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Timothy P. White, chancellor of the 23-campus California State University system, announced on Tuesday that will step down next June after seven years as leader of the nation's largest public university system.
White, 70, was credited with ambitious reforms in seven years on the job. He used his executive order powers to do away with remedial education classes and to overhaul general education requirements.
White said those and other reforms were driven by the desire to support students
"Whether it's from the graduation initiative to food and housing issues, to executive orders to changing leadership to have over half our presidents are women -- all of that is around creating a better learning environment for students to achieve and succeed and move on in life," he said in an interview.
But his executive orders sometimes drew criticism from Cal State’s faculty union, which says White acted without enough faculty input at times.
Another major policy proposal he’s pushing, requiring Cal State applicants to have an additional year of math or a similar class for admission, faces strong opposition. It’s up for a vote next month.