Dr. Sona K. Andrews is one of three candidates to replace Warren Baker as Cal Poly’s president; she is visiting campus today for a series of student, faculty and community forums.
Andrews is Boise State University’s first female provost and also serves as vice president for Academic Affairs.
This year, Andrews was also one of four candidates being considered for president at Missouri State University and in 2009 she wrote a letter to the Presidential Search Committee at the University of Rhode Island (URI).
“I know I can make significant contributions to help URI move beyond a state of equilibrium to one equipped to manage change and innovation,” Andrews said in the letter.
According to Missouristate.edu, the board of governors did not select Andrews to be the university’s 10th president.
Before working at Boise State, Andrews worked at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.
For her first year of undergraduate work, Andrews went to school in Beirut, Lebanon. She continued her education and got her undergraduate degree at Worcester State College in Massachusetts and a master’s degree and Ph.D. in geography at Arizona State University.
Since earning her Ph.D., Andrews has served as a journal editor and as a member on numerous professional national committees.
She has researched as an academic on several topics while working at the different universities throughout her career. At Boise State, she wrote an article about the number of women administrators in kinesiology, along with several colleagues. She also proposed a budget model for classroom maintenance that was adopted by the University of Wisconsin.
Andrews, along with the two other candidates, Carlo Montemagno and Steven Angle will appear on campus for open-candidate forums today, tomorrow and Wednesday of this week.
This week, Andrews and the other candidates will make appearances at various spots around campus to speak to students and faculty about various topics concerning Cal Poly. A public forum to introduce the candidates will be held daily from 4:10 to 5:30 p.m. in the Advanced Technologies Laboratories.
She will be unavailable for comments until the campus tour, said Stacia Momburg, a Cal Poly public relations official.
The first of several daily forums will be the Associated Students Inc.’s student open forum. It will take place at Chumash Auditorium tomorrow from 10:50 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. The entire schedule for the candidates can be found online.
The Cal State University Board of Trustees is expected to name the new president in early June.