Campus Vice President Changes Duties

LONG BEACH — Robert Bersi, vice president for university relations and development at Cal State Long Beach since 1987, has resigned from that position to concentrate on expanding the university’s endowment through trust donations and estate planning as a special assistant to campus President Curtis L. McCray.

“Bob made his own decision,” McCray said. “He has a talent for working on deferred giving--grants and trusts and wills and so forth--and we want to put more emphasis on that as part of building the institution.”

In vacating the vice presidency, in which he was responsible for overseeing the university’s public relations efforts and overall financial development, Bersi will also be giving up his seat on the five-member president’s cabinet, the university’s highest administrative body.

Freedom from administrative duties, McCray said, will allow Bersi to focus on encouraging donors to remember the university in their wills and trusts, an endeavor he has pursued successfully in the past. McCray said a national search, expected to take about four months, will be conducted to find a new vice president.