Although coming off a successful fundraising year of $43 million, the second highest in Fresno State’s history, Fresno State President Joseph Castro emphasized the challenges of balancing a budget and still delivering on the campus-wide goals he and his cabinet hope to achieve.

In a one-on-one interview with The Collegian on Monday, Castro reflected on his first year in office and discussed his plans for the future of Fresno State — a campus in which he envisions academics and athletics boldly rising together.

Yet with hurdles such as a stagnant graduation rate and recent NCAA rulings straining athletics, Castro is confident change for the better can be instated. With three new vice presidents and other staff changes, the president conveyed excitement for the year ahead and the continuous growth of Fresno State.

Recapping your first year, what were some highlights?

It was a great first year. I had a chance to get to know a lot of people and understand the culture at Fresno State better. We also had many significant accomplishments.

We launched the DISCOVERe Program — we’re about ready to launch that in a few days. We moved forward on some important work with agriculture and lots of others things I’d be happy to talk to you about today.

What about some learning curves? Is there anything from your first year you’re really going to take into your second year?

Well, I think it’s a big job and it’s certainly a challenging job. But it’s also very gratifying and meaningful. I love that it’s all of that together, which is a really exciting mix.

I think I’m just going to continue what we’re doing. It’s important to listen carefully to everybody’s views and to do that before I make decisions, so I’ve been trying to do that and I’ll try to continue doing that.

Last year also saw a pretty good year of fundraising — $43 million.

Yeah, we had a great year. As you might know, Dr. (John) Welty had a very successful, comprehensive fundraising campaign that ended right before I arrived. They exceeded their target, and raised about $214 million for that campaign.

Usually what happens after a campaign is everyone takes a deep breath and then you see a little bit of a lull. For us, actually, it turned out to be very different. We raised more money in 2013-14 than we did the year before — significantly more.

It was a very good year. It was actually the second best year in our history and it’s exciting because I feel like we’re just getting warmed up here, and I think we’ve got a bright future in that area.

What kind of factors do you think made it such an increase from the previous year? I was at the faculty assembly this morning and heard it was a 64 percent increase.

Yeah, about 64 percent. I think we’re very fortunate. We have a lot of alumni — 200,000 alumni — and then we have a lot of friends who care deeply about Fresno State and that makes it easier, when you have lots of friends who care. Our job is to inspire them and to share with them all the great things that are happening at Fresno State and the kind of things that can happen with their help, whether it’s expanding an existing program or creating something new.

We’re expanding the Concert Hall, for example, with help from the Assemi family. Dr. Bill Lyles is making an enormous 25-year commitment to Fresno State for the College of Engineering. And then there are other gifts from individuals, from companies, from foundations. One of the great things as president is that I get to meet these very generous people who care deeply about Fresno State. And I think it’s for all those reasons, as well as really talented staff and deans and inspiring students. All that together is what contributes to success.

We have a new vice president coming; she’s arrived now — Paula Castadio. ­I have so much confidence [that she], along with this team, are going to take us to that next level. I’m very optimistic about what’s happening there.

With the introduction of the three new VPs in your administration, what do you think they’re going to bring to the table that you didn’t have previously?

Well, they each bring unique gifts to the table. Frank Lamas for example, he’s a nationally recognized expert in student success, and he’s been asking a lot of great questions in these early weeks. You know, “Why are we doing this? Why are we doing that?” And I think it’s really healthy to have those kind of questions. He’s really pushed this “FresWow” program, which is a way of making sure we welcome all of our students to campus in an effective way and demonstrate to them that we want everyone to have this strong sense of belonging.

Dr. (Lynnette) Zelezny has been here many years and has earned tremendous respect from our faculty, and that’s so important to have in that provost role as a chief academic office. To have that respect, credibility and experience, she’s going to really help us build on the work Dr. (Andrew) Hoff and I started last year. She was his associate provost, so she’s ready. One of the things I love about her, among many things, is that she relies heavily on “best practice” research to guide her perspective. So we all have our own opinions, but she’s really reminding us what the research shows in this or that area. I think we can all be confident that the work she’s going to lead in academic affairs is grounded in the research literature.

And then Paula Castadio, this is someone who grew up in the Valley, who has graduated from Fresno State — like Dr. Zelezny — and who stayed here and worked for decades at Valley PBS. I met her out in the community and I was very impressed with the work she had done to advance that organization, and I don’t think there’s anyone who’s more passionate about education in her area than Paula. I think she’s going to bring that energy to our campus. I’m really excited about all the great things that are going to happen under her leadership.

Moving onto the tablet program, this is starting in the coming days. Must be exciting to finally see it happen…

It is. Thursday is a big day.

The main question I have about that is, with this being the first semester this is happening, how do you plan to monitor its success rate and whether students are responding well to the program or not and this style of learning?

It’s very important that our students succeed in this program. We have taken every step that we could think about to ensure their success. We’ve been going through all these trials to make sure we’re ready for this launch. We’ve been pushing ourselves to ask, “What are some of the things that we really need to focus on?”

