Longtime Sonoma State University president Ruben Armiñana to retire

Ruben Armiñana, who left Communist Cuba as a child and went on to become the longest-tenured president of the California State University system, announced Monday that he will leave his post at Sonoma State University at the end of the academic year after serving nearly a quarter-century at the helm.

Arriving at the Rohnert Park campus in 1992 when it was threatened with closure, Armiñana has presided over a period of phenomenal growth at the institution, including a ninefold increase in the student body and an overhaul of the 269-acre campus into one of the most spectacular settings in the entire CSU system. The campus now draws prestigious artists and entertainers to the Green Music Center, the world-class concert venue which above all else may come to be viewed as Armiñana’s defining achievement.

Armiñana’s critics say the changes he has promoted have come at the risk of the university’s long-term fiscal health and at the expense of academic programs. But Armiñana on Monday dismissed that criticism in his typical blunt style.

“If you don’t have detractors, and you don’t have criticism, it means you didn’t do much. You didn’t push the envelope,” he said. “Therefore, I’ll take the sense of doing over the sense of inaction.”

Armiñana announced his plans to retire in muted fashion during a short speech he delivered to about 250 faculty and staff attending the university’s convocation ceremony at the school’s Person Theater. Armiñana’s wife, Marne Olson, sat in the front row.

Wearing a blue suit and tie, Armiñana, 68, discussed budget figures and highlights from each of the university’s academic schools. He then ended the speech by stating his intention to leave the university at the end of the academic year.

Armiñana noted that he is the CSU system’s longest-serving president, but not the oldest, a quip that drew laughter and a standing ovation from the audience.

“Nothing gives me more pride than when I am approached locally and nationally, even abroad, by an alum who happily and proudly tells me that he or she went to SSU and how great that experience was,” Armiñana said. “My eternal wish is that this expression continues for our present and future students.”

Armiñana said it was his decision to retire and that he is not being forced out.

“Absolutely not,” Armiñana said after his speech.

He cited his long tenure as a university president as factoring in his decision to step down.

“It’s time for fall,” he said. “The leaves are coming down.”

The plans come at the same time that at least two other long-serving CSU presidents at Chico and Channel Islands also have announced their retirements.

Armiñana said he should be remembered for changing the look of Sonoma State’s campus, improving academic quality and integrating campus life with the outside community. He pointed out that when he took over at SSU the student body was about 3 percent Hispanic. Today, it’s about 25 percent.

“The university got transformed and became recognized as an important asset to this community,” he said.

Deborah Roberts, chair of the school’s Nursing Department, said “a piece of the institution” will leave when Armiñana leaves.

Brandon Mercer, president of Associated Students, said he couldn’t ask for a better university president.

“He cares a lot about his students and thinks about them in every decision he makes,” Mercer said.

But his detractors say Armiñana did not raise academic standards enough and that he did not collaborate on important decisions.

“I’d like to say something positive, but I think it’s good he announced his retirement,” said Elaine Newman, professor of mathematics and statistics and a past chair of the Academic Senate. “I think he had a vision for Sonoma State, but I think it got derailed early on. He developed this adversarial relationship with faculty, and I don’t know where the blame lies with that.”

Longtime Armiñana critic Bob Karlsrud, a professor emeritus of history and dean emeritus of the School of Social Sciences, said he had “mixed feelings” about Armiñana’s planned departure.

Karlsrud said Armiñana likely has brought in more outside money for SSU than any other president of a similarly sized CSU campus.

“But that money didn’t go to academic affairs,” Karlsrud said. “It went to buildings.”

The campus has undergone a complete makeover during Armiñana’s tenure, with at least two buildings totally renovated and another seven built from the ground up, including the library and residence halls.

About 9,400 students, including the largest freshmen class in Sonoma State’s history, are scheduled to begin classes Tuesday.

“Did he leave the place better than he found it?” Karlsrud said. “I think the answer is yes.”

A university spokeswoman said Armiñana’s health - he underwent emergency surgery in 2009 after gastric bypass surgery left him with a bleeding ulcer - wasn’t a factor in his decision to step down. Armiñana appeared in good spirits Monday, talking with people as he exited the auditorium where the convocation was held.

His legacy, which is sure to be debated in his final year on campus, rests to a large degree on construction of the Green Music Center, which debuted in September 2012. The original plans, put forward in 1997, envisioned a $10 million choral auditorium. The finished venue, with 1,400-seat Weill Hall as its centerpiece, ended up costing $145 million.

As cost estimates ballooned, SSU faculty revolted, supporting by a margin of 73 percent a no-confidence vote in Armiñana, largely because of the diversion of resources to the music center. Armiñana at the time dismissed the vote, saying it was misdirected at him over state failures and also that it was partly fueled by racism.

As new fodder for Armiñana’s critics, it was announced Monday that the music center is operating at a projected deficit for fiscal year 2015-16 and that the university may have to increase its support to help overcome the shortfall.

The actual amount of the deficit is unclear.

Mercer, the student body president, cited in his speech a figure of $800,000.

Richard Senghas, an anthropology professor and faculty chair, said the university was being requested to make the “significant change” of providing funding for the center’s performing arts series to help bridge the shortfall in revenues.

“At the least, we need transparency in this process,” he said. “We also need meaningful faculty voice in the decision processes, which includes prior consultation.”

However, Larry Schlereth, the university’s chief financial officer and co-executive director of the music center, said later Monday the $800,000 figure was outdated. He said the center’s projected deficit now stands at about $300,000.

Schlereth did not dispute that the center’s directors are exploring different ways for overcoming that deficit, including allocating money from the university’s administrative accounts to directly support the performance series. But Schlereth made the case that all performing arts venues operate at a deficit within their first five years of opening.

“I don’t think it’s in any way a problem that’s insurmountable,” he said.

Schlereth also strongly defended Armiñana against his critics, calling him a “truly gifted administrator and a good friend.”

In 1961, Armiñana was one of 14,000 Cuban children who were taken out of post-revolution Communist Cuba in the U.S.-sponsored Operation Peter Pan. He went on to earn several degrees from colleges and universities in Texas and a doctorate in political science from the University of New Orleans.

Armiñana’s arrival at SSU in 1992 from Cal Poly Pomona, where he served as vice president of finance and development, coincided with declining enrollment at the Rohnert Park campus and talk of shutting it entirely amid a systemwide budget crisis.

“He brought the university back from the brink of closure when he arrived here 24 years ago,” said Carlos Ayala, dean of SSU’s School of Education. “He transformed the campus into the campus we have today.”

Ayala said the issues with the Green Music Center do not reflect poorly on Armiñana’s tenure, but that they are natural growing pains that can be handled by the incoming president.

The university has launched a national search for Armiñana’s replacement, with an announcement expected in spring.

Asked if he has any regrets, Armiñana cited his inability to implement four-unit curricula within all of the university’s academic departments.

“I cannot put that on my tombstone,” he said.

You can reach Staff Writer Derek Moore at 521-5336 or derek.moore@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @deadlinederek.