EWU president search: Monroe Gorden Jr., UCLA vice chancellor of student affairs, first EWU president candidate to visit campus

The public vetting process began Tuesday for the four finalists vying to become the next president of Eastern Washington University.

The first of the four, Monroe Gorden Jr., met with members of the EWU campus communities in Cheney and Spokane on Tuesday during an itinerary that included meetings with university leadership, public forums and building and campus tours.

Gorden, vice chancellor of student affairs at the University of California, Los Angeles, is in the running to become EWU’s 27th president along with Interim President David May; Dr. John Tomkowiak, founding dean of the WSU Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine; and Shari McMahan, provost and vice president for academic affairs at California State University, San Bernardino.

As his fellow finalists will in the coming days, Gorden took part in open forums at the Showalter Auditorium on the Cheney campus and the Catalyst Building in Spokane. Public feedback is due no later than 5 p.m. Friday.

Here is a look at some of the questions Gorden fielded during the forum in Cheney:

Athletics deficit

Though EWU’s athletics department is facing a $3.4 million deficit for the 2021-22 fiscal year, the school is not the only one financially struggling in this arena.

UCLA’s athletics department has reported a $62.5 million deficit for the 2021 fiscal year, with revenues down due to fewer games and lower attendance levels, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Gorden referenced UCLA’s shortfall in speaking from experience when asked about EWU’s athletics deficit.

One of the options offered to EWU’s Board of Trustees for filling the $3.4 million gap is to use unallocated institutional financial aid, which can be used for various programs – such as need-based aid or academic financial aid – or can carry over into next year.

Gorden, asked what he would propose to use that money for, said it’d be “premature and a bit reckless” for him to propose a solution to EWU’s issues.

In approaching the issues, however, Gorden said he would make sure to bring stakeholders together to strike some sort of balance.

“I think however we look at both shoring up different kinds of budget deficits as well as thinking about growth, there needs to be buy-in from the constituency and the community across the board,” Gorden said. “If you don’t have buy-in, it really doesn’t matter what measure of success that you’re trying to engender. It’s just not ultimately going to work well in the community.”

Diversity

Diversity, equity and inclusion is a concept, Gorden said, that “permeates every aspect of who I am.”

Gorden said he is a chair on UCLA’s Gender Recognition Act Task Force, a group that looks at modifying systems to accommodate nonbinary and trans students, and helped start the Black Bruin Resource Center, the university’s first Black student campus hub. He also was involved with hiring of Martin Jarmond, the first Black athletic director in UCLA history.

Particularly with the Gender Recognition Task Force, Gorden said he has sought to go above and beyond state law requirements in making the campus welcoming for all.

Asked about how to approach addressing broader faculty diversity, Gorden said institutions – higher education or otherwise – first have to take accountability and responsibility for how they got there in the first place.

“When we look at accountability institutionally, I think really what we’re saying is that we’re open and we’re willing to really tell the facts about how we got there,” he said, “but we’re also all in it together to figure out how we’re going to move away from where we are.”

Why EWU?

UCLA is an extraordinarily large university, Gorden said.

And while Gorden observed this with no disrespect meant to UCLA, he said “it’s very easy for people to get lost.”

“I’m very familiar with it,” he said, “but I still feel lost at times with it.”

In considering the EWU job, Gorden said he was struck by EWU’s “sense of community and, dare I say, family,” commenting on the university’s work and outreach with first-generation, federal Pell Grant and Native American students.

“There are so many areas where, as I read the profile and got to know the campus, where I just felt this is a remarkable place that will provide an opportunity for me to be a part of a community that would be tangible for me,” Gorden said.