Alex Gonzalez Jr., who has previous experience in fund raising for nonprofit organizations, was hired late last month as an associate director of development, said Carole Hayashino, CSUS vice president of university advancement.
He is part of a team of fund-raisers who will "build relationships with prospective donors to the university," Hayashino said.
President Gonzalez declined to comment, saying only, "I have nothing to do with it."
CSU policy allows immediate family members of university employees to be hired. The CSU nepotism policy prohibits managers from deciding personnel matters such as promotion, tenure and salary increases for relatives.
The only other case of a state university president's relative working on the same campus is at CSU Long Beach, a spokeswoman in the CSU Chancellor's Office in Long Beach said. President Robert Maxson's wife, Sylvia Maxson, is an education professor there.
"I know of no children of university presidents or chancellors who have been hired," said Colleen Bentley-Adler, a CSU spokeswoman.
Bentley-Adler said CSU's relatively nonrestrictive nepotism policy is typical in higher education. When recruiting administrators and faculty, it's not uncommon for universities to also hire spouses, she said.
"Why would you want to miss out on someone who is just as qualified and talented?" she said.
Several CSUS faculty wouldn't comment Thursday, but one, Emanuel Gale, an emeritus professor of social work and gerontology, said he was troubled that President Gonzalez had not notified campus employees about his son's hiring.
"If he's qualified for the job, then fine," Gale said. "But why not make it known to the campus community?"
The younger Gonzalez's qualifications and talent won him the job over other candidates, Hayashino said. He was screened and interviewed by a search committee that ultimately recommended that Hayashino hire him.
"We went through a very careful process and I can comfortably say that Alex was hired on his own merits," Hayashino said. "He has a successful track record in fund development and what impressed me most about him was his experience working with annual goals and consistently meeting his targets. He brings knowledge and contacts from his previous experience."
Hayashino said Gonzalez Jr.'s $72,000 salary falls within the $70,000-to-$90,000 range for development officers. An average salary for a full-time, tenured faculty member is roughly $80,000, said Jeff Lustig, a government professor and former president of the faculty union at CSUS.
Before taking the CSUS job, Gonzalez Jr. worked in San Francisco as a fund-raiser for Radio Bilingue, a nonprofit radio network that distributes Spanish-language programming, Hayashino said.
Gonzalez Jr. declined to comment Thursday.
According to his job description, he is responsible for cultivating donors who will give at least $25,000.
Rounding up such large donors will be critical to the success of President Gonzalez's ambitious plans to radically remake CSUS - long a commuter school - into a more traditional college campus. The centerpiece of that plan - an $88 million arena and student recreation center - will require the university to raise millions.
Students voted last year to pay a $110-per-semester fee that will raise about $50 million for the project. President Gonzalez has pledged to raise at least $25 million from private donors before the student fees kick in.
So far, the university has received a $10 million pledge from San Diego Chargers owner Alex Spanos for the project.
About the writer:
- The Bee's Lesli A. Maxwell can be reached at (916) 321-1048 or lmaxwell@sacbee.com.