Hikes in student fees worry CSULA administrators and faculty members because they are all too aware that such changes can prove detrimental to the education prospects of the students they have embraced. Says Dr. Herman Lujan, the CSULA provost since 2001, “Here, we reach out and embrace the community and go to where they are. Our recruiters go to the high schools. Our faculty go to the community colleges and high schools to recruit.”
Lujan, who is of Hawaiian and Hispanic background, says he was drawn to CSULA because it demonstrated a commitment to communities of color that he had not experienced as an academic administrator in Washington state, Colorado and other places he had worked.
“People of color are in fact the source of the next generation of leaders, and so we have to be sure that minorities and persons of color are in the leadership-oriented programs,” Lujan says. “Now’s the time to groom the next generation of leaders. The challenge to do that is significant.”
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