Leroy Morishita, former Chief Financial Officer at San Francisco State Univeristy, has replaced outgoing President Mo Qayoumi as CSUEB’s interim president.
As President Qayoumi moves on to San Jose State University, Leroy M. Morishita comes across the bay as the new Interim President of CSU East Bay.
Morishita’s previous position was the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at San Francisco State University for the last nine years.
Through his 29 years working in various positions at SFSU, he has expanded the campus and worked to incorporate green and sustainable elements for the school.
Morishita first moved up to the Bay Area from the farm he grew up on in Fresno—after his father pushed him to be anything but a farmer, according to his profile—to pursue his undergraduate degree from UC Berkeley and then his master’s from SFSU. He received his doctorate in University Management from Harvard University.
He has an impressive resume, not only acting as a Commissioner for the Western Association for Senior Colleges and Universities since 2007, but also being active in the Asian community, acting as Chair of the Board of Trustees for the Institute of Buddhist Studies in Berkeley, and serving on several boards, including the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association.
Morishita’s experience implies that he is right in line with President Qayoumi’s legacy.
Qayoumi approved funding for much of CSUEB’s facelift projects, improving dangerous walkways and landscaping across campus. Beautification of the school was a priority of his.
What could have been Qayoumi’s biggest change to CSUEB, the effort to make the school science, technology, engineering and math—or STEM—centered was scheduled to be in full effect within the next five years.
The switch to being STEM-centered was not entirely well received, as non-STEM majors worried that their major would be cut or given less funding, but Qayoumi approved the shift regardless.
With Qayoumi moving 30 miles south, it is uncertain whether his STEM plan will go with him or if the next president of CSUEB will continue in another direction.
While getting a new president can be an exciting time for a university, CSUEB students have been in turmoil over consistently raised fees and other consequences of the steady budget cuts to the CSU system.
Morishita was announced as the new Interim President on April 18, and was in fact visiting CSUEB during the second wave of the Class Action faculty protest that took place that day.
Students urged the resignation of CSU Chancellor Reed while also targeting President Qayoumi’s reign.
Students have been protesting budget cuts by targeting CSUEB administration for over a year. Showing no signs of slowing down, the new Interim President has his work cut out for him, until legislation favoring higher education satisfies the students’ demands.
Though the position is currently temporary until a permanent president is chosen, Morishita joins 22 other Presidents from the various CSUs, which currently consists of mostly white males and only four women.
He is the only current Asian-American President of a CSU.
