William B. Langsdorf

William B. Langsdorf (October 23, 1909 – November 18, 2002) was the founding president of California State University, Fullerton (then known as Orange County State College).

Background

William B. Langsdorf (1909-2002) was born in Denver, CO but grew up in Pasadena, CA. He completed his B.A. and M.A. degrees at Occidental College and his Ph.D. in history at the University of California, Berkeley. He taught history at Occidental for several years before becoming an administrator at Pasadena City College. He served as assistant principal at Pasadena City College from 1939 to 1950 and then as principal (president) from 1950 to 1959. At the time Langsdorf accepted the appointment as the first president of Orange County State College (January 19, 1959), the institution existed in name only. It had no campus, faculty, administration, or staff. to advise him on these issues. He delegated to the Faculty Council significant responsibility for the development of academic policy for the new college, as well as seeking their advice regarding the physical development of the new campus. Though a few other California state colleges had academic senates at this time, this level of collegial governance was unique among the state colleges.

Construction began on 12 temporary buildings on the permanent campus site in March 1960. These were ready for occupancy by the Fall 1960 semester. At the time state funds for permanent buildings were driven by formulas based on FTES (full-time equivalent students). State planners projected that enrollment at the Fullerton campus eventually would reach approximately 35,000 FTES, so Langsdorf and his staff were faced with the challenge of creating facilities on the 238-acre site that would be able to accommodate that level of enrollment. Their solution was to delay completion of the first permanent building for four years, so that the new college's enrollment could grow. In addition, though the building was intended to eventually house the mathematics and science programs, it was designed in such a way that it initially could house almost all the academic programs of the college. The resulting structure, the Letters and Science Building (later renamed McCarthy Hall), which opened in the Fall of 1963 was a six-story building with a full basement with a total of about 300,000 sq. ft. of floor space. State Senators James E. Whetmore (R. Fulleron) and John G. Schmitz (R. Tustin) criticized Langsdorf for approving tenure for Professor Edwin Duerr, who allowed students in one of his classes to stage the play. Later Republicans in the State Senate attempted to force the firing of Duerr and to withhold funding from the state college system, but their bills failed in the Assembly. This incident forced Langsdorf to defend academic freedom in the college.

In the late sixties chapters of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and the Student Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam (SMC) were formed on the campus. However, the Fullerton campus did not experience any major disturbances until the spring semester of 1970. At the invitation of the campus, Governor Ronald Reagan gave his first speech on a public college campus at Fullerton on February 9, 1970. This appearance drew a substantial number of protestors to the campus, and Reagan's speech was interrupted several times by hecklers. Arrest warrants for disturbing the peace were issued for two of the hecklers, Bruce Church and Dave MacKowiak, who coincidentally were leaders of SDS and SMC. This led to a sit-in by several hundred students in the Letters and Science Building on February 25, 1970, who demanded that the campus drop its disciplinary proceedings against the two arrested students. Police cleared the students from building and relative calm returned to the campus until March 3, 1970, when a major disturbance took place in the campus quad when protestors interrupted campus disciplinary hearings for Church and MacKowiak. Approximately 90 police officers responded to a request for assistance from acting president L. Donald Shields. and to the occupation of the Performing Arts Building by a group that included both anti-war activists and members of the counter-culture. The occupation was tolerated by the administration for a week. Then the administration ordered the removal of this group of protesters. It was found that this group included many individuals who were under the influence of drugs, and that significant damage to door locks and musical instruments had taken place.

Langsdorf died at the age of 93 in 2002.