David Dowell, vice provost of planning and budgets and director of strategic planning at Cal State Long Beach, has been appointed as CSULB’s interim provost, a position that became vacant after Donald Para’s appointment to interim president.
During his 35 years on campus, Dowell has held various positions, from a psychology professor to dean of the College of Liberal Arts, and has served as vice provost for the past 11 years.
Dowell said he is excited to begin his new position as interim provost.
“We want to graduate students all the way to the completion of their degree, and we want that degree to be valued,” he said. “We really are committed to the success of our students.”
The major difference between his old position and new one, Dowell said, is the scope of his work.
“Previously I was accountable for enrollment, budgets, facilities and student success,” he said. “Now I have responsibility for all that plus personnel, hiring, everything. It’s a big scope.”
Outgoing CSULB President F. King Alexander said Dowell has been behind several policy changes that have benefitted both students and faculty, such as his suggestion to feed graduation rates and data straight to different academic departments so they can use that information for self-assessment purposes.
“[Dowell is] really the mechanic in terms of orchestrating our highly valued degrees and making sure everyone’s on board,” Alexander said. “[Dowell has] been at the heart of that since day one.”
Dowell will assume his new position July 1, the same day that Para will take on his role as interim president.