CSU Channel Islands University President Richard Yao will step down from the university at the end of July.
The university announced Yao’s resignation in a July 1 news release, just weeks after the Camarillo campus cut its workforce by 9%. The president’s sometimes rocky tenure will come to a close on Aug. 1.
Yao plans to take over the leadership of the Newbury Park-based DataPhilanthropy, an arm of the Jeff T. Green Foundation.
“The past four and a half years have been, without question, one of the most difficult periods in our university’s history,” Yao wrote in a July 1 email to students, faculty and staff. “It is often true for many organizations that, after a time of extraordinary difficulty, new leadership and fresh starts can help support healing and building anew. I believe our collective work has laid a solid foundation.”
Plans to replace Yao will be shared in the coming weeks, the university said. The president is an at-will employee and resigned from the role, according to university spokesperson Nancy Gill.
Richard Rush, CSUCI president from the university’s opening until 2016, said he was “shocked” at Yao’s announcement.
“I wish him well,” Rush said. “I hope we all come together and build what we originally planned and envisioned for this university. We had a university that was on the verge of being not only regional but statewide. I believe that’s its future.”
Yao, a trained clinical psychologist, came to CSUCI in 2018 as a vice president of student affairs. He took over the top position in January 2021 after his predecessor, Erica D. Beck, left to helm CSU Northridge. After a year as interim president, he earned the permanent appointment.
“He’s very capable. For a campus president, we could have done much worse,” said Greg Wood, president of CSUCI’s chapter of the California Faculty Association. “He understood the budget and the student experience, especially the mental health challenges. He led us through very difficult times.”
During Yao’s tenure, the university toiled through the COVID-19 pandemic, budget troubles and a crippling enrollment drain. The university’s 2025 head count of 4,880 is 31% lower than its pre-pandemic peak.
Former Provost Mitch Avila, who was Yao’s second-in-command, made a sudden exit from the university in August, months after a faculty resolution censured him.
With enrollment low and state funding threatened, the university announced in June that it was trimming the equivalent of 79 full time jobs, mostly through attrition but also with 13 layoffs.
Yao called the cuts a “hard and necessary” labor to align expenditures with the university’s enrollment reality. “Our shared efforts are now showing signs of stabilization and progress.”
Compared to this time last year, Yao said, student retention is up 5%. CSUCI has also seen a bump in students indicating they intend to enroll, with a 3% increase among first-year students and 5% among new transfers.
Jack O’Connell, a former state senator who represented Ventura County and wrote the major legislation that established CSUCI in the late 1990s, said the university is needed as much as ever.
“It’s needed for the economy. It’s needed for the cultural enrichment,” he said, adding that the university still must make changes to adapt to the current education environment and recruit new students. “The best way to attract students to CSU Channel Islands is to bring them to campus. You see (CSUCI), you’re going to fall in love with it.”
Yao oversaw a substantial improvement in the CSUCI Foundation’s assets, which climbed from $26 million in 2021 to over $90 million this year. The university said Yao’s work on fundraising, academic planning and other reforms have positioned CSUCI for “long-term strategic success.”
“I firmly believe that (CSUCI) has come through the fire,” Yao wrote to close his letter. “We are on the cusp of a slow but sure renewal. While challenges remain, this campus is resilient, and the future holds immense promise.”
Isaiah Murtaugh covers Oxnard, Port Hueneme and Camarillo for the Ventura County Star. Reach him at isaiah.murtaugh@vcstar.com or 805-437-0236 and follow him on Twitter @isaiahembee.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: CSUCI President Richard Yao resigns from university; last day is Aug. 1
Reporting by Isaiah Murtaugh, Ventura County Star / Ventura County Star
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