By Having to use a cardboard cutout of himself, Cal State Long Beach President F. King Alexander could probably use a double right now.
The cutout, he joked, is to be used when he isn’t able to make meetings, as he said traveling between Baton Rouge, La., and Long Beach has taken its toll.
“Trying to do two at once is proving to be pretty difficult,” Alexander said.
He will travel to Louisiana again this week, paying a visit to the public university system he will soon lead, starting in July.
As he gears up to shake the hands of the 2013 class, one of the largest graduating classes in the university’s history, Alexander said the feeling of leaving CSULB is melancholy.
“I feel like I’m letting some people down,” he said. “That may not be the case, but I felt the same way when I left Murray [State University], because you put your heart and soul into building something.”
From The Beach to the South
Before coming to CSULB in 2006, Alexander served as president of Murray State University, succeeding his father. After helping his father and presiding over Murray State and then CSULB, Alexander said he feels like he’s been a president for close to 20 years.
“Not that I’m getting too old to do it, but when you tell someone you’ve been a university president for 13 years, they mostly think you are ready to retire,” he said.
The 49-year-old president said that although he will miss CSULB and the California weather, he is ready to take on the next challenge.
“I think they’ve had a series of struggles at [Louisiana State University], which always opens up a lot of opportunities, and certainly there are challenges, but I believe that with good people making good decisions about the right things, you sort of end up on the right side of issue,” he said.
As LSU’s president, Alexander will oversee four campuses, a law school and medical schools. He will replace Interim President of LSU William Jenkins, who earns a base salary of $425,000 and receives an additional $175,000 in supplemental compensation from affiliated foundations, according to Ernie Ballard, director of media relations at LSU. Alexander’s compensation will be finalized during an LSU Board of Supervisors meeting.
His selection, however, came with some backlash. LSU faculty passed a resolution of “no confidence” on the selection, referring to the conduct of the presidential search, including the LSU Board’s decision to not appoint faculty members who were not administrators to the Presidential Search Committee.
“Faculty were upset at the Board, so they fired that off at the Board,” Alexander said. “It’s not the first time. I don’t take it personally.”
Four days after Alexander’s selection, the Board also faced two lawsuits for its refusal to release the names of other applicants for the LSU president position. One of the lawsuits came from the editor-in-chief of LSU’s campus newspaper, The Daily Reveille.
Alexander said he wasn’t surprised the lawsuits were filed.
“This type of lawsuit is far more common than most people know,” he said. “[Some of my colleagues] have had Board members and others say, ‘Look, if you want to be somewhere else, you don’t need to be here,’ so it’s a difficult situation … Unfortunately that is the nature of higher education, the good and bad of it.”
Cloudy days at The Beach
While at CSULB, Alexander saw state financial support for the Cal State University fall. Since 2007, the 23-campus system has seen almost a billion dollars in cuts in state support. Alexander said such cuts have been hard for him and his colleagues.
“It does wear you down; it wears people down,” he said. “Within the last two years, I’ve lost about 11 of my colleagues. The ones who can retire say enough is enough.”
This year, however, the CSU system avoided a mid-year cut when voters approved Proposition 30. Gov. Jerry Brown’s budget proposal also allocated a $125 million boost to the CSU budget, although the May budget revision will be the next indicator of future CSU funding.
Alexander said he is optimistic for the future of CSULB.
“I would feel very bad if I were leaving when our campus was not doing well and was not doing nearly as well as it currently is,” he said.
Sticking to university life
In addition to his work on campus – which has even included pick-up basketball games with students – Alexander frequently travels to Washington, D.C. In 2011, Alexander was one of 10 presidents to meet with President Barack Obama to discuss college affordability.
Yet, despite his active role at the Capitol, Alexander said he doesn’t have any plans to get involved in politics.
“I like doing this,” he said. “There is great reward in seeing the optimism students have about life and the future. I can’t imagine surrounding myself with a bunch of grumpy people who don’t have that kind of perspective on things.”
Alexander said he hasn’t known any other way of life, having grown up in university towns and campuses, and following in the steps of a grandfather and father who both played major roles in education.
The move to Baton Rouge will allow Alexander to return to his Southern roots. The Kentucky native said he appreciates that the position will allow him to live closer to his parents, but there is conflict about the move among his three daughters.
“The only respect I get is from our lab, our black lab,” he said. “It’s quite humbling around my house.”
