Startup university

Last year, at the California State University Channel Islands President’s Dinner, an annual black-tie fundraiser for the school, University President Richard Rush was thrilled to see a number of students in attendance, working as hosts and hostesses and also dancing and chatting with guests. “They were dressed to the nines,” he explains while sitting in his neatly furnished but modest office on campus. “I mean drop-dead gorgeous.”

But it wasn’t their shiny shoes, their neatly manicured fingernails or up-dos that really impressed Rush. Rather, it was their early departure from the party. Not that he wanted to see them go, of course. “I asked, ‘Why are you leaving so early?’ ” says Rush. “They said, ‘Because we promised we’d go to Relay for Life.’ ”

So, like Cinderella before the stroke of midnight, a few of the students slipped out of the party, changed into sweat pants and sneakers and spent the rest of the night walking a series of seemingly never-ending laps around the football field at Camarillo High School to raise money for the American Cancer Society. Rush stopped by to visit the students the next morning at 7 a.m. When he found them, they were soaking wet after trudging along for hours through an extremely misty night, but their spirits were high. “So on the one hand, you get them all glammed out and on the other, they looked kind of like wet sheep dogs,” says Rush almost beaming. “But, still, there they are, giving …”

It’s moments like these that stand out in Rush’s memory, because they are proof that the goals he set out to accomplish, when he was hired in June of 2001 to create from scratch a four-year, public university in Camarillo, are already coming to fruition. The students aren’t just becoming more educated people; they are becoming more complete people, the kind of people who see the relationship between their educations and the world around them — the kind of people who feel a sense of civic duty — simply put, the kind of people who give. That, according to Rush, is the purpose of higher education in the 21st century: preparing students, in an interdisciplinary fashion, to be civic-minded contributors to their community.

Rush, who was born in New Jersey but raised in Los Angeles, has a very specific and comprehensive understanding of what it takes to create a university that produces those kinds of students. Not that he ever necessarily planned to make a career out of it. After earning his bachelor’s degree at Gonzaga University, Rush went on to pursue a doctorate in English Renaissance literature from University of California, Los Angeles. At that point, he assumed he’d be a professor for the rest of his career, but after only a short time in the classroom at San Diego State University, it became clear that the future wouldn’t be that straightforward. He was either elected or appointed to a number of committees and, after a short departure from the academic world into the public sector, he was recruited by San Diego State to build their off-campus center in North County San Diego. Shortly thereafter, he was asked by the president if he could demonstrate the need for a full university and so, with the vice president for finance, he put together a plan for what would become California State University San Marcos.

Rush served as vice president in charge during site selection and program establishment at CSUSM and, later, as executive vice president with responsibilities for accreditation, academic programs, student affairs, finance and administration, and fundraising.

He was then recruited by Minnesota State University, Mankato, and spent nine years there as president before being called back to his home state to begin the process of building the 23rd and newest campus in the California State University system.

In June of 2001, while there had been a planning group to acquire the university’s site and give initial direction to the curriculum, Rush was the only true employee of CSUCI. His first orders of business were to hire the entire faculty and administrative staff, direct the creation and development of the university’s academic and physical master plans, and plan the budget and financial structure — a seemingly daunting list of tasks that didn’t faze Rush for a moment.

“Probably now, having started two [state universities], I’m probably the most experienced person at starting these. And my staff at San Marcos said, upon my appointment here, that they thought I was smart enough not to do it again, but, I guess not …,” he says, smiling.

In casual conversation, Rush comes across as a calm, incredibly articulate and intelligent man, with an endearingly almost-goofy sense of humor. It’s no wonder the students have lovingly nicknamed him P. Rush (drawing a playful comparison between their president and rap-mogul P. Diddy). He’s no suit — he gets the joke and appreciates it. But, when it comes to the integrity of the university, he’s as serious as it gets.

“None of us came here to be mediocre; we came here to be great,” he says.

And to be great, according to Rush, there were a few things he had to insist upon from the get go. “When I looked around to see what was in the community, what we needed to do,” he explains, “there were four building blocks, and my colleagues have agreed with me on this.”

Those four building blocks were, in no particular order: a strong science department to prepare a workforce for the biotech and high tech firms in the area (Amgen, Baxter, etc.), a comprehensive fine and performing arts department to complement the quality and quantity of grassroots arts in the area, a strong teacher education program and a strong business department.

On a less tangible level, Rush insists that the most important things the school is doing for its students are encouraging civic engagement efforts (CSUCI students raised more than $10,000 dollars to aid Katrina victims last summer) and consistently providing interdisciplinary experiences so that their studies are connected to real life, not sheltered in an educational bubble.

Many of the beautiful buildings that are now CSUCI were built in 1932.

Into the future

Although CSUCI’s first freshman class will graduate next June, the university is still the definition of a work in progress. There are so many plans on the horizon, Rush is almost winded after trying to list them.

For instance, Rush explains that they are planning on introducing performing arts in the fall. But, because the school does not currently have a venue for performing arts, they will also have to begin looking into the prospect of raising money to build a fine and performing arts complex. And, in order to do all of that, new faculty will need to be hired, which will necessitate the construction of more offices. “I means, it just keeps going,” says Rush, laughing. “It’s one domino after another and they’re all related.”

But, again, he doesn’t seem too fazed. There are plans for athletic programs next year (which will eventually lead to the construction of a sports complex) and new residence halls. But this is all part of the process of building a great university — one that benefits its students as well as the community. Which, according to Rush, is the whole point.

“I guess it would be my goal that, when a student graduates from here,” he explains, “he or she will say, ‘That was the best decision I’ve made so far.’ ”