A professor once told me that, “Donald Gerth is not Machiavellian, he’s pure evil.” And so goes one analysis of our departing President, who will retire after next semester. If that name doesn’t ring a bell to student readers, I understand. When I took an unscientific study last semester for The State Hornet “Campus Quotes,” one student thought he was the local hypnotist. Another thought he was an Enron executive. Case in point, Sac State’s longest serving president is at once the most enigmatic, controversial and important figure in its modern history, which begs the question: Is Sac State the exceptional university it is now because or in spite of Gerth?

Even Gerth’s critics should appreciate the fact that he has left the University better than he found it, and in fairly tumultuous times considering the enrollment booms of the past decade. Some of Gerth’s toughest opponents have told me over the years that, in spite of his faults, the University is in fact better managed than in the years before his tenure.

As a result, Sac State has added $100 million in new buildings and facilities during this time, with more in the works.

The University has also expanded academically, often as a direct result of Gerth, who established the centers for California Studies and Public Policy and helped bring the first joint doctorate programs to campus.

He has consistently, for better or worse, stood up for the issues he believes in. For instance, in 1995 he kicked out the Reserve Officer Training Corps because the Army discriminated against homosexuals. In 1996, he was a vocal opponent of proposition 209, the anti-affirmative action initiative, in the face of complaints from 209 lobbyists that he was misusing his station as president to send a political message.

In spite of 209’s passing, Gerth made minority hiring an issue in 1999 when racial tensions were high on campus after a bomb threat was directed at African American faculty members.

When Gerth took over in 1984, faculty relations also improved, according to statements by Faculty Senate Chair Bob Buckley to The Hornet last month.

“The governance was shaky [before Gerth’s administration] and the relationship between the faculty and administration was worse,” Buckley said.

Gerth’s new administration brought a “willingness to share information, debate issues and work together,” he said. This is no small accomplishment, considering Sac State had been a revolving door for presidents in the years leading up to his tenure in 1984, and faculty relations were a major reason why.

But fast-forward to 2002 and that relationship hasn’t lasted. His support of Faculty Merit Increases (corporate model performance-based raises focusing–unfairly–on teaching, scholarship and community service) and tendency to side with CSU Chancellor Charles B. Reed on faculty salary issues brought protests from the local faculty union last year. In 1996, a group of professors even called for his retirement, citing lack of presence on campus and his rejection of 137 of 170 Faculty Merit Increase recommendations at one point.

This was a prelude to a series of whopping salary increases for Gerth and other administrators while faculty pay remained largely stagnant.

Last year, his relationship with students also suffered. His decision to cancel Monday-Wednesday day classes (thus making it difficult for working students to have Fridays off) with minimal student consultation sparked a firestorm that included sit down student protests in his office.

To be fair, this was done to maximize classroom space.

Also, speaking from a journalist’s perspective (and that of a former State Hornet employee), I was shocked at his attempts to gain veto over the budget of the student funded State Hornet last year.

So is Gerth pure evil? I doubt it. Are his policies Machiavellian? Often, but he’s also a key reason for the successful expansion of the University.