LONG BEACH Jane Close Conoley will be the first woman to lead Cal State Long Beach in its 65-year history.
The appointment of Conoley, dean of the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education at UC Santa Barbara, was announced Wednesday at the California State University Board of Trustees meeting in Long Beach.
Conoley lauded CSULB for its diversity, academic offerings and athletic heritage.
“This is such a great opportunity for me,” Conoley said on a conference call to reporters from her Santa Barbara home. “I’ll learn a lot from the success of the school.”
She will be one of four female presidents in the 23-campus CSU system, joining leaders at San Marcos, Fullerton and Northridge.
Conoley said she didn’t realize she would be the first female president at CSULB until she read a news release. She has been the first woman in other roles, such as department chair, and said it is for others to comment on the significance of such an appointment.
“I just do my best,” Conoley said. “I’m not sure how the gender might play into it.”
Conoley, 66, had also been a finalist for provost at the University of Oregon. She interviewed at that campus earlier this month, around the same time as she spoke with CSU officials.
Conoley said by phone late Wednesday that it’s always a possibility that some might view her interviewing with Oregon as a sign that she wasn’t committed to CSULB, but that isn’t the case.
“I was thinking seriously about being a president or a chancellor, and I thought, well, I need to be a provost first, that’s the normal progression,” Conoley said.
She said Oregon officials recruited her and she didn’t “go looking for them.”
Conoley added that she had a good interview at Oregon and was honored that they tried to bring her in, but was “straight with them the whole time” about pursuing the president position at CSULB.
Conoley, who is originally from New York City, will become the seventh president in CSULB history when she takes the post in July.
CSULB’s sixth president, F. King Alexander, left in June to become president of the Louisiana State University system and chancellor of Louisiana State University AM.
CSU Chancellor Timothy P. White in May named Donald J. Para as interim president. Para had served as CSULB’s provost and senior vice president for academic affairs.
Since 2006 Conoley has been the dean at UCSB as well as a professor of counseling, clinical and school psychology. She served as acting chancellor of UC Riverside for about seven months, replacing White in December 2012 when he assumed the CSU chancellor position. UCSB appointed an acting dean during her time at UC Riverside.
Conoley said it was White who contacted her about the presidential opening at CSULB.
At UC Riverside, she worked with lawmakers in Sacramento and Washington, D.C., to secure funding for its new School of Medicine. Her time there bolstered her confidence in taking on the top post at a university.
“I felt like I was good at it,” said Conoley of her time at UC Riverside. “So it gave me thought that I could accomplish things at the presidential level or the chancellor level.”
Conoley mentioned goals of increasing graduation rates and opening more access to those at lower income levels but gave few specifics. She said it’s important for a new president to take a look at what a university is doing right and build on that success before implementing change.
To that end, she will continue talks with Para to learn more about the campus.
Para said in the phone conference that he expects the campus will be excited about Conoley’s appointment. He said Conoley will be “another in the line of outstanding presidents at Cal State Long Beach.”
The sentiment was echoed by others.
Dan O’Connor, chair of CSULB’s Academic Senate, congratulated Conoley in a statement.
“This is an exciting time in the life of this university, and we look forward to working with President Conoley to move the university forward,” he said. “President Conoley brings an outstanding record of accomplishments and a vision for the future of this university, and we are looking forward to building that future together.”
Before her service at UCSB, she served as dean and professor of educational psychology at Texas AM University from 1996 to 2005, and as associate dean for research at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Teachers College from 1989 to 1994, according to CSULB officials.
She also held faculty positions at Texas Woman’s University and Syracuse University.
Conoley is the author and editor of 21 books.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the College of New Rochelle and a doctorate in school psychology from the University of Texas at Austin.
Conoley said her appointment to CSULB is the culmination of a professional career that has focused on improving access to education, especially among low-income and disadvantaged students.
Conoley has made one visit to the campus. She plans on several more, starting in early February.
CSU spokesman Mike Uhlenkamp said Conoley’s compensation will be set at the next trustees meeting, in March.
The Trustees’ Selection Committee for President of CSU Long Beach conducted the search, beginning last summer. Monterey Park-based Storbeck/Pimental Associates assisted in the search, with a budget of $120,000.
Conoley is married and has three adult children and five grandchildren.
CSULB enrolls about 35,500 students annually. The university is home to eight colleges that offer 85 bachelor’s degrees, 64 master’s degrees and four doctoral degrees.
Contact Josh Dulaney at 562-714-2150.