We’re going through the whole process that they’re going through and making tweaks wherever we can. Our faculty is ready — they’ve been going through professional development for the last several months. They’re very excited. I’ve seen some of the material produced and it’s extremely impressive. We have examples of courses that have been relying primarily on textbooks that will now be using similar content that’s available through video or other kinds of materials, such as journal articles on the web. They’re creating iBooks, for example, that are free of charge.

We’re seeing some incredible innovation occurring, and one of the other powerful things that will happen is that students will have this tool 24/7. They can do their work at whatever time, day or night, wherever they are. A lot of our students are commuting from small towns around the Valley. They’ll have that tool no matter when they need it, and I think that’s going to be one of the huge benefits.

Looking ahead, we want to make sure our students are well prepared for the changes that are happening in society. I was just at a farm last week in Fowler — one of our alumni owns the farm with his father. We went and there was a guy inspecting table grapes. He was one of our alums, and he was using a tablet with an app to assess the quality of the other alum’s fruit. I thought, what better example of what we’re trying to accomplish here than that, and I think that’s just one example of many out there we see, you know. Doctor’s offices, restaurants and rental car agencies all over the place. So I want to make sure our students have that preparation for the changes that are occurring in our society.

Do you think midway through the semester there’ll be any review of the program? Are you going to talk to students?

The review is constant. We actually have a group that meets every month, and then subgroups that meet more often on different aspects of the program. We have a team of professors and administrators who are assessing the program, as well, and giving us data continuously.

What we know is that Latino students seem to be disproportionately represented among this sample. We already have a large Latino population at Fresno State, but the tablet program actually has a larger percentage. At least that’s one early indication of interest there, and then also a lot of first-time freshmen — over 70 percent of students in the program are freshmen. So we’ll keep track of all that and make sure that our students are being served well.

I know this program is part of your wider goal of increasing graduation rates and focusing on student success. Can we expect any new programs being outlined or introduced this coming year?

I think it’s possible. … We have two different student success groups right now and I want them brought together into one working group. Their charge is going to be, “How do we accelerate our student success here at Fresno State and, for example, how can we increase our gradation rates by 20 percent over the next decade?”

Is that something of a figure goal that you have?

Yes. I challenged our deans and provosts at the retreat and we talked about how that line has been flat for many years, and I don’t think that we should accept that.

I understand why it exists, and I know that it’s going to be really, really hard. But I don’t think that’s a good excuse for us to just continue to allow it to happen. So the question is going to be, “What do we need to do to make extraordinary progress? What actions are we going to need to take? What policies might we need to change? What practices might we need to modify so we can make extraordinary progress?”

So the two [groups] that are leading that and every single dean is going to be involved. I’ve asked the senate to have this as one of their priorities for the year, so I’m urging them to have conversations about what individual faculty should be doing, what the Academic Senate should be doing. The student body, ASI, they know this is important and I’m going to urge them to get involved as well. My feeling is that if we’re all focused on this, we can make very good progress.

I believe there will be some new initiatives and there’ll be some existing ones we strengthen and expand. Again, if we use Provost Zelezny’s research-based “best practices” approach, which I think is appropriate here, we’ll be making the right investments.

A program you mentioned this morning in your Fall Assembly speech was a new program for students who are food insecure. Could you elaborate on that?

Sure. Well, I can’t sit here and talk about student success and then not do something about that. Our students, 30 percent of them, appear to be food insecure. And that’s a study that was done by one of our former students who is now on faculty. It was a very compelling study, so I’ve asked Vice President Lamas, as well as my wife Mary and Associate Vice President Debbie Astone to come together with others and develop a plan. Debbie has this role of overseeing all of our auxiliary enterprises, including residential hall dining facilities, the stores, restaurants, our Gibson Farm market and our farm. We have a 1,000-acre farm that grows a bunch of stuff, so we have assets and a lot of great ideas.

We’ve been talking about this since I arrived, but I want to stop talking about it. I want us to really hone in on some actions we can take that will supplement some of the things we’ve been doing outside the campus, things like Bulldog Pantry, which we’ll continue to support — and that’s been mostly for community members who have this need. Very few students use the Bulldog Pantry, so what we need to do is create a safe place for students to go, where they can get what they need and move on and do the work they need to do.

You know, when I was growing up and I’d leave home, my parents would put stuff in the bag and I’d take it with me, and I still do that with my children. It’s just the same idea — that we’re taking care of our Bulldog Family.

I have a few questions about the proposed student success and athletics fees that were brought up last year. I know last semester that you extended that timeline so that the earliest possible fees would be fall of next year. Heading into this year, what can we expect of the direction it’s going to head into?

There will definitely not be any fee put in place in 2015. The governor has essentially directed all of us to take a pause on these fees, so the CSU system is going to look at all of these fees and come up with possible new policies, we don’t know yet. There’s a group that the chancellor has put together to look at that.

