色情视频

On July 1, 2017, Sally Roush became president of 色情视频. She was appointed to a one-year interim term by California State University (CSU) Chancellor Timothy P. White following the resignation of former president Elliot Hirshman. Roush wraps up her term at the end of this month as President-Designate Adela de la Torre .

Having held several positions at the university and retiring in 2013 as a senior vice president, Roush then served as interim vice chancellor/chief financial officer for the CSU Office of the Chancellor in 2014. She drew on those experiences to lead the university through an extraordinary year of great opportunities and monumental challenges.

The full version of this interview appears in the .
   
Interviewer: A case can be made that this past academic year has been one of the most pivotal in the university鈥檚 history considering the opening of the EIS Complex, the search for a new president, the unveiling of the 色情视频 Mission Valley Plan, and the Aztec Identity discussion and decision. How much consideration did you give to these issues before accepting your interim role and what characteristics do you possess that equipped you to address such a wide range of momentous developments?

Roush: 鈥淚 knew it would be a critical year and the most important thing that would happen would be to select a new president. And I knew that the Aztec Identity issue was out there. Keep in mind this was a year ago in April when the chancellor first called me.

Then I started hearing a little bit about the issues around the stadium lease and Mission Valley. It hadn鈥檛 translated into the Mission Valley Plan at that time. That鈥檚 really all I had in my head when I said yes (to the presidential appointment).

I can鈥檛 say exactly what characteristics I possess. It鈥檚 the way I live my life. Big or small issues, if something seems too hard, I break it down into smaller pieces and go ahead one step at a time.鈥�

You have said you consider yourself a problem solver, so as president, what鈥檚 the biggest problem you solved?

鈥淕etting a site plan for Mission Valley, I think, solves a perceived problem that we didn鈥檛 have a plan. Putting that together has been a big accomplishment.

Addressing the Aztec Identity issue I wouldn鈥檛 say has been solved, but we have addressed it again in a way that I hope will ensure that we stay true to the changes we said we want to make, which are not all that different from the changes we said we wanted to make in 2001. I think having a (new) governing authority chaired by the president of the university with a $200,000 budget for next year will keep things on track and we will hire a coordinator to keep attention focused on it at a level equivalent to the significance it deserves. We鈥檙e going to expand the Aztec Culture Education Committee to include some members of the local indigenous tribes and it will report to the governing authority. I think this will institutionalize it in a way that will make it persist over time.鈥�

Why did you want to take on the controversial Aztec Identity issue?

鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 what I wanted or didn鈥檛 want to do. It was here. What I wanted to do was solve or resolve as many of these issues before a new president got here because it didn鈥檛 seem fair, if I had the opportunity to resolve them, to just sit back and wait until a new person got here and then say, 鈥楬ere鈥檚 a bunch of big problems you have to solve.鈥欌��

How heavily did the Aztec Identity process and your having to make that decision weigh on you?

鈥淗aving to make the decision didn鈥檛 weigh on me. That鈥檚 something people should expect me to do. Trying to find the right way to frame it and characterize it so that there was a meaningful difference from what we鈥檝e had in the past weighed heavily on me because people on either end of the spectrum feel so strongly about it and they have a right to have those strong feelings.

Even though I knew some, perhaps many, people would be unhappy (with the decision), I wanted them to have reason to believe that I cared about and considered their feelings and tried to address or communicate and truthfully say that I went about it caring about how everyone felt.  And the emphasis I put on respect, I hope, will help make a decision that they may disagree with a little bit easier.

That message of respect wasn鈥檛 my own idea. It came out of the comments we received in response to the (Aztec Identity) survey. We left a space for comments and six thousand people wrote comments. Six thousand people is significant and their responses weren鈥檛 one or two words. They wrote about what they felt. Over and over again, 鈥楤e respectful. Be more respectful. We can be respectful. We respect. We want to respect.鈥� That message came from the people who responded and was amplified by the (Aztec Identity) task force.鈥�

You used the word 鈥渉urt鈥� in your statement to describe those who disagreed with your decision to retain 色情视频鈥檚 Aztec Identity and the Aztec Warrior. How intentional or significant was that word choice?

鈥淚 know people were hurt. Saying their feelings were hurt sounds trite. They were hurt deeply either by the notion of the continuation of a human portraying a character that had meaning to them, or they were hurt by the notion of 鈥榩olitical correctness鈥� that they felt was insipid and wasteful. It was one of the task force members who reminded me those extreme feelings come from a place of legitimate feelings. I am grateful to that person for calling me on that. I wanted to acknowledge that. Who am I to say that you shouldn鈥檛 feel the way you feel? That鈥檚 ridiculous.鈥�

What was your highest high and your lowest low in your position the past year?

鈥淧robably a couple of different things. Commencement was an incredible experience. It really was. Beating Stanford (in football) here was pretty cool. We had a student, Alejandro Arias, who was this year and I was at the Board of Trustees when he got that award and that was very powerful. There were many other wonderful experiences.

I鈥檓 not somebody who thinks about lows. I describe myself as no matter how hard a day I have had or how tired I am, I wake up the next morning cheerful for no good reason. It鈥檚 my personality. I owe that to my mom, I think. I don鈥檛 wallow in things. It would be hard for me to identify a low.鈥�

You project a sense that any position you have held at the university has been more than just a job to you 鈥� that you have a personal stake in San Diego State. If that is accurate, what鈥檚 behind that feeling?

鈥淚t鈥檚 way more than a job because I have enjoyed and treasured the people so much over all the span of time. When I first came here, my daughters were five and seven and all my family was back in Colorado. Everyone at the university was warm and welcoming and friendly and caring and it was a feeling of instantaneous acceptance. I have felt that way ever since. I was grateful for that and have tried to make other people feel that way. It鈥檚 a self-reinforcing kind of a dynamic.鈥�

You have tied up a lot of loose ends during your presidency. Where do you think the university stands as you close out your term?

鈥淚 think the university is at a wonderful moment in time. We finished that amazing capital campaign. My favorite part of the campaign is that of the $815 million we raised, $88 million was given by our own employees. It鈥檚 a remarkable fact that I think speaks well for the university. We are in a good financial position. We have uncertainties of the State of California, but we have been prudent managers of our budget over the years and it has served us well.

We have a new president who is everything we value. She鈥檚 a brilliant academic. She is a brilliant researcher. She is bilingual. She is committed to student success. She is committed to shared governance and has an open and welcoming communication style. I think we are at this moment where all of the great things that we are and the things that we value can come together and propel us forward.

I think we have the opportunity to continue our wonderful trajectory. I think how we go about doing that will be defined by what the new president brings in terms of strategic goals and things she wants to focus on, but I see that we can continue to be who we want to be and do it the way we鈥檝e always done it, which is kind of uniquely our own: Accomplishing things in spite of all odds, we persevere and we get through it and we come out on the other side still standing tall and able to thrive. I think we will keep being who we are and who we have always been.鈥