Welcome CSUN President Erika D. Beck
November 2018
MEMORANDUM
TO: Faculty, Staff, Students and Community California State University Northridge
FROM: Timothy P. White, Chancellor
SUBJECT: President Dianne Harrison — Completion of Normally Scheduled Review
The California State University Board of Trustees and I formally eval date campus presidents on a three-year cycle, in addition to annual summer conferences discussing achievements and goals that 1 host with each president. 1 write today to inform you that the regularly scheduled review process for President Harrison was completed recently, and the Board of Trustees and I are fully confident in the promising future of CSUN under her leadership.
The horizon for public higher education embodies both opportunities and challenges, and we believe that with the CSUN community working together on substantive matters you will continue your prominence as a beacon of hope and opportunity through teaching and learning, research and scholarly activity, and community engagement.
The wide and deep spectrum of tasks that the Board and I expect from President Harrison in these challenging times is significant. In addition to providing leadership and management for substantive academic, student and administrative issues on campus in a consultative and deliberate shared governance environment, she also has responsibility for engaging off- campus with the broader community, system-wide duties, contributing to state, national and international higher education policy conversations, along with philanthropic cultivation and stewardship — all of which advance CSUN.
The purpose of presidential evaluations and summer conferences is to keep the CSU Board of Trustees and me properly informed of campus successes and challenges, to develop concurrence on strategic goals going forward, and for the board and me to demonstrate our commitment and support to the success of the campus and campus leadership.
As you may know, during spring 2018 we began the normally scheduled three-year evaluation process for President Harrison. It was her second comprehensive review since her appointment as CSUN’s president in 2012, and I invited input from all faculty, staff, students at CSUN, along with the community members writ large.
Additionally and per policy, a site visit team comprised of Trustees, campus presidents, and leadership fi om the Chancellor's Office visited CSUN in mid-April 2018 to conduct interviews with twenty-nine additional individuals, again including students, faculty, staff and community members. I am grateful to
have received feedback from a variety of stakeholders from the campus and community, and I thank each of you who took the time to provide substantive and candid input into this review.
1 read every letter received and thoroughly consider the varied points of view. From that effort, I developed a comprehensive summary of the input for the board to review, while not providing attribution to any individual author. I also wrote my own evaluation of her, informed by the campus and community input and my visits to campus and interactions in the normal course of business with leadership, faculty, students, alumni and staff at CS UN.
These two documents, plus summary information on students, academics, employees, diversity, fund raising, operations, athletics and finances were reviewed and discussed in a closed session with the CSU Board of Trustees, President Harrison and me in September 2018. The feedback and discussion led all of us to a better understanding of the campus, the relationship of CSUN to the larger community, and to the opportunities and challenges moving forward. The Trustees and I wet e particularly impressed and unanimously supportive of the professional and shared approach she took in managing campus controversies.
While I acknowledge there is often an interest by others in the details of such discussions, you may be aware that by law (Government Code Sec. 6254(c) and 6255) the results of performance evaluations for any faculty or staff member within the CSU, including our presidents, are confidential. Thus, I do not share specific results with you nor would it be appropriate to do so.
In order to remain attentive to the future of CSUN, I will continue to hold an annual summer conference with President Harrison as I do with all twenty-three presidents. Her next formal review with the Board of Trustees and myself will be initiated under cement policy in 2021.
Again, I thank you for the wealth of information you shared in this process. lt was evident in all of the feedback received that there is strong commitment to the success of CSUN. Please know that both the CSU Board of Trustees and I share in that commitment, as does President Harrison.