Cal State Names New Chancellor: Mildred García, Previous President Of Two CSU Schools

On Tuesday, California State University trustees announced they’ve picked Mildred García, a longtime university administrator, to be the 11th chancellor of the 23-campus university system.

Garcia’s selection caps a search process that lasted over a year.

“It was a daunting task to identify an individual who embodies those ideal qualities to lead the nation's largest, the most diverse and its most consequential university system,” said board chair Wenda Fong.

Who is the new chancellor?

García previously served as president at both CSU Dominguez Hills and CSU Fullerton. She has most recently been president of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, an interest group representing 350 state universities and colleges.

Garcia becomes the third person of Latin American heritage to lead CSU, and the first Latina. Chancellor Tim White's parents were Argentinian; Joseph Castro talked at length about how being Mexican American shaped his world view. García said her Caribbean heritage also shaped her work as an educator.

"I am a first-generation college student, a Latina, a Nuyorican who accepts her blackness... my parents came from Puerto Rico to Brooklyn with five of their seven children."

Quoting bell hooks, García promised to be open and vulnerable so that people could see the lens through which she sees the world.

"My parents said to us — the only inheritance a poor family can leave its children is a good education," she said. "I live by that today and I have worked my entire career to help all who enter our doors reach their highest potential."

Why did she take the job?

García applied for and took the job, she said, because CSU is the largest public university system in the nation and its graduates are in many professions across the state and the country.

“To me it was an opportunity to be part of a trajectory of change, to demonstrate to the nation that we will educate the students,” Garcia said in an interview with LAist. “Because without these students getting educated, it means our cities and the state will hurt."

Garcia has been president of AASCU since 2018.

“I had a president in the middle of the country that called me and said, 'Help me understand how there's a whole new Latino population coming into the middle of the country, help me understand how to go to that community.' That's what our institutions have to do — you need to transform yourself to the communities you serve,” she said.

How much will she be paid?

García will earn a $795,000 yearly salary, with $80,000 in deferred compensation, a $1,000 monthly car allowance, and $8,000 monthly housing allowance, according to CSU.

Three years ago CSU Chancellor Joseph Castro negotiated a $625,000 yearly salary. Interim Chancellor Jolene Koester made the same.

The day before Garcia’s appointment, CSU students and employees protested outside CSU headquarters in Long Beach, saying that top executives are overpaid.

“It's the board of trustees that approved the salary that they deemed to be appropriate for the level of compensation,” Garcia said in response to the criticisms.

“There are others making much much more,” she said. A review by The Chronicle of Higher Education shows that at least 21 other public university officials make more.

What's her biggest challenge?

In one word: money. Trustees met Tuesday to discuss several budget items and other matters.

A $1.5 billion funding gap, detailed in a May report, looms large over trustees. The new chancellor, several trustees made clear, is being brought in to face that problem and solve it.

“When the new chancellor comes,” said Board of Trustees Finance Committee Chair Julia Lopez, “one of the priorities is we set a five-year plan, however long it takes, a plan to bring our revenues and our cost in line … we can't keep every year being further behind.”

A plan to increase tuition to help close that gap faced criticism by students, faculty, and even some trustees on Tuesday.

Enrollment problems

After years of enrollment growth at CSU, the system is now facing a troubling trend. It lost tens of thousands of students in the last couple of years.

The pandemic and other factors are contributing to the drop. The state’s massive community college system faced larger enrollment decreases during the pandemic as COVID-19 forced many blue-collar community college students to leave their studies to focus on jobs and family.

Tens of thousands of students transfer from California community colleges to CSU campuses each year — in other words, fewer community college students, fewer CSU students. There have been signs that community college enrollment is starting to stabilize, though.

Campus presidents make most of the executive decisions for the campuses, but the enrollment drops affect many campuses, making it a problem for the CSU’s chancellor to address in some way.

Sexual assault in CSU system

An independent report in May found that sexual assault policies were deficient and recommended a series of overhauls. On Tuesday, trustees said those improvements should be a priority for the new chancellor. The previous non-interim chancellor, Joseph Castro, resigned in the wake of allegations that he improperly managed sexual harassment claims while president of Fresno State.

“We need to make our campuses as safe as humanly possible,” said CSU Trustee Jack Clarke at Tuesday’s meeting. “We heard from consultants that the Title IX function in this university was not even optimum or close to optimum,” and that’s going to take money, he said, to improve the policies and practices at the 23 campuses.