By Anne Gelhaus
Dr. Robert Caret took over as San Jose State University president last February, but it was some time before he and his family got settled in the South Bay.
"You could buy half of New England for the price of a house here," says Caret in his nasal East Coast tones. "We looked at houses for seven months and narrowed the search to a few areas we liked."
The Caret clan finally took up residence in Monte Sereno, within walking distance of downtown Los Gatos. Caret says Los Gatos is similar to Towson, the Baltimore suburb from which he moved.
"This is obviously much more California," he adds, "but it has a very similar environmental feel. It's always nice to have a smaller community within a larger community."
That larger community is the Santa Clara Valley in general, specifically the city of San Jose. Caret is trying to establish SJSU as one of a handful of "Metropolitan Universities" across the country, which he describes as campuses located within major metropolitan areas that pull the majority of their students from the surrounding region. As the premiere representative of SJSU, Caret wants to improve the perception of the campus within the community it serves.
"We've been viewed--and not accurately--as a walled fortress," he says. "We haven't done a good job of telling our story."
Although his choice of pronouns indicates that Caret accepts responsibility for SJSU's maligned public image, he also takes credit for improving the situation during his short tenure.
"I think you've seen a real buy-in to the campus in the 11 months I've been here," he says.
As proof of this buy-in, Caret points to his recent meeting with San Jose Mayor Susan Hammer and Police Chief Lou Cobarruviaz, at which they discussed how the city can use the campus in community efforts and vice versa. These efforts, he says, have already paid off in terms of the university's closure of San Carlos Street between Fourth and Tenth streets which was approved before his arrival. Construction of a pedestrian mall linking campus buildings on both sides of the street is underway.
"It's all been planned in cooperation with the mayor's office to make sure it complements the city's redevelopment plans," Caret says of the project.
The new pedestrian mall is one of the more visible manifestations of Caret's campaign to make the university "cleaner, safer, prettier and happier." In another highly publicized beautifi-cation attempt, Caret had all the windows on campus washed for the first time in several years.
Caret says it's necessary to sell these kinds of maintenance efforts to the public, since funding for future projects will depend in part on voter referendum.
"We have some very old buildings on campus," he adds. "Pipes are rusting and valves won't close. We need to put some effort into maintaining our home. The biggest thing that will help us in the long run is new capital money. With state bonds, this campus could be transformed in six to 10 years."
While voters could conceivably pass a bond issue in the next few years, the SJSU administration is turning more and more to the private sector to fund both its curricular and extracurricular programs. Caret says this knowledge is forcing the university to reevaluate the way it approaches fundraising.
"Private schools track their alumni because they need that support system," he adds. "We can build that kind of relationship with our alumni and community."
Caret says he's already established ties with SJSU alumni who now head major Silicon Valley corporations.
We've had an impact on this valley, and we need to expand on that," he adds.
According to his old boss, Caret is the right person to facilitate this expansion. "He's particularly adept at networking with the business community, and he seems to enjoy it," says Hoke Smith, President of Towson State University, where Caret served as provost and executive vice president.
Smith points to the $10 million capital campaign Caret chaired for Towson after that university had its budget sliced by 20 percent over two years.
"I think Bob's work with the business community will enhance support for the university in a year or two," Smith says.
One businessman who's firmly in Caret's corner is Saratogan Phil Boyce, a retired banker. Boyce is chairman of SJSU's Presidential Advisory Committee and started doing volunteer work for the university during Gail Fullerton's presidency. Fullerton was succeeded by interim President J.
Handel Evans, whom Caret replaced.
Boyce calls Caret a visionary leader who is "absolutely committed" to increasing community involvement in the university.
"He has a very broad viewpoint as to what the university should be to this community," Boyce adds, "and he has the immense energy necessary to carry out his vision."
Internally, Caret is asking faculty to accept the idea of SJSU as a metropolitan university. He recognizes that this might be a difficult task, since he's faced with a tenured teaching staff whose salary has been raised by only 1.2 percent in the last five years.
"If you want the faculty to be more involved with local businesses or social agencies," Caret says, "you need to reward them for it. If people aren't feeling good, they're not going to do well."
SJSU faculty members seem reticent to judge Caret's job performance thus far. Attempts to contact several professors who live in Los Gatos were met either with unreturned phone calls or refusal to comment. Still, Caret's supporters are confident that the fledgling president has the necessary skills to build morale among his troops.
"He's willing to compromise and adapt to accomplish what he sets out to do," says Towson president Smith.
Caret also recognizes the need to boost morale among SJSU's student body, given the university's increasing fees and decreasing class offerings. Caret says students should view these concerns in a broader context.
"We're one of the best deals going, even though students gripe about paying $1,500 a year," he adds. "Nationally, our fees have to be in the lowest 10th to 15th percentile.
"San Jose State and schools like it are an unbelievable buy," Caret continues. "You can get an education in areas like occupational therapy or engineering that will allow you to be competitive. The big difference between this campus and someplace like Harvard is that here, you deal with a much broader cross-section of the community. As a friend of mine put it, we're the Ellis Island of university systems."
A firm believer in affirmative action, Caret is concerned that the CSU system might emulate the recent action taken by the University of California Board of Regents to eliminate race as a factor in admissions. In his annual address to SJSU faculty and staff last August, the new president said he took the job in part because "affirmative action has made our university a model of diversity," and he plans to keep that model intact.
"More and more," Caret says, "this system is being restructured to keep those who can't afford it from getting an education. I want this university to continue to give these people a chance."
Two of Caret's daughters attend Los Gatos elementary schools, and Caret says he sees SJSU as a viable option for their college education.
"One of the keys is finding a campus where you fit in and feel good," he adds. "As long as my child felt that way about a CSU school, I'd be comfortable with that."
Caret already feels comfortable with the community in which he's chosen to live and work. As is the case with most top administrators, he says his social life often meshes with his business concerns.
"Lots of alumni and other business people live in the Los Gatos area," Caret adds. "Several have had open houses, where they've introduced me to their neighbors. One of the things I liked about this job initially is that everyone I met had direct or indirect ties to San Jose State."
Saratogan Boyce is one of the locals who has played host to Caret in recent months, and he says the SJSU president is a good party guest.
"He'll start out talking like an administrator," Boyce adds, "but if you call him on it, he laughs, and then you've broken through his outer shell and gotten to the real person."
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, Wednesday, January 10, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing Inc. All rights reserved.