For incoming Cal State Fullerton President Ronald Rochon, leadership is about giving respect, not commanding it, he said.
Courtesy and inclusiveness, hospitality and humility are the pillars of his work, he said. They are values he learned from his family and mentors over the course of growing up in the Midwest and a 30-plus year career in academia, most recently leading the University of Southern Indiana campus.
“I believe in hospitality on steroids,” Rochon said in recent interview about his leadership style following the announcement he had been chosen to next lead the largest campus in the Cal State University system. “I believe in being polite. That is a value that I will never let go of.”
Simple acts — “extending an open hand” and “holding an open door” — are among the small ways in which he lets it be known to the people around him, he said, that they are invited into his circle and that their opinions are welcome on campus.
Rochon said he appreciates these tiny gestures on a large university campus because of his own experience as a first-generation college student — as an undergraduate at Tuskegee University and then a graduate student at the University of Illinois.
Rochon was intimidated when starting college, he said, “not even knowing what a credit hour was.” His parents had always driven him toward academic excellence, but since they did not attend college themselves, they couldn’t directly relate to his experience. He needed to find another support system, a home away from home.
That’s how his professors came to shape his life: one small gesture at a time.
“I will never forget how it felt to have professors and staff members across campus know my name and care about my well-being,” he said. “So, going into my role as a professor and then an administrator, it became overwhelmingly apparent to me that my calling would always be to focus on student success.”
Throughout his career, he has held to that conviction. His doctoral work at the University of Illinois was in educational policy studies. He wrote his thesis on African American college students’ attitudes toward identity, culture and curriculum.
When he and his wife, Lynn, move to Fullerton this summer, they will be new to California. But Rochon is no stranger to public universities.
He has held teaching positions at Texas A&M University, Washington State University and the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, where he made the leap to administration. From there, he served as the inaugural dean of the school of education at Buffalo State College in New York before spending the last 14 years as provost and, since 2018, president of the University of Southern Indiana.
He navigated USI through the pandemic and the hurt so many in its community felt after George Floyd’s murder. Plus, Rochon helmed USI’s transition to becoming a Division I school, a process that took multiple years and required significant fundraising for that university. Many USI affiliates, including faculty, students and administrators, initially opposed the move to Division I. But Rochon said he was glad to have a multitude of voices in the tent.
“The most importing thing was that we were transparent with every aspect of the data we found,” he said. “We wanted people to have a voice. We wanted alums and retirees to have a voice. All of this was extremely important for our university campus.”
“During his time at USI, Dr. Rochon has accomplished much, from academic growth and leading the university successfully through the COVID-19 pandemic to embarking on a new era of Division I athletics and continuing the physical growth of our campus, including the largest single capital appropriation in the history of the university,” USI Vice President for Finance and Administration Steven Bridges said in a statement. “We will certainly miss his passion for students and care for the entire campus community, but also know that he has left this institution in a strong position for the future.”
When Rochon begins at Cal State Fullerton on July 22, he takes on a mission close to his heart: serving a diverse population with a substantial number of first-generation college students. Half of Cal State Fullerton’s 41,000 students are Hispanic and around a third of them are the first in their family to attend college.
“Without question, serving first-generation students will be a priority for me,” Rochon said.
More details about his plans at Fullerton will have to wait until he’s had the chance to better learn the lay of the land and meet the people around him, he said.
“My methodology has never been to go into a community that has existed long before my invitation and come in with an attitude that I’m going to go there and fix something,” Rochon said. “When I get to Fullerton, I want to listen to people to find out what’s working well and what additional things we would like to see work better. I want to find out how we can better collaborate with one another. I want to be a part of building bridges with community.”
Cal State leaders chose Rochon for his commitment to student success and data-driven decision-making, officials said when they announced the choice during the campus’ recent graduations. But when asked directly why he is the right fit for Cal State Fullerton, the incoming president was too modest to pay himself compliments. The self-described “copious notetaker” pointed to his experience building networks with policymakers, CEOs and entrepreneurs, high school principals and counselors and local community members.
“I want to find out ways in which we can listen to those who have very prominent voices within the community and those who may be viewed as having a marginalized voice or a less often heard voice,” he said. “How do we raise a healthy volume of these voices together to uplift this entire institution?”
It’s an important question at a time when many universities appear factionalized by politics and divided over how to respond to issues around race, identity, labor and activism.
Ultimately, Rochon says his mission is to instill confidence in all the young people at Cal State Fullerton.
“You still run into students who, whether or not their parents went college, look at themselves in the mirror and, unfortunately, they do not see their worthiness. I believe it’s our job to make sure that they understand that they are not only worthy, but they truly do have the answers to some of the most complex questions that our nation and our globe face,” he said.
“I firmly believe that the next answer to disease control, the next answer to climate change, to racial strife, to creating the next big industry, resides within our classrooms,” Rochon said. “It an honor for me to engage with them, to push them, to listen to them and to also show them that at one point I was sitting in those same seats having the same kinds of doubts about my future.”
“It’s an honor to be before students who pay tuition to seek a degree to follow their dreams,” he added. “It’s an honor to do this work.”
