Cal State Turns to Business World to Find Chancellor : Education: Barry Munitz, vice chairman of Pacific Lumber’s parent, also headed University of Houston.

Barry Munitz, a former head of the main University of Houston campus who went on to become vice chairman of Pacific Lumber Co.’s controversial corporate parent, was chosen Thursday as chancellor of the 20-campus California State University system.

Munitz’s experience at the Texas school and at Maxxam Inc. was attractive enough to Cal State trustees to override questions about his ties to a company disliked by many environmentalists, and his role as a board member of a failed savings and loan in Houston.

“We are very fortunate to have his unique blend of talents,” William D. Campbell, Cal State trustees’ chairman, said at a press conference after a closed-door trustees’ meeting at the system headquarters in Long Beach.

Munitz may have been helped by a change of heart from Assemblyman Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica), who chairs the Assembly Higher Education Committee and has fought Pacific Lumber on its stepped-up timber cutting. Hayden originally challenged Munitz’s candidacy, calling him “a symbol of a corporate raider.” But after talking to Munitz and corporate sources, Hayden said he is satisfied that Munitz was not responsible for the lumber company’s increase in redwood cutting after it was acquired by Maxxam.

“On the basis of his representations, I think he is entitled to prove himself as an educational leader who is concerned about good government and the environment,” Hayden said.

A Brooklyn, N.Y., native who now speaks with a soft Texas drawl, Munitz, 49, told reporters that he wants to guide the 369,000-student system through its current budget crisis, emphasize undergraduate teaching versus research, push for enrollment of more minority students and work well with legislators.

“My first priority is to see there are at least adequate resources for our priorities,” he said. But even in an era of austerity, Cal State, he said, can “be a model for the country at large.”

In choosing Munitz, trustees passed up two other finalists: a respected insider, Warren J. Baker, the president of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and Shirley S. Chater, a former UC San Francisco official who is now president of Texas Woman’s University.

Munitz is to take office Aug. 1, succeeding Ellis E. McCune, former president of Cal State Hayward, who became acting chancellor last May when then-Chancellor W. Ann Reynolds was forced to resign in a controversy over large and secretive pay raises for herself and other administrators. Reynolds is now chancellor of the City University of New York.

Munitz reportedly earns about $400,000 a year at Maxxam and an affiliated real estate company, Federated Development Co., of which he is president and chief operating officer. As chancellor, he will earn $175,000 a year, up from McCune’s $149,000 but still well below the $195,000 proposal that led to Reynolds’ ouster.

Asked why he wanted the Cal State job, Munitz quipped: “It’s not the salary.” More seriously, he said he always intended to return to academia. Friends privately say he tired of the dog-eat-dog atmosphere at Maxxam, which is run by financier Charles Hurwitz.

Before joining Maxxam, Munitz headed the University of Houston’s 34,000-student main campus from 1977-82 and was a vice president there for a year. Since that university is a state-funded school with four campuses, his experience appears similar to that of Cal State officials. In the early ‘70s, Munitz was a vice president of the University of Illinois system and an assistant to former UC President Clark Kerr at the Carnegie Commission on the Future of Higher Education. He has a bachelor’s degree from Brooklyn College in classics and comparative literature and a Ph.D. in comparative literature from Princeton University.

Maxxam and Federated were the largest shareholders in a company that owned a Texas savings and loan that failed and was taken over by the government in 1988. Munitz served on the S&L; board during the takeover but says he had no managerial responsibility.

Maxxam, a “Fortune 200” company, also owns Kaiser Aluminum, but its Pacific Lumber ties attracted more attention. Descendants of naturalist John Muir telegrammed trustees Thursday, pledging civil disobedience at Cal State facilities if Munitz was selected.

Last week, California officials said they were negotiating to preserve the 3,000-acre Headwaters Forest owned by Pacific Lumber in Humboldt County in a trade involving junk bonds issued by the company.

At the Thursday press conference, Munitz said it had not been determined if he would keep any corporate board positions. However, Hayden said in an interview that he had been assured Munitz would cut his ties with Maxxam. “He needs to be as separate from Charles Hurwitz as possible,” the assemblyman said.

Trustee J. Gary Shansby, who headed the search committee for the finalists, strongly defended Munitz and said his background was investigated thoroughly. “We found Dr. Munitz totally clean,” Shansby said. “Does the company have problems? Certainly. But does that affect Dr. Munitz? No.”

Cal State officials hope Munitz will garner corporate donations, something the university needs more of as state finances weaken. Last month, trustees voted to raise student fees $156, or 20%, to $936 for full-time students who are California residents. Also approved were staff layoffs and other spending cuts that make it harder for students to get the classes they need.

At the University of Houston, John Butler, associate dean of natural sciences, recalled Munitz as an energetic person who “exudes energy and is a good public speaker. He is a good front person and I don’t mean that negatively.”