LOS ANGELES – California State University Chancellor Charles B. Reed announced Thursday that he plans to retire as soon as his successor is found.
Reed, 70, has led the nation’s largest public university system for the past 14 years, overseeing an expansion that added 100,000 more students and a campus in the Channel Islands.
Reed said he is particularly proud of his initiatives that have made higher education accessible to low-income, minority students.
“I take great pride in the CSU’s mission to serve California’s students,” he said, adding that he’s signed more than a million diplomas during his tenure.
Reed’s retirement was not unexpected, but comes amid a climate of tumult in the 23-campus system, caused by a loss of $1 billion in CSU’s state funding, approximately 35 percent of its budget. Reed has endured harsh criticism and campus unrest from students and faculty over resulting tuition hikes, enrollment caps and employee layoffs.
In the past few months, he’s come under particular fire for raising campus presidents’ pay at a time when the university has withheld a faculty salary increase specified by contract and raised tuition by 9 percent.
Reed has had to make difficult decisions, but has always been motivated out of a desire to do what is best for students, said Bob Linscheid, chairman of the board of trustees.
