CSU CHANNEL ISLANDS PRESIDENT TO SPEAK
AT MISSION COLLEGE COMMENCEMENT

Dr. Richard R. Rush, president of the newest campus in the California State University system, will be the featured speaker on June 10 when Los Angeles Mission College awards degrees to more than 400 graduating students.

Rush will be a timely speaker for the Mission College graduates, many of whom are just starting to build educational and professional careers. Appointed president of CSU, Channel Islands, in June 2001, Rush has spent the last two years "starting up" the system's 23rd CSU campus. As such he has hired the first faculty and senior administrative staff, and overseeing development of academic and physical master plans.

The experience is not entirely new to him. While serving on the faculty at San Diego State University, Dr. Rush played a key role in the founding of CSU San Marcos. The City of San Marcos recognized his contribution by naming a street after him, Rush Drive.

Prior to his appointment at Channel Islands, Dr. Rush served nine years as President of Minnesota State University, Mankato. He holds a doctorate in English Renaissance Literature from UCLA. He is a life member of the Milton Society of America, which is devoted to scholarship on John Milton, a 17th century English poet.

The college president will speak to a class that will include 440 graduates, 73 percent of them women. The ages of the graduates range from 17 to 66, with the greatest number - 59 percent - falling into the 21-30-year-old age bracket. Terie Stephens, an art major, is the class valedictorian. This year's salutatorian is Sharon Klafter.

Commencement will begin at 5 p.m. on the campus Quad.

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