Alyssa Whitley-Cooper, a senior women’s, gender and sexuality studies major, was walking through the University Student Union one morning when she saw an article about Jane Close Conoley, Cal State Long Beach’s new president.
But after opening the paper, it’s what wasn’t in the story that got her thinking.
“I read the story and I thought, ‘That’s awesome, [Conoley] really seems like a great person,’” Whitley-Cooper said. “And then I thought, ‘But wait a second, my grandma was in there somewhere.’”
Whitley-Cooper is the granddaughter of June Cooper, former Cal State University executive vice chancellor and chief of staff. Before working in the Chancellor’s Office, though, Cooper served as CSULB’s interim president during the spring of 1988.
It was the first time a woman had ever run the university, and according to Julia D. Whitley, Cooper’s daughter and a CSULB alumna, it was a big deal.
“The fact that a woman in general had been put into this position that no other woman had ever been put in before, and not just a woman but a woman of color, a minority … for the City of Long Beach in 1988, that was huge,” Whitley said. “It’s hard for us to hear that she’s forgotten.”
CSU spokesman Mike Uhlenkamp said that while in office, an interim president and president have the same responsibilities. The difference lies in their role, whereas an interim president is picked for his or her knowledge of a university and how it functions, a permanent president is expected to push the university into new territory.
“In general, you think of [an interim president as] someone that is maintaining the continuity of the university,” he said. “ They are filling that void for a limited time. For the president, you want someone that is going to be able to come in and establish [his or her] vision.”
To the people and papers of the time, Whitley said, the difference wasn’t important. Whitley has amassed two photo albums full of articles from local papers about the importance of her mother’s role.
“I know that the process for how [interim presidents and presidents] are nominated or appointed is different,” she said. “However, the way that the papers were celebrating my mother, the way that they put it was so powerful at the time in 1988 that it didn’t matter.”
Cooper, who worked at CSULB for 25 years, joined the Department of Communicative Disorders in 1966 and gradually worked her way up through a number of academic and administrative positions.
During her time as interim president, Cooper designated Room 165 in the Faculty Office 4 building as CSULB’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Resource Center — a hub that is still in use more than 25 years later.
Interim President Donald Para said he was chair of the music department when he first met Cooper. Cooper’s time as interim president had just ended and Curtis McCray, the fourth CSULB president, had just begun what would become a five-year tenure.
Para said it was also during this time that the university was transitioning from a heavy-handed administration to a collaborative one, and was on the brink of a financial crisis, which was second only to recent budget cuts.
In the middle of it all was Cooper.
“She was a tough person for the right reasons,” Para said. “She had a sense of right and wrong, and if you were doing wrong, she was going to tell you about it and she wasn’t going to mince any words.”
Para said Cooper had a “guardian” role on campus that made her very popular and highly regarded.
“I had a lot of respect for her,” he said.
Cooper’s work in the CSU and the community earned her the National Conference for Community Justice Humanitarian Award and a Woman of the Year Award from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, according to the CSULB website.
Whitley said that she and her family are not angry, they just don’t want a part of CSULB’s history to be forgotten.
“None of us are upset,” Whitley said. “I don’t want to overshadow this new president. I would just hate for the things my mother did do for the university to go unnoticed.”