For a man who said that originally he “just wanted to be a cowboy,” Dr. Robert S. Nelsen has done pretty well in higher education. In his address at the Rancho Cordova February luncheon on Feb. 19th, Nelsen provided a look at his background, his