Last week, the three finalists for the position of CSU East Bay’s Vice President of Administration and Finance and Chief Financial Officer hosted a forum to speak and meet with students, staff and faculty, hoping to persuade attendees why they are the best candidate to lead the school’s budget and finances.

Students and members of the administration and staff gathered Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in the Biella Room to hear each candidate present his or her qualifications, examples of issues they have tackled at previous jobs and to assess the next CFO for the university.

In such a problematic time for budget and finances in the CSU system, many administrators and students expressed they were evaluating each candidate carefully, knowing the person hired will hold a very powerful and influential position at their institution of learning and profession.

The three final candidates are Bradley Wells, CSUEB Interim Vice President, Administration and Finance and Chief Financial Officer; Karen Wall, Associate Vice President, Administration and Finance for CSU Dominguez Hills; and Jeffrey Kingston, Vice Chancellor of the Chabot-Las Positas Community College District.

The position of VP for Administration and Finance and CFO provides primary support to university leadership in identifying, obtaining and allocating the resources needed to achieve the University’s mission and the goals and objectives of the University’s strategic plan.

The VP for Administration and Finance presides over various campus departments including athletics, facilities development and operations, Student Health and counseling Services and University Police, among a few others.

According to Linda Dalton, Vice President of Planning, Enrollment Management, and Student Affairs and Chair of the Search Committee for the recruitment of this position, the campus community has the ability to provide written feedback to administration through the open forums as to which candidate they felt would be best for the position.

The committee will meet this week and provide a report to the president, and Dalton anticipates he will make a decision “shortly.”

Each candidate’s answers were roughly concordant, each expressing their desire to use their skills and experience in finances to advance the economic growth of the campus.

Wells, the incumbent, emphasized the fondness he has gained in his past six months at CSUEB.

“I haven’t encountered one person resistant to working with me […] and without a question it’s been a great positive experience, that is a very attractive quality to an institution,” he said.

Wall used an example in her work with student services, establishing the technical process by which working with academic affairs, student financial services maintained the drop process for non-payment until shortly after the beginning of the semester, but still allowing faculty to add students and bypass certain restrictions so students who really needed a class for graduation could be added regardless of payment or technical error.

Kingston was noted by one member of the audience for the solar paneled parking lots in the Chabot-Las Positas Community College District, saying she both “envied and admired” his creative initiative for sustainability and smarter ways of designing campus parking.

Wells added if an alternative option to parking should ever arise, a decision should be made “in a way that solicited active engagement with the campus community.”

“I tread cautiously with regard to parking because it’s one of the areas that provides capital money that we otherwise don’t have access to, so that’s my underlying bias,” said Wells.

One student present commented she came because she thought it was important to see who the potential candidates for the commanding position are, as well as hoping to have a voice in the process.

“It’s pretty democratic, even on a large scale, maybe my opinion of these people could sway the choice one way or another, and I think it’s cool I have the option to do that,” said Business major Tiffany Jang.

Jang, as well as the many administrators present, said they will be looking to the coming weeks to see how their online feedback on the candidates shaped the final appointment for the position.

“I know students generally don’t attend these things though, but I didn’t let that stop my curiosity,” said Jang.