What does that mean for Fresno State? The needs are still there. The pressure that we have to enhance and accelerate student success is still there. The different kind of pressures in athletics to continue to compete at the highest level, those are still there. Infrastructure issues are still there. So we’ll have to figure out some other ways to address those needs in the short term. And then as other options become clear in the medium term, then we might look at those. I think that the fee increase idea is something that for now is being tabled, but because of the significant needs in all these areas, I don’t want to say it’s tabled forever.

It may come back at some future date, and we would do what we were going to do before, which is have a full campus conversation about these issues before any kind of increase would take place. And, of course, that conversation would include everyone — students, faculty and staff.

Moving into athletics, can you tell me a bit more about Thomas Boeh’s shift in position from Athletics Director to being a special advisor? What kind of responsibilities will his new role include?

First of all, Thomas did a great job for the past nine years. I think he did what he was asked to do when he was hired. Our athletic programs are run much more effectively now than when they were then. We are winning with integrity, and that is really the most important thing — that we win with integrity. I believe we need fresh leadership in this area as we look into the next chapter for athletics.

As you know, there are many changes occurring throughout the NCAA that result in significant financial pressures for all institutions. The good part of this is more support and benefits for the student-athletes. That’s the really good part.

The challenging part is that some institutions will be able to do those things, and some will not. I want Fresno State to be well-positioned in continuing to serve student-athletes well and compete at the highest level. What that will mean is that we will need to be as smart and as adept as we can, using the resources we already have in place.

And then, we’re going to need to invest more. We’re going to need to invest more campus funds as those are available, and we’re going to need to ask our friends more than ever for help. Our alumni and friends, they’re very excited about what’s happening. We had highest GPAs in our history of student-athletes last fall, all these championships, we have great coaches, great players and I’m really proud of what’s happening there, and I want to take it to that next level.

Thomas’ new duty I think plays to his core strength. He has a really good feel for what’s happening at the policy level with the NCAA, with the Mountain West, and I’ve asked him to advise me on a regular basis about what’s happening out there and how that will affect the future of Fresno State and what sorts of things we might need to do differently in the future.

With these recent NCAA rulings, what are some new challenges that emerge for a university like Fresno State to still be competitive?

Again, the good part is that these are focused generally on more support for student-athletes. So more money, higher stipends they can get, more leniencies about what they can eat. So in addition to getting their three meals in the residential halls, which we do now, the policies will allow for special dinners or breakfasts or snacks. Things like that are great for the students.

But some institutions are going to be better able to do those faster than others. So we’re looking at all those different changes, you know, flying parents to bowl games or flying them in for recruitment visits, those types of things. We’re looking at all of those and trying to figure out which of those we can do effectively and phasing those in when we can’t do it immediately.

It’s a complex picture, but we’ll be guided by that principle that we want to be competitive at the highest level and we’re going to do our very best to invest the resources needed for us to be successful.

Now that you’re in a search for a new athletics director, what kind of timeline are you looking for that?

We’re going to choose a search firm in the next week or so, and then we’ll get the committee together, I hope, later this month. If everything goes well, we’ll have the committee charged and working with the search firm in September.

I would like to have a new athletics director on board as early in 2015 as possible. That’s what we’re going to shoot for and, depending on who it is, they might need a little bit less time or more time in the transition — so we’ll see how that goes. I want to also get some input from our communities within athletics and from our alumni on what those important characteristics are in the next athletic director so that before we finalize a job description, we get that input. It won’t take a long time, we’re talking a few weeks here, and then get the job description out there and find the person who we believe will help us get to that next level.

I know you said you’re going to get input from alumni and people within the athletics department, but what are some personal attributes you want to see from the new athletics director?

Well, I think for me, one general one I’ve applied across all the vice presidents that we’ve selected is they all, of course, have to have the technical skills. But then in addition to that, they need to have the emotional intelligence skills, as well, with everyone. Whether it’s their colleagues on the campus, alumni, students, friends out there, we’re going to need someone out there who can do all of that very well.

Someone who’s flexible in terms of the changes that will be taking place and then ready to flex to deal with those kinds of things, and who’s used to working under a situation where we have some constrained resources. We’re going to invest more, but we’ll need to work very smart. Someone who understands all of that.

Just a question about faculty pay. I know you’ve announced you’re going to be supporting a salary-equity program and this morning you said $1.2 million had been allotted in this year’s budget. Could you explain that a bit more?

We’re waiting for final word on an agreement between the faculty association, the CFA, and the CSU. They’re meeting today (Monday) and tomorrow (Tuesday). My hope is that this will result in an agreement that will then be ratified by both sides. And that will include a campus discussion to have an equity program, in addition to what they decide to do.

So we’ve set aside money that will be there in the event we can have a campus-equity program, and that will be to deal with some of the inequities between salaries in our institutions for people who have comparable jobs and skills and years of experiences.

Lastly, is there anything you’d like to add, anything you’re looking forward to most this year?

I’m really glad the students are back. I love the energy that exists on the campus when you’re all here and I’ve been looking forward to this day since May.

Welcome back!