Fowler High graduate named interim president at Fresno State, effective Jan. 4

Fresno State has named an interim president.

Dr. Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval has been appointed to replace president Joseph I. Castro, who is leaving the university in January to head up the 23-campus California State University System as chancellor.

Jiménez-Sandoval takes over Jan. 4 and will serve until a new president is selected by the CSU Board of Trustees. That is expected within six to 12 months and will include a national search for candidates.

Casto made the announcement in a letter to faculty and staff Wednesday, a little less than a month after he announced his departure from the university.

“A fellow son of the San Joaquin Valley, Dr. Jiménez-Sandoval is a nationally-recognized scholar and servant leader who understands and embraces the unique strengths of the University and the region,” Castro said in the letter.

“I am confident that he will lead the committed President’s Cabinet, and together they will continue to provide strong leadership for Fresno State during such a consequential time,” Castro wrote.

Jiménez-Sandoval has been at Fresno State for two decades, serving as a professor of Spanish and Portuguese as well as the coordinator of the Spanish master of arts and chair of the Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures. He was the interim associate dean of the College of Arts and Humanities and dean of the College of Arts and Humanities.

Last year, he was named Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs, where he serves as the university’s chief academic officer and leader when the president is away from campus.

Jiménez-Sandoval graduated as an honors student at Fowler High School before earning his Ph.D. at UC Irvine. He also has professional certificates in critical theory from Cornell University; in Spanish art history from Escuela de Arte y Antigüedades de Madrid, and in Portuguese language and culture from Universidade Nova de Lisboa in Portugal.

Castro will remain on the job until Jan. 3, according to the letter.

“There’s much work to be done between now and then,” Castro wrote. “Let’s remain focused on finishing the fall semester strong while pursuing the University’s mission of boldly educating and empowering our students for success.”

Congratulations came in as those who have known and worked with Jiménez-Sandoval shared the news via Twitter.

“I was fortunate to work under his leadership at Fresno State,” wrote Dr. Laura Alamillo, Ph.D., who served as the Interim Dean of the Kremen School of Education and Human Development and is now Dean of Sonoma State School of Education.

“Always supported equity driven teacher preparation practices for our linguistically diverse p-12 schools.”

Author and poet Alex Espinoza met and became friends with Jiménez-Sandoval while teaching at Fresno State in the late 2000s.

“He helped me make sense of the place & was a true ally of mine when things were rough & I thought about quitting. I miss laughing & gossiping with him,’ he wrote on Twitter.

“I’m so proud of my friend. Go Saul.”

This story was originally published October 28, 2020 at 1:20 PM.