The California Board of Trustees announced Fresno State University President Joseph Castro as the new chancellor of the California State University system in a Sept. 23 CSU news release.
"I'm excited and honored to be the first California native and first Mexican American to serve as the chancellor of the California State University," Castro said during a Sept. 25 livestream on the CSU website.
Castro is also the first chancellor to be promoted to the position from inside the CSU system, according to a Sept. 23 Ed Source article.
According to the California State University website, the chancellor leads all 23 CSU campuses and is appointed by the 25 members that make up the CSU board of trustees. A majority of members on the board are appointed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom and serve eight-year terms while alumni serve two-year terms. The two student trustees are currently from Cal State Bakersfield and San Diego State University.
“Dr. Castro is a passionate and effective advocate for his students, his campus and the CSU,” Chair of the Board Lillian Kimbell stated in the Sept. 23 Ed Source article. “He is the right leader for the California State University in our current circumstance and for our future.”
Castro was nationally recognized for recruiting and helping students graduate from a diverse range of backgrounds, according to the Ed Source article.
The California Faculty Association welcomed Castro as the new chancellor and urged him to commit to to help students with issues of increasing tuition and fees, deficiency in classes, homelessness, food insecurity, racism, sexism, xenophobia, homophobia and transphobia on all CSU campuses, according to a Sept. 23 LAist article. LAist is part of Southern California Public Radio, which is a member-supported public media network.
“Black Lives Matter and racial injustice exists and I think the CSU has an opportunity to really lean in even more aggressively in addressing issues of inequality,” Castro said during the Sept. 25 CSU livestream.
Castro will be the eighth chancellor to serve the CSU system when he takes over on Jan. 4, 2021 from his predecessor Timothy P. White, who has held the position since 2012.
According to the California State University website, White has strengthened partnerships throughout California's diverse educational, social, political and economic landscapes throughout his eight years as chancellor. This included his establishment of promise programs, which are programs that offer college scholarships to recent high school graduates to cover up to 100% of tuition and fees at community colleges near CSU campuses.
Justin Lew, a San Jose State business junior, said White wasn’t ever on his radar.
“I didn’t know anything about the last chancellor,” Lew said. “So hopefully this time it’s different and [Castro’s] more present.”
Before Castro became president at Fresno State in 2013 he served in various administrative positions for 23 years in the University of California system as vice chancellor of student academic affairs. He also served as a family community medicine professor at University of California, San Francisco, according to the Sept. 23 Ed Source article.
Castro said in the CSU livestream that he’s dedicated to hiring more diverse faculty members and focused on supporting Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals students, no matter what happens in Washington, across all 23 campuses.
“It’s just so vitally important for women and men of all different backgrounds to be able to relate to their professor or their advisor in a way that’s authentic,” he said. “That inspires my leadership to want to change this in ways where we have a faculty that reflects the diversity of our students.”
Castro also said he is firmly committed to the Graduation Initiative 2025 goals, which are the CSU’s initiative to increase graduation rates for students while eliminating opportunity barriers and achievement gaps, according to the CSU website.
“It’s not just increasing graduation rates, it’s eliminating those gaps between underrepresented students and other students,” he said.
Castro said he plans on visiting all CSU campuses once the pandemic is over and he’ll be curating forums on social media to connect with students.
“I’m hopeful that I can inspire the very best in everybody so that we can go down that path and elevate the CSU to new heights of greatness,” Castro said.
