New CSULB Pres. to Speak at Convocation

The new Cal State Long Beach President Jane Close Conoley will address the campus community at the 2014 Annual Convocation on Friday, Aug. 22, at 9 a.m. The annual event, which marks the beginning of the new academic year, will be held at the Carpenter Performing Arts Center and is open to the public. It will be President Conoley’s first convocation address.

The event is an opportunity for faculty and staff to become acquainted or reacquainted and usually draws several hundred individuals in anticipation of the upcoming academic year. Traditionally, presidential topics for discussion have been the successes of the university in the previous academic year and plans for the upcoming one.

Fifty-eight new faculty will also be starting this academic year and will be recognized during the ceremony. Also during the ceremony, Provost David Dowell will introduce the president and the incoming class of President’s Scholars, which includes three valedictorians from Long Beach area high school.

The President’s Scholars Program, which is funded through donations, was created in 1995 in an effort to bring valedictorians and national scholars from California high schools to CSULB.

The California State University Board of Trustees selected Conoley, who began her new duties in July, in January. She is the first woman to be appointed president of CSULB and the seventh president overall in the 65-year history of the campus.

Immediately prior to coming to CSULB, Conoley served as dean of the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB).  She also served from November 2012 to August 2013 as the interim Chancellor of UC Riverside.

regions: Los Angeles

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