Contributing Writer
This July will mark the beginning of a new chapter for California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) as Jane Close Conoley will officially step in as its first female president, and the seventh president overall in CSULB’s 65-year history.
The selection of Conoley as the new president of CSULB by the California State University (CSU) Board of Trustees came as a surprise even to Conoley.
At the time the position opening was announced, she was not considering applying for the job. Conoley, who is currently serving as dean of the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), said the position typically would be awarded to someone who is or has been a provost or president. But after CSU Chancellor Timothy P. White had called Conoley personally to recruit her, she knew it was an opportunity that she needed to explore.
“Recruiting me for this was somewhat of an unusual pick,” Conoley said. “Usually you go for another president or somebody who’s been a provost, but [White] took the chance on recruiting me based on what I had accomplished at [University of California, Riverside] (UCR).”
Part of why Conoley was so potent a candidate for president was her ability to fundraise. She has advocated for research money with members of Congress and different agencies in both Washington D.C. and Sacramento.
During her eight months as interim chancellor at UCR, she gained a commitment of $15 million per year toward UCR’s medical school so it could upgrade from a two-year program to a four-year one. She also increased multimillion-dollar endowments while at Texas A&M.
“Since I became dean at Texas A&M, fundraising has taken up half my time,” Conoley said. “To be a successful fundraiser, you have to know what the strengths of your school are.”
Conoley said that she is unable to elaborate on her plans for CSULB but instead said that her primary focus will be on student success, as well as maintaining the CSU’s mission to increase the number of graduates through access to education.
“This will be fabulous opportunity for me because [CSULB] has been doing great things for the last 10 years,” Conoley said. “The last two presidents have been remarkable in terms of establishing a specific identity for the school and its focus on student success.”
Conoley came from humble beginnings. She and her three siblings grew up in low-income tenement buildings in the Bronx. She attended Mount St. Ursula, an all-girls Catholic school, until she graduated high school. She then enrolled at the College of New Rochelle in New York, where she played basketball and earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology.
She continued her education at the University of Texas at Austin, where she earned her doctorate in psychology and met her husband, Collie Conoley.
After she received her doctorate, Conoley began working in both higher education and clinical psychology. Conoley said that the experience of working in a clinical environment was beneficial both in her career and as a communicator.
“I went to psychology school, so I’ve been a therapist; I generally know how to talk to people,” Conoley said. “You know that really helps you understand both your strengths and your limitations when you’re dealing with people.”
In higher education, Conoley has worked at several universities, including Texas Woman’s University, University of Nebraska at Lincoln, Texas A&M University and, most recently, University of California, Santa Barbara. She said that ultimately her draw to Long Beach was its diversity as well as its central location in Southern California.
“Cal State Long Beach is renowned for its quality, diversity and global mission, and it is an honor to be selected as the university’s next president,” Conoley said. “This is a vibrant university that plays a key role in Southern California, and I embrace the opportunity to work with the outstanding students, faculty, staff and Long Beach community to reach even greater heights.” Â
Conoley will replace CSULB interim-president Donald J. Para, who has had the position since June 2013. Para succeeded F. King Alexander, who left the campus last June to become president of the Louisiana State University system and chancellor of Louisiana State University A&M.
