A Departing President Views Her Legacy

In the business world, success often is measured by the bottom line--a company’s revenue, net income and the market value of its stock. But in higher education, success is evaluated in many different ways. Institutional reputation, student enrollment and graduates’ job placement are just some of the criteria on our “report card.”

For nearly seven years as president of Cal State Northridge, I have led a team that has worked hard in a collaborative effort to achieve these shared visions:

* To distinguish CSUN as a high performing, model university in which student achievement levels are among the highest of peer universities.

* To create a community of shared values in which faculty, staff, administrators and alumni experience personal satisfaction and pride in our collective achievements.

* To be the first choice for university applicants who seek a rigorous, collaborative teaching / learning experience in a technologically rich environment.

* To be the leader in enhancing the educational, cultural and economic resources of our region.

* To receive local and national recognition for our distinctive achievements in teaching, learning, scholarship and service.

A recent Valleywide survey shows that in the minds of many local residents, we are accomplishing many of these goals. In the March survey of 750 registered voter households throughout the San Fernando Valley, four-fifths of respondents gave the university high marks in name recognition and more than 60% of respondents said CSUN is doing a good job of educating students. (The survey was conducted by the independent firm of Arnold Steinberg & Associates.)

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Although 60% gave CSUN a thumbs-up on job approval, only 4% gave us a poor job rating, a 15-1 approval ratio. About four-fifths of all survey respondents were familiar with the term “CSUN,” as the university is commonly referred to, so the CSUN “brand” is strong and recognizable.

Ten percent of all interviewed said they were then attending CSUN, and almost 70% of those said CSUN was their university of first choice. Among respondents who said someone in their household was attending CSUN, about 59% said they were attending college full-time and 37% part-time. Of those, 92% said they also were working full-time or part-time while attending college.

We conducted this survey because we wanted to gain quantifiable information about how people in the Valley recognize and regard CSUN, as well as how they make decisions about choosing a college for themselves or their children. The message from the survey is a rewarding and compelling one: CSUN is widely recognized throughout the Valley as a valued and highly desirable educational institution.

During the past several weeks, news media, professional colleagues and personal friends have asked me about the legacy I will leave at CSUN, as I move on to a new career opportunity with the Nellie Mae Foundation, an educational organization in New England.

As I leave CSUN, I do so with mixed feelings: sadness in not seeing the completion of our campus physical reconstruction and recovery from the 1994 earthquake. But I also feel joy and excitement about a new opportunity to help schools prepare students, especially those in inner-cities, for meaningful and rewarding experiences in higher education.

I am confident that the CSUN team will continue to build on the work it’s already done. And I know CSUN will continue to engage new issues and meet new challenges, as our university continues to prepare young people to be “First for the 21st.”