The Cal State University has hired eight new campus presidents to start work this fall at their respective campuses.
Many of the old presidents left their posts not to pursue other job options but instead to start their retirement, according to CSU Spokesman Erik Fallis.
“Most are leaving to retire,” Fallis said. “Only one [president] left to pursue another position. Part of that reflected the age and duration many of our presidents have served.”
To replace the campus presidents, Willie Hagan has been appointed at Dominguez Hills, Mildred Garcia at Fullerton, Thomas Cropper at Maritime, Eduardo Ochoa at Monterey Bay, Dianne Harrison at Northridge, Tomas Morales at San Bernadino, Leslie Wong at San Francisco and Joseph Sheley at Stanislaus. All the presidents were appointed within the last six months.
However, the presidents appointed at Dominguez, Monterey Bay and Stanislaus are all interim, and the positions are technically vacant until search committees find and hire permanent presidents for those campuses.
The length of time it takes to find a new campus president varies widely, according to Fallis.
“There are searches that have been conducted in a matter of months and others that have taken closer to a year,” Fallis said.
Occasionally, an interim president could be hired as a permanent president, like Leroy Morishita, who served as the interim president of Cal State East Bay for nearly six months before being hired on permanently.
Four of the new presidents, Ochoa, Cropper, Morales and Wong, were appointed only last month. Ochoa previously served as the provost and vice president for Sonoma State University and will now serve as interim president of Monterey Bay until a permanent president is found.
Morales previously served as president of the College of Staten Island in New York and will now be the president at CSU San Bernadino. Wong joins San Francisco State University after leading as president at Northern Michigan University.