Even with 42 years of experience in higher education under his belt, Interim President Donald J. Para said becoming Cal State Long Beach’s next president was never part of his plan.
“My ambition was not to leave the institution as [an interim] president,” Para said. “Things just kind of happened, and there was a need, and I put my name in, and I was selected. So I served.”
Para said he did not apply for the presidential position because it was too much of a commitment at this stage of his career.
“When you come into a position like this, in my opinion, you have to at least make a five-year commitment,” Para said. “That means I’d be working until [the age of] 71 or 72, and I just couldn’t make that kind of commitment.”
Para said that he had informed former CSULB President F. King Alexander that he would retire sometime in 2014.
Para, who has been at CSULB for 26 years and worked in higher education for 42 years, started his career at Western Michigan University as an associate director. He gradually made his way to CSULB, where he was offered the position of music department chair.
After serving as chair of the music department for 12 years, Para held a number of other positions before finally becoming provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, a position he held for three years.
“Frankly, when I started in a university, I didn’t even know what a provost was,” Para said. “My ambition was to be a good faculty member and write some good music and teach responsibly.”
After 14 years in the music department, Para said Alexander asked him to serve as interim provost. Following a national search, Para was named provost.
Three years later, after Alexander left, CSU Chancellor Timothy P. White asked Para to act as CSULB’s interim president.
“Dr. Para’s deep roots in the [CSU] system, and his unwavering advocacy of academic excellence at the Beach, made him a natural choice to lead the campus through a period of transition,” White said. “He drew from his background as a CSU faculty member to bring forward multiple innovative initiatives as provost and interim president … He will be greatly missed in retirement.”
Para said that each president before him has left a mark at CSULB.
“I don’t think I have a legacy. I think we have a legacy as a campus,” Para said. “A mission and focus on student success and our graduation rates — that’s part of our legacy.”
Alexander, who is now system president of Louisiana State University and chancellor of LSU A&M College, said that Para excelled in the multiple positions he held at CSULB.
“The real measure of how effective [Para] has been as a provost and interim president is that [CSULB] has never seen or enjoyed as high of graduation rates in its history,” Alexander said. “No one thought we would hit 60 percent [graduation rates]. Para had … everybody engaged in that topic, and he did an outstanding job in helping our students understand the full value of why they are there.”
Though Para is retiring, his involvement with the campus won’t end abruptly, he said.
“I’ve committed to making the transition with the new president as smooth as possible,” Para said. “That is, I’ll be around to help them as long as he or she wants me to.”
Para said that no matter who fills the presidential position, CSULB as a university will continue on as it has for years.
“In my opinion, CSULB has never been a personality-based institution; it’s a mission-based institution,” Para said. “There hasn’t been any kind of revolution when new leadership has come in. [The new president] will make their mark on the campus, but the evolution of the campus will continue along the same path it is on now.”