CSUN PRESIDENT EXHORTS GRADUATES TO IMPROVE LIVES : EDUCATION'S IMPORTANCE STRESSED.

Byline: Troy Anderson Daily News Staff Writer

In her last address as college president, California State University, Northridge, President Blenda Wilson called on graduates to help reverse California's declining school rankings.

``California is 41st among the states in per pupil spending, down from 10th in the 1970s,'' she said, adding the state is ranked in the bottom 20 percent in terms of computer software, audio visual equipment and library books available.

``The average publication date of textbooks in California schools is 1973,'' she said. ``This has caused school achievement to plummet.''

Wilson was the commencement speaker for more than 200 College of Education graduates who received their diplomas before hundreds of family and friends outside the University Club.

As Amy Miller, 27, of Santa Monica, graduated Friday with a master's degree in educational counseling, her mother, Barbara Fertel, watched proudly.

``She has worked her way through, gotten honors, is pregnant and married,'' said Fertel of her daughter's 12-year educational journey at CSUN.

``She got her double degree first, and now she's gotten her master's,'' Fertel said. ``I'm in awe of her.''

The ceremony was also a milestone for Wilson, the third president in the college's 40-year history. Having served as CSUN president since Sept. 1, 1992, she will assume a position in July as the first president of the Nellie Mae Foundation in Massachusetts. The Foundation's mission is to promote accessibility, quality and effectiveness of education from preschool to post-secondary levels, especially for underserved populations.

Provost of Academic Affairs Louanne Kennedy will serve as interim president at CSUN. The search for a new president is expected to take up to a year.

Wilson said she is looking forward to helping improve education in her new job, but she will miss CSUN.

``It's kind of sad to leave here,'' she said.

Wilson has presided over the 353-acre campus with a population of 27,000 students, one of the largest in the 23-campus California State University system.

She was formerly chancellor of the University of Michigan, Dearborn. She began her career in higher education administration at Rutgers University in New Jersey in 1969.

Wilson was the senior associate dean at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education from 1972-82. As executive director of the Colorado Commission on Higher Education from 1984 to 1988, she served as an officer in the governor's cabinet.

During her tenure at CSUN, she initiated a major planning effort to revitalize the university and to redefine its mission. She led the university's recovery from the Northridge Earthquake in 1994.

In her address, Wilson encouraged the graduates to carry on the university's mission of educating a diverse population and improving people's lives.

``My grandma once said, Education is the only thing they can't take away from you,'' she said. ``The education profession has the power to enrich lives, plain and simple. We know in our hearts that what we do is noble and good.''