Mar 11, 2016 7 min read

The nation is focused on the presidential race this year, but California University of Pennsylvania has a presidential selection process of its own going on.

Three candidates will be meeting with faculty and students in the coming weeks, and the process apparently won’t be clouded by no-confidence votes by faculty against top university administrators.

Interim President Geraldine Jones, who has named to her post in May 2012, is among the candidates. Vying against her for the state school’s top post and visiting the campus this month will be Dr. Ralph Rogers, provost and executive vice president of academic affairs of Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Dr. Guiyou Huang, senior vice president for academic affairs, dean of the faculty and professor of English at Norwich University, Northfield, Vt.

In accordance with a process outlined by the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, a series of meetings with the candidates will take place. Jones is scheduled for Tuesday; Rogers, Thursday; and Huang, March 24, at the performance center in Natali Student Center.

Meetings with faculty members will be held from 11 to 11:40 a.m. on each of the days, followed by meetings with students from 11:50 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.; Cal U. staff, 1:40 to 2:20 p.m.; and alumni and community leaders, 4:30 to 5:10 p.m.

Those who attend the forums will be given information and a link to an online survey. There also will be a short period to complete an anonymous survey, which will be seen only by consultants from RPA Inc., an executive search firm and consultant based in Williamsport, Lycoming County.

News of the candidates’ vetting arrived just before the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties California University chapter decided Friday to postpone a no-confidence vote that was scheduled to begin Monday on Jones, Cal U.’s council of trustees and three vice presidents.

Barbara Hess, APSCUF’s Cal U. chapter president, noted in a news release that 239 full-time faculty members have agreed to continue talks.

“It’s our hope that we will be able to resolve some longstanding issues,” Hess said in the news release from APSCUF about a meeting with administrators Friday morning.

Washington County Commission Chairman Larry Maggi, a California graduate and president of the university board of trustees, said Friday afternoon of the no-confidence vote, “I was disappointed to see that in the middle of a presidential search. I’m certainly happy and satisfied that they’re postponing it while we’re going through this process.”

APSCUF, he said, “has a seat at the table for the presidential search.”

The school furloughed 16 nonunion employees and eliminated another 14 positions through attrition in 2014. Another seven nonunion jobs were cut in January as the school grappled with a deficit that reached $5.4 million that month.

Here is background on the candidates:

Jones was named acting university president of California University of Pennsylvania after PASSHE fired Angelo Armenti Jr. She was named interim university president the following year. She graduated from California State College in 1972 with a bachelor of education degree, beginning her career in education as a second-grade teacher in the Albert Gallatin School District, Uniontown, Fayette County.

Jones returned to California in 1974 and earned her master’s degree in education at California in 1980. She served as program director for Upward Bound for 20 years and as chair of the department of academic development services for 11 years. She was associate dean of the college of education and human services for two years before serving as the college dean from 2000-08, when she was named provost/vice president for academic affairs, a position she held until being appointed as acting university president.

During her interim presidency, there have been several developments, including the university’s 2015-2020 Strategic Plan; the university’s first doctoral degree program, the doctor of health science; a new system of shared governance; the Center for Undergraduate Research to enhance and expand faculty-led research in all three undergraduate colleges; winter college; the military tuition program, which exceeded its first-year enrollment goal by more than 50 percent; and nine new academic programs in high-demand areas since the 2012-2013 academic year.

She serves as a board member on local and regional community organizations, including the Washington County Community Foundation and the Washington County Chamber of Commerce.

As the chief academic officer for Nova Southeastern University, Rogers oversees the quality of instruction and research at the university by working with deans, departmental chairs and other vice presidents, addressing issues such as academic quality, effective planning, management and program reviews. Rogers helps ensure the quality of the faculty by administering and overseeing procedures and criteria for faculty appointments and promotions and working conditions. He monitors the quality of student learning by overseeing the curriculum while encouraging and coordinating initiatives in undergraduate and graduate education. Additionally, the provost is responsible for overseeing academic and budgetary planning and priorities.

New academic initiatives also created a new Honors College and the College of Engineering and Computer Science, which included establishing a new innovative general engineering program. Earlier in his career, he was founding dean of the College of Technology and Computer Science at East Carolina University, where he led the college in doubling enrollments in four years and the creation of the school’s first engineering program, as well as new online masters’ programs in software engineering and construction management.

At Old Dominion University, he spearheaded the creation of a CD-ROM-based distance learning master of engineering management program for U.S. Navy nuclear officers at sea. He has also served on the faculty of Ohio University, Rio Grande (Ohio) University and Community College, and Piedmont (Va.) Community College. Before his academic appointments, Rogers worked as a civilian project engineer for the U.S. Navy, as well as senior consulting engineer for Booz-Allen Applied Research. He has received more than $12.5 million in research awards as a principal or co-principal investigator. Rogers earned his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and master’s degree in industrial and systems engineering from Ohio University. He received his Ph.D. in systems engineering from the University of Virginia.

Huang has been in his current position since July 2010. Previously, he was dean of Biscayne College of Liberal Arts and dean of undergraduate studies and programs at St. Thomas University in Florida. Huang was also honors college director at Grand Valley State University in Michigan; and director of university honors program and chair of the English department at Kutztown University, one of the 14 campuses within Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education.

He has taught a range of courses in American literature and literary theory in universities of the United States and China, including at Kutztown and at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania; Peking University; Texas A&M University, where he also worked for the scholarly journal, “South Central Review”; and Qufu Normal University, a public institution in Shandong, China, where he also directed student affairs for three years. He has written and edited more than 10 books on Asian-American literature.

Huang served on the College Board’s SAT Critical Reading Test Development Committee. His board memberships include the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and the Vermont Council on World Affairs.

California University had originally planned to host four candidates, but one dropped out.