Check out how it all started here – Search for new provost begins
The Cal State Long Beach College of the Arts grew for the last eight years with Donald Para at the helm, and now he is looking to take over as the next provost.
As the college’s former dean, Para was instrumental in attempting to move the University Art Museum to downtown Long Beach and has been responsible for helping to establish partnerships with various organizations, such as Charter Communications. In an open forum on Tuesday, he described not only the changes needed to improve CSULB and how he plans to make those changes, but why he wants the job in the first place.
“This is a university that works,” Para said. “We change lives.”
As the dean of College of the Arts from 2001 to 2009 and the current interim provost, Para has worked with many faculty members and seen how the recent budget cuts have hurt faculty support. He believes one of CSULB’s greatest assets is its dedicated and talented faculty.
He has emphasized as interim provost, among other things, the importance of support for faculty in order to achieve student success, which is his No. 1 priority. His second priority focuses on faculty teaching loads.
“Students should expect to be taught by faculty that are well-supported,” he said. “That needs to continue.”
Para proposed establishing endowments for faculty, reducing faculty teaching loans, having more staff training and increasing faculty diversity if selected as provost. He anticipates that he would also hire about eight more faculty members next year, since current faculty teaching schedules are leaving less time for research and student support outside of the classroom.
Para also praised the university’s deans for their dedication and the student government for their leadership. However, he said he would like to see better communication among faculty and staff members to limit frustration and misunderstandings.
As a graduate of Michigan State’s music department with a doctorate in music composition, Para said he cares greatly about the arts. According to Para, the CSULB College of the Arts is the nation’s largest publicly funded art department.
He believes, however, that public relations and marketing for the College of the Arts needs to improve and that its lack of marketing is due to CSULB being one of the 23 California State University campuses.
Para said he and CSULB President F. King Alexander have established a strong working relationship with the city of Long Beach to promote the university and its programs and support the student population. This includes establishing the Broadway Block project, which will soon move the graduate art department program to downtown Long Beach.
Para displayed his pride for CSULB to the forum audience and believes strongly in the mission statement of the university. He promised that if he is given the opportunity to become the university’s permanent provost, he will continue to do things collaboratively and be as strategic as he can be to support students and faculty to the highest degree.
Read about the other finalists, Anil Puri and Garnett Stokes.