(Editor’s note: This is the last in a series of interviews about each of the four finalists under consideration for the presidency of Emporia State University. The stories give a look at finalists’ involvement in community activities in their home areas.)
Working to connect campus to community could have been a challenge for Dr. Kathryn Cruz-Uribe, provost and vice president for academic affairs at California State University, Monterey Bay.
Cruz-Uribe had been dean of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Northern Arizona University before joining CSUMB, located at Seaside on the Monterey Peninsula.
The university is part of Monterey County, with a population of about 425,000 people living in Seaside and its companion cities — Carmel-by-the-Sea, Del Rey Oaks, Marina, Monterey, Pacific Grove, Salinas, Sand City, Pebble Beach, Moss Landing, Carmel Valley, Big Sur, and Salinas Valley — and the area’s well-known tourist attractions, including redwood groves, Pebble Beach golf course and the scenery along the Big Sur coastline on Highway One.
Members of city and county organizations said in recent telephone interviews that Cruz-Uribe is an active volunteer, representing the campus on community boards.
“She and I sit on a variety of different steering committees throughout the community together,” said Mary Adams, president and chief executive officer of the United Way Monterey County in Monterey, Calif. “It’s a very diverse county. I think that Kathy does a great job of being out and interacting with the community.”
Cruz-Uribe’s off-campus involvements include two years’ service on the campaign cabinet for the United Way.
“So she works to help open doors throughout the community for additional new campaigns to be started for United Way, and then she also represents the university itself as a key player for the state campaign,” Adams said.
Adams said Cruz-Uribe also represents the university as part of the Monterey Regional Health Organizations — MORE Health — which involves three major hospitals, the Veterans Administration, senior-citizen organizations and other groups concerned with health.
“We’ve served on so many of these groups,” Adams said. “I would say that she does a great job of being out in the community. She has a very engaging kind of personality. She’s a warm person. People feel at ease with her. ... She makes people feel very comfortable.”
City Manager Ray Corpus said that he had worked with Cruz-Uribe on a few issues.
“She represents the university very well, very knowledgeable,” Corpus said. “... I think in most cases we do try to work together collaboratively. It’s in our interest to do that.”
Corpus said he came to know Cruz-Uribe through her working on behalf of the university on development.
“I think she does a good job,” he said. “I don’t know how many extra dollars she’s raised, or funds she’s set up. She’s a very good communicator for the university.”
Corpus said the university also sends its students into the community to connect with citizens through what he called an “awesome” service-learning program called “service learning.”
Corpus described Cruz-Uribe as a delightful person, a good communicator, and a person who gets involved.
“She’s trying not only to do the traditional things, but also makes sure she gets involved in the community, which is admirable,” Corpus said.