The search is underway for Cal Poly Humboldt’s new president.

The California State University Board of Trustees is holding an open forum to kickstart the process October 10 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Van Duzer theater on Humboldt’s campus. There’s also a virtual option available.

The board wants people to show up and share what they want the new president to be like. There’s also a survey for thought-sharing as well.

Interim president Michael Spagna took over after the previous president, Tom Jackson, resigned in July. The new president will be announced in March 2025 by the Board of Trustees.

Press release from Cal Poly Humboldt:

The California State University (CSU) Board of Trustees is beginning the search for the next regularly appointed president of California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt (Cal Poly Humboldt). Michael E. Spagna is currently serving as interim president.

The first meeting of the Trustees’ Committee for the Selection of the President will be held in a hybrid in-person/virtual open forum from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on Thursday, October 10, 2024, in the Van Duzer Theatre on campus. During this time, the committee will outline the search process, and the community will be invited to share their preferred attributes of the next president of Cal Poly Humboldt.

The open forum will also be live-streamed and archived on the Cal Poly Humboldt Presidential Search webpage, where individuals may also provide their input via written submission.

Pre-registration is not required to attend and provide comment in person. However, campus and community members wishing to address the committee through the virtual option are required to register in advance on the president search webpage. The deadline to register to speak virtually during the open forum is Tuesday, October 8, at 5 p.m. Confirmed registrants will receive details about how to participate.

CSU Trustee Leslie Gilbert-Lurie will chair the committee. The other trustee members include Larry L. Adamson, Lillian Kimbell and Anna Ortiz-Morfit, as well as Trustee Chair Jack B. Clarke Jr. and CSU Chancellor Mildred García.

Board policy requires the CSU trustees chair to appoint an Advisory Committee to the Trustees’ Committee. The Advisory Committee is composed of representatives from the faculty, staff, students and alumni, as well as a member of a campus advisory board, all of whom are selected by the campus’s constituency groups. Also on the Advisory Committee is a vice president or academic dean from the campus, and a president of another CSU campus, both selected by the chancellor. Both the Trustees’ Committee for the Selection of the President and the Advisory Committee to the Trustees’ Committee function as one unified group.

Members of the Advisory Committee for the Selection of the President include:

• Daniel Barton, department chair and professor, Department of Wildlife, and Marissa Ramsier, professor, Department of Anthropology (faculty representatives)
• Carmen Bustos-Works, associate vice president, Academic Programs and dean, Undergraduate and Graduate Studies (administrative representative)
• Mara Kravitz and Wysdem Singleton (student representatives)
• Soraya M. Coley, president, Cal Poly Pomona (president representative)
• Betty Chinn and Virgil Moorehead (community representatives)
• Bella Gray, student placements and community engagement specialist, College of Professional Studies (staff representative)
• Daniel E. Sealy (alumni representative)
• Miles Slattery, President’s Advisory Board representative
• James F. Woglom, chair, University Senate

Over the next several months, the committee will review candidates and conduct interviews, with the announcement of Cal Poly Humboldt’s next regularly appointed president made during the CSU Board of Trustees meeting in March 2025.