CSu Chancellor Munitz to Lead the Getty Trust Part: 2 of 3
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A20 FRIDAY, JULY 18, 1997 *
GETTY: Cal State System's Chancellor to Lead TrustMunitz, who says he plans to try
to bring the resources of the Getty
to the broadest range of people,
remarked, "This should be the
single most influential arts and
humanities voice in the country. In
a society that is increasingly tech-
nical and uncivil and fragmented,
there is a core of humanistic value
that should be the adhesive. This
[job] seems to me the single best
opportunity to provide that adhe-
sive."
Born and raised in Brooklyn,
N.Y., Munitz studied classics and
comparative literature at Brooklyn
College and Princeton University.
He began his academic career in
1966 at UC Berkeley as an assistant
professor of drama and literature,
then served as associate provost
and academic vice president for the
University of Illinois system. He
moved to the University of Hous-
ton as chancellor in 1977.
He left that institution in 1982 to
become a senior executive at
Maxxam Inc. in Houston and re-
mained at the company until 1991,
when he joined California State
University as chancellor.
Gov. Pete Wilson praised Mun-
itz on Thursday as "one of the
premier stewards" of the Cal
State system and said his leader-
ship has positioned it well for his
successor.
"Barry leaves the CSU system in
solid shape after making it one of
the preeminent state university
systems in the nation," Wilson
said.
Munitz had been approached by
the Getty months ago, but he had
fended the trust off, saying he had
no plans to leave Cal State. Just
eight months ago, he told The
Times he was too young for the
Getty job. "I'm planning to be here
[at Cal State] as long as [the
trustees] want me to be here," he
said at the time.
But the Getty-particularly Wil-
liams, who is a friend-kept call-
ing. Munitz said he and his wife,
Anne, agonized over the decision
during the last week.
(O n Thursday, Munitz said he
changed his mind largely be-
cause Getty board members con-
vinced him that he had misunder-
stood the job."I perceived it as a traditional
foundation job or as a traditional
museum-oriented job. It turns out
what it is is a university and a
museum and a foundation, and
there's nothing like it in the
world," he said.
The new president's job will
differ sharply from the role Wil-
liams played in shaping the trust
and "creating the physical real-
ity" of the Getty Center, Munitz
said.
"The key now is to put that
time and energy to the policy
side. .. .The building blocks are
all there.
Although the Getty is in a
strong spotlight, Munitz said he
has been under such intense
scrutiny running a huge, publicly
funded institution that moving to
the trust will give him the luxury
of relative isolation.
Still, there are daunting chal-
lenges- Among them, he said, is
"weaving together the components
of the center, strengthening the
other components alongside the
museum, which is already so
strong, and being as certain as I
can be that at the top of each there
is the strongest possible leader-
ship."
Munitz's decision sent shock
waves through California's educa-
tion community, where the charis-
matic administrator is known to be
one of the nation's most articulate
spokesmen on education issues.
Munitz quickly rose to promi-
nence as a deft strategist and
savvy administrator at Cal State.
He set out to repair the frayed
relationship between Cal State
and the University of California,
prompting the two top public
college systems to work together
to lobby the Legislature in tough
budget times. Ile also joined ef-
forts with Eastin, since Cal State
trains the majority of the state's
teachers for kindergarten
through 12th grade.
Munitz incurred the wrath of
some faculty by putting in place a
merit pay plan to reward top
performers and prod underachiev-
ers. He also lighted a fire under the
presidents of his 22 institutions,
making private fund-raising-vir-
tually nonexistent when he ar-rived-a part of their job descrip-
tion.
But he also gave presidents more
room to operate, urging them to
take more initiative and backing
them up when they did.
M ostly, however, Munitz
wanted to change the way
Cal State, which draws its stu-
dents from the top third of Cali-
fornia high school graduates, saw
itself. He became an ambassador
for regional universities-what
he called "comprehensive, inferi-
ority-complex-driven institu-
tions." Cal State might not be as
choosy as the University of Cali-
fornia, he would say, but its type
of institution delivered the most
important education in the na-
tion, transforming raw potential
into accomplishment.
Well known as an artful consen-
sus builder, Munitz "has such a gift
of looking people in the eye and
getting them to do the right thing.
He's not timid, he's not afraid," said
Eastin, who noted that while the
UC Board of Regents devolved into
bitter bickering over affirmative
action, the Cal State board did not
take up the issue and remained
civil.
"There's a reason the [Cal State]
trustees didn't take a vote on
affirmative action," Eastin said. "It
was Barry's stewardship. It just
never came up."
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Muchnic, Suzanne & Wallace, Amy. CSu Chancellor Munitz to Lead the Getty Trust, clipping, July 18, 1997; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1050920/m1/2/?q=%22%22~1: accessed July 2, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.