from financial aid to student housing and counseling services.

“We are here to support the academic mission, to serve as advocate and support for the students,” he said.

It was important to Rush that the university’s senior administrative staff be as diverse as the community it is going to serve. So aside from the solid credentials Sawyer and Gonzalez bring to the job, Rush said he values their experience and background as members of minority groups.

But he said the entire staff brings unique strengths to the campus, from Dase’s extensive experience in information services to Coville’s background as a certified public accountant and executive vice president of the Oregon Graduate Institute of Science and Technology.

“They’ve all accomplished things in their lives prior to coming here,” Rush said. “I think the entire region will be delighted to have them not only as senior leaders on campus but also as members of the community.”