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LBSU Reflects Its President
by Doug Krikorian, Long Beach Press-Telegram
May 13, 2007
He is walking on his university campus, and his expressive blue eyes
are alert and his youthful face framed by brown hair evinces a sense of
pride, as he coolly reflects on a variety of subjects pertaining to the
school for which he serves as president.
"Do you realize we have applicants from 61,000 people interested
in enrolling next fall - and we can only take 6,700?" says Dr. F.
King Alexander. "And we have 600 applicants for our Presidential
Scholarship Program - and can take only 50. Obviously, a lot of people
want to come here, and that says a lot about our school."
Alexander is escorting me around the 323 acres of gracefully laid out
grounds with its expanse of well-manicured lawn and its gaggle of eucalyptus
trees and its cement-lined quad areas.
His predecessor, Dr. Robert Maxson, often gave me the same tour, and both
men share the same exuberant enthusiasm for an institution that has been
on an upward arc under their leadership.
But their styles are different.
Maxson was an ebullient fellow who slapped hands with students, and would
give one the illusion of being on a first-name basis with almost all 36,000
of them.
While friendly and gracious without a hint of academic conceit, Alexander
is more reserved although just as passionate in his fondness for the school
as Maxson.
He takes me into the Stephen Horn building where there is an Academic
Advisory Service and a Learning Assistant Center and a Computer Center
and where there are a lot of young people staring into computers, or listening
to advisors.
"Students change their majors an average of two and a half times
during their time in school," he says. "This is a place where
they can come and receive advice on what they need to take to fulfill
their academic goals."
After visiting the Glen and Debbie Bickerstaff-funded Student Academic
Athletic Services building where numerous athletes are busy studying,
King Alexander shows me where the $65 million Student Recreation and Wellness
Center will be built.
"It's going to be a three-story, state-of-the-art place, and it's
going to be incredibly popular with the students," says Alexander
excitedly. "We had a new one at Murray State, and it was crowded
all the time. This one is going to have basketball courts and a weight
training room and cardio machines and handball courts. It's going to have
everything and we'll keep it open as late as the students want us to.
Probably at least to 11 or 12 o'clock. It'll be finished in 2009."
Of course, Alexander, like Bob Maxson, is athletically oriented, as the
one-time starting point guard at St. Lawrence University follows closely
the odysseys of all the sporting teams in school, including the club ones
not affiliated with the NCAA.
He even plans in upcoming days to get up at 5 a.m., and join the rowing
team for some strenuous exercise.
He participates in pick-up basketball games at the old Gold Mine twice
a week, including every Sunday morning.
"Can you still play?" I ask the 42-year-old Alexander, who's
lean and looks to be in shape and weigh less than the 185 pounds he says
that cover his 6-1 frame.
He considers me with a curious look and shakes his head slightly.
"You're going to have to ask the people I play against that question,"
he says humbly.
As we walk toward the library that is in the first phase of a three-tier
remodeling process that has already included the installation of a Starbucks
outlet, he points to the chemistry building.
"That whole structure is going to be torn down and a new one will
be built," he says.
King Alexander notes the various activities that are going on around the
campus - in one witnessed by a large group of laughing students, a couple
of ladies in inflated outfits resemble bumper cars at a carnival as they
are banging against each other inside a ring - and also notes the peaceful
aura that pervades among the ethnically diverse student body.
"If society as a whole could get along as well as our students do,
the world would be a better place," he says.
It is King Alexander's fervent goal - and he talks about it constantly
- to do everything possible to keep students on the Long Beach State campus
that also soon will have 2,000 new dormitory rooms.
"Long Beach State always has been known as a commuter school, and
we're trying to de-commuterize it," he says. "We're trying to
make it more student-friendly, keeping the library open on the weekends
and other venues on the campus open to keep the students here."
Alexander started his tenure on Jan. 4 of 2006, and I ask him what he
is proudest of during the past year and a half.
"Well, we've had a tremendous turnover of senior administration officials
- including two Vice Presidents - and I think we've been able to locate
some good new people," he says. "I think we've made some in-roads
into de-commuterizing our campus and all the widespread construction and
remodeling that's going on campus is a good thing.
"Our fundraising has gone from 26 and a half million dollars to 32
million. We still have to increase our endowments, but things are going
in the right direction."
Suddenly, King Alexander speaks of Bob Maxson in reverent tones.
"I'm just sustaining what Dr. Maxson started around here," he
says. "He's the one who got Long Beach State going in an upward,
positive direction. He fueled it, and I'm fortunate enough to be here
to drive it ahead."
Alexander remarried last summer - his first wife passed away six years
ago from cancer - and he and wife Shenette, her daughter Kyle, 11, and
his daughters, Savannah, 10, and Madison, 8, reside in a large home in
Park Estates.
There is recurring conjecture that King Alexander's stay in Long Beach
will be brief because of the many political trips he's taken to Washington
D.C., but he insists he and his family like it so much here that there
are no long-term plans to move to a different locale.
"I'll stay at Long Beach State as long as they want me," he
says.
He pauses and smiles.
"Anyway, Shenette likes it here so much that she has told me, `If
you leave, you'll be going without me,"' he says with a chuckle.
"So, obviously, I'm never going to leave."
King Alexander witnessed a sight the other day on the athletic grounds
at his school that stirred his passions.
"On one field, there was a cricket match going on," he reveals.
"On another, they were playing rugby. And on another there was a
soccer match. And I think there was a water polo match going on in the
nearby swimming pool. You love to see so much student involvement. This
is all part of the student experience, and I think the student experience
at our school is going well these days."
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