'Uniquely Unique'

It was about 40 minutes in the forum held at Cal Poly Humboldt’s Van Duzer Theatre to allow a California State University presidential search committee and a group of locals comprised to advise them to hear input from the campus community on who should become the university’s next president.

Both committees had already heard from nearly a dozen folks, almost all of whom had urged them to prioritize candidates with backgrounds in the classroom and strong communications skills who respected shared governance and have a deep understanding of the local area, when political science professor John Meyer approached the microphone. He told the committees’ members, all of them sitting behind lines of tables on the theater’s raised stage, that he’d been at Cal Poly Humboldt for nearly 27 years.

“I’ve been here long enough that this is the fourth presidential search process that I’ve witnessed, and my brief observation is that every time we go through this process, we look for a president who corrects for some of the faults of the previous one,” Meyer said. “So, you are no doubt, not just in the comments so far this morning but in general, going to hear a lot about the need for effective communication, about the need for respect for shared governance and, above all else I think, we’re hearing about the importance and the need for someone who’s willing and able to listen. But honestly that’s a low bar.”

Those things, Meyer said, shouldn’t have to be said. Yet they were, repeatedly, throughout the nearly two-hour forum, underscoring Meyer’s point that conversations about an institution’s future are often deeply rooted in its recent past.

Tom Jackson Jr., who stepped down from the presidency this summer after five years helming the university, retreating to a tenured professor position, was only mentioned by name a couple of times by the several dozen people who addressed the committees at the Oct. 10 forum, but his tenure loomed large in their comments. Jackson, the university’s eighth president, helped see what was then Humboldt State University transition into the state’s third polytechnic institution, a transformation accompanied by an investment of more than $450 million in state funds. But Jackson’s tenure was also tumultuous, with his administration making a series of decisions — including reviving a student housing project that had been scuttled in the face of community opposition, evicting students living in vehicles from campus and making comments some saw as an attempt to silence survivors of sexual assault and harassment — that caused deep fissures on campus.

Seemingly adding to the frustration that grew with Jackson’s tenure was his perceived invisibility, with students and staff alike lamenting that he rarely attended university meetings, events and performances, was seldom seen on campus and rarely responded to emails. Things then boiled over very publicly in April, when Jackson’s administration directed police to clear pro-Palestinian demonstrators from Siemens Hall, leading to a violent confrontation with officers and what would become an eight-day occupation of the building, the closure of campus and moving commencement ceremonies off campus.

CSU Chancellor Mildred Garcia appointed Michael Spagna as CPH’s interim president for this academic year, and he has so far gotten positive reviews from many on campus — his tenure will not extend beyond this year. The committee is tasked with conducting a national search to find Jackson’s successor, who will be appointed prior to the 2025-2026 school year.

Several people attending the Oct. 10 forum noted that it was a first, that prior CSU presidential searches had not taken this step to gather campus and thanked Garcia and the committee for the opportunity. At least two also noted that when tapping Jackson for the job, a prior CSU presidential selection committee had ignored the input of a local community advisory committee, urging this committee not to make that same mistake.

Michihiro Clark Sugata, an associate professor of sociology, urged the selection committee to “value the input of these incredible” people who serve on the advisory committee, which includes student, staff and faculty representatives, as well as local community members.

“Please heed their advice and listen to them about what we need,” Sugata said. “They know what we need, because they are a part of our community.”

In his brief comments, Sugata stressed that Cal Poly Humboldt stands apart from the rest of the CSU.

“Each campus is unique, but we are honestly by far the most — we are uniquely unique,” he said, noting that CPH is the most rural and most isolated of the 23-school system. “If you get a toothache here, you should expect to drive three hours to Redding. If you injure yourself severely, you will get on a helicopter to get proper medical attention. These are our daily lived realities.”

Some speakers stressed that given those realities, the university has an outsized impact on the community around it.

English Department Chair Lisa Tremain reiterated the request that “the voices of those representing this place and who know this place are deeply, deeply considered.”

Maxwell Schnurer, who chairs the Communications Department and has been on campus for almost 20 years, asked that the committee prioritize someone who is ethical and skilled in listening, someone from an academic background who puts students first.

“I would ask that this leader, if possible, be deeply informed in the culture and history of Cal Poly Humboldt, this county, this place, the lands, the rivers, the mountains,” Schnurer said. “That’s really difficult to ask, but I want to say it anyway. Please consider this space and the unique nature of it when seeking this next leader.”

The committees also heard from Rouhollah Aghasaleh, an assistant professor in the school of education who had just returned from a temporary suspension received after becoming the only faculty member among the almost three dozen people arrested as a part of the protests last spring. (The Humboldt County District Attorney’s Office declined to charge Aghasaleh in the case, and they have maintained they were only on campus out of concern for students’ safety.)

Aghasaleh, who voiced their excitement for being “back in my home,” told the committees the bar for Jackson’s replacement has been set low.

“On the one hand, the former president, in whom the general faculty had no confidence, has set the bar so low to the extent that if we get a president who appears on campus in the flesh and doesn’t send gangs of police to give our students concussions, we will get excited,” Aghasaleh said.

On the other hand, Aghasaleh said they would like to see someone who is an educator not a commander, a “shared governance hero,” someone who is “one of us.”

“We don’t need a corporate figurehead who only shows up for ribbon cutting ceremonies and commencements,” Aghasaleh said. “We need someone who looks like they belong here, not someone we would mistake for an investment banker at a shareholder meeting.”

Michelle Williams, an executive assistant at CPH, spoke a bit later in the forum and indicated she agreed with everything previous speakers had said. She added that she’d like to see a candidate prepared to carry through the transition to a polytechnic, including everything from oversight of large-scale construction projects to implementing hands-on learning programs. She then addressed what she called the “elephant in the room,” noting the university will likely face a $13 million budget deficit in the 2025-2026 school year due to state funding cuts.

“Although we do not want to run education like a business and we are not customers, we need to make payroll, and we need to keep the lights on,” she said. “So, revenue and expenses matter … this president is going to have to be very wise and strategic in dealing with a very serious budget crisis in 2025-2026.”

While faculty, staff and community members comprised a majority of those who addressed the committees, they did hear from some students, as well. Eduardo Cruz, the legislative vice president of Associated Students, was one of the first speakers of the day.

“We need a president who will foster a community where students feel heard, supported and engaged,” he said. “Our next president should be more than a decision maker. They should be a visible and active presence in our campus life and community, attending events, engaging in conversations, and mending and building those relationships with students, faculty and staff.”

Thadeus Greenson (he/him) is the Journal’s news editor. Reach him at (707) 442-1400, extension 321, or thad@northcoastjournal.com.