Growing up with financial hardship, Richard Carvajal never thought he could attend school, much less lead one.
"I am the university president who was once homeless. But somehow I got to go to school and I had some people there invest in me." As of this week, Carvajal is the new president of Cal Poly Humboldt. "I absolutely, to my core, believe that all of us who work in higher education are in the opportunity business."
In this episode of Talk Humboldt, the hosts turn the mic inward for a rare roundtable conversation with three college presidents reflecting on leadership, access, and the personal paths that shape public service.
Recorded on the very first day on the job for Cal Poly Humboldt President Richard Carvajal and now-Sonoma State University President Michael Spagna, the discussion brings together Carvajal, College of the Redwoods President Keith Flamer, and outgoing Talk Humboldt co-host Michael Spagna for a conversation about mentorship, mobility, and the higher education.
TRANSCRIPT
(Machine transcription is being corrected)
ANNCR: This is Talk Humboldt.
CARVAJAL: You obviously don't go from spending your nights, sleeping in the back of a car to sitting in the seat. I'm sitting in now, easily. And unfortunately, it doesn't happen often enough.
ANNCR: Before we start, today's conversation is a first in two ways. Normally, the hosts travel to the guest's workplace, from Crescent City to Fortuna. Today's show looks inward with a roundtable discussion between three college presidents. And secondly, Michael Spagnais passing the mic over to new Cal Poly Humboldt president Dr. Richard Carvajal. This conversation was recorded on January 20th, literally the first day on the job for both Carvajal here at Humboldt, and Spagna, who spoke to us from his new job as president of Sonoma State University.
This will be a two part conversation with part two covering the big themes about the job of being a college president. But for this first part, you'll find it's a little bit more personal.
FLAMER: My name is Keith Flamer and I have the pleasure of talking to my old friend Dr. Michael Spagna and my new friend, Dr. Richard Carvajal. Welcome. I'm glad to be here with both of you.
SPAGNA: President Flamer, I have to thank you for an incredible partnership over the last 16 months. And I couldn't be more overjoyed to welcome our new colleague and my friend, Richard Carvajal, who's joining us. And we thought that President Flamer and I would have an opportunity today to learn a little bit more. So let us turn it over to you, Richard, and share a little bit about your background and some excitement you have coming into the university. And, for full disclosure, President Carvajal started out the day on the right foot by handing out donuts.
CARVAJAL: Well, I'm not really smart, but I guess I'm just smart enough to know that if you hand out something really sweet, it's just a great way to start the day. It is fantastic to be with the two of you. The good president and I have been in regular communication. We've had Zoom meetings. We've had lots of text, lots of phone calls, etc.. He's done a phenomenal job of teaching me. And President Flamer… we got together last week.
FLAMER: And it was such a pleasure.
CARVAJAL: We had such a good time. It's just an honor to get to work with you and join you on this. And I can't wait to learn from you.
As was referenced, yeah, I'm coming back, but I'll correct one little thing that Dr. Spagna said, and that was that I'm not originally from here. I was actually born in the Los Angeles area, but I left when I was really young and then came up here and stayed here through middle school. And so, Humboldt County is some place that, everywhere I go, it's just dripping with memories.
SPAGNA: Is there maybe something that struck you already in returning to Humboldt? That, it was maybe a surprise, maybe something in terms of the growth you've seen in some of the areas in Arcata and McKinleyville and other areas?
CARVAJAL: Yeah. No question. I think there is an excitement now for the prospects of growth, for economic growth, for job creation. I will tell you one other really pleasant surprise. I've done the donut day thing for a long time. This is my fourth presidency. I've done it in each of those institutions. But I will tell you that the level of positivity and energy that I experienced this morning from our students here at Cal Poly Humboldt was just a notch higher. It was different. And, I told a team just a few minutes ago - they asked me, ‘What's a little wind that you hope to have in your first year?’ And I said, I want people to just feel like it's fun.
FLAMER: Yeah, absolutely. And I don't know if people know some of your background is so connected between the two year school system and the university system. So let's just talk a little bit about that.
CARVAJAL: Yeah. Well, let's go back. Maybe we'll start a little bit further back.
When I was growing up here, my father was selling furniture. He was one of the top salespeople for Montgomery Ward. Some of your listeners will remember Montgomery Wards. They used to sell furniture. And he got a job transfer to come to Eureka, California, to sell furniture. Turns out there weren't a lot of people buying furniture.
And so ultimately he started and ran a small janitorial business. And I was his only employee. When I was in middle school, I would go around with him and we would clean office buildings and the like.
And things, quite frankly, were financially tough. But we were making it.
We then had an opportunity that had surfaced for us to, as a family, move to Oklahoma and we loaded up the station wagon. I did not want to go because I just loved it here. We grew up on the Van Duzen River and I didn't want to leave that. But we moved out there for that opportunity that unfortunately did not materialize.
You know, we really struggled. And when I was in high school for a period, I called the backseat of a 1973 Ford Thunderbird in my home. So I am the university president who was once homeless. But somehow I got to go to school and I had some people there invest in me. And so when it was time for my next move, I moved into working for a two-year institution. I did that at a couple different places, and I loved that time.
And then when I went to Georgia to assume my first presidency, it was again an access institution. President Flamer… I know the world he lives in every day. And I will very much approach what I'm doing here at Cal Poly with the idea that we too, are an access institution. We're creating opportunities. I absolutely, to my core, believe that all of us who work in higher education are in the opportunity business.
SPAGNA: So I think you touched on a lot of things there, President Carvajal, that I think had been themes that, President Flamer and I have explored as we've worked on Talk Humboldt, the thing we've seen over and over again is it's not a straight line. So if you're comfortable sharing a little bit about that, both in terms of mentorship that led you to the place where you now have been a president of four universities and coming in as a key president in Humboldt County.
CARVAJAL: Yeah, you obviously don't go from spending your nights sleeping in the back of a car to sitting in the seat I'm sitting in now easily. And unfortunately, it doesn't happen often enough, but it only happens. You got to have the want to. You certainly have to have a desire to try to do your best. But even that, as we know, is usually not enough if you don't get a lot of help. And I absolutely did. I told you that higher education was for me, just a total game changer in many ways, saved my life. So I studied like crazy. I saw it as my opportunity again and my shot.
And in the early part of my sophomore year, I got a note from a professor in the hallway, and he told me that he wanted me to go see this certain administrator who happened to be one of our vice presidents, and I literally thought ‘they found me’. They found out I don't belong. I don't deserve to be here. And I'm going to be going home. And the longest walk of my life.
But when I got there, instead of sending me home, it turned out I had been found through a search, and they had decided to put me up for a special program, and ultimately, because of it, sent me to DC. But that person, the vice president, who had to convince me that I was good enough to apply for this, he became not somebody that just helped me fill out a form and then pass me along. No, he would check on me throughout the summer. And then when I came home, he stayed in touch with me. We still talk all of the time, he says he gets more out of our relationship than I so, and I didn't believe that for the longest time. But as you get to play the role of mentor to others, you feel that. We'll make that a big, big part of who we are. We are in the opportunity business. And who else? I mean, literally, who else gets to come to work every day knowing that their mission that day is to go change somebody's life?
ANNCR: That's new Talk Humboldt co-host Richard Carvajal, president of Cal Poly Humboldt, along with CR president Keith Flamer and outgoing co-host Michael Spagna. This conversation continues next time as they explore the big themes of running a college.
CARVAJAL: Nobody ever says, well, my institution is great because of my president, right?
ANNCR: Until then, subscribe to the Talk Humboldt podcast or listen to other episodes at khsu.org. Produced at Cal Poly Humboldt.