Vernon B. Harper Jr. held the first President’s Open Forum of 2024 on Feb. 6 to introduce himself to the campus community and share his goals for his interim presidency.
“I am humbled to serve as your interim president,” stated Harper. “I consider this place my home… I have found no place like CSU Bakersfield.”
While Harper has been a part of the CSUB community since 2016, he is new to the role of interim president. Harper replaced President Lynnette Zelezny on Dec. 31, 2023, and will remain in his appointed role for a year, while the CSU board of trustees conduct a search for the sixth permanent president of California State University, Bakersfield.
During the forum, Harper discussed that his main goals for his presidency were the completion of the Graduation Initiative 2025 and the 5-year strategic plan.
Dr. Thomas D. Wallace, Vice President for Student Affairs said, “they are realistic goals.”
“There are things that when you’re serving in the interim role you want to make sure that you maintain the momentum that we have, but also look to move us forward.” Wallace said.
Dr. James L. Rodriguez, Interim Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs says that his initiatives are “aligned with the goals that President Harper shared.”
One of Harper’s goals for his time in presidency is to oversee the completion of the Graduation Initiative, or GI, 2025. The GI 2025 was launched by the CSU in 2015 with the mission of increasing graduation rates, eliminating equity gaps in degree completion and meeting the needs of California’s workforce, within a 10-year time frame.
“It was a CSU led initiative where all 23 universities were given targets that we were to meet within that time period, concluding in 2025,” said Wallace.
“I’d like to make a prediction, that our graduation rates will continue to climb, and more Runners than ever will walk across the commencement stage in triumph,” said Harper.
Eliminating all equity gaps for underrepresented minorities is another objective of the GI 2025, given to all universities.
“They want the equity gaps for the underrepresented minorities population to be at zero, they also want the equity gaps for those who are Pell eligible to be at zero,” said Wallace.
Dr. Rodriguez says that they are working to finish strong regarding GI 2025 and that the primary focus of academic affairs is addressing equity gaps.
“We are going to work with great intentionality, with a sense of purpose, and sense of mission in regard to addressing those particular gaps,” said Rodriguez.
Although Harper describes the GI 2025 as “one of the most ambitious programs in the history of college education.”
Wallace said that CSUB is committed to continue to work “to try to get those equity gaps to zero.”
Another goal Harper has is the completion of the CSUB strategic plan. The 5-year strategic plan was launched in 2019 by Zelezny and is on route to be completed by 2024.
Wallace said that the strategic plan consists of five goals, each being coached by a faculty member and a cabinet member, and each consisting of its own strategies.
He said that to monitor how they are doing, they give the public “where we are, what we’ve been able to do relevant to what those strategies were, with each of the goals.”
Rodriguez affirms that the work for the strategic plan will continue and that, “this work is critical to our institution.”
“I think we have reached many of the goals that are listed within the plan,” said Wallace.
The process of evaluation of the strategic plan will be over the spring and summer. There will be a celebration ceremony to close the strategic plan and then it will be launched by the permanent president.
Wallace said that the strategic plan was to serve as a blueprint for the future president so that they are aware of where CSUB stands.
“These are things, again that we are doing to bridge the gap between one president and another president and so you don’t want to have things that are unrealistic because it might not align with where the new president wants to go,” said Wallace.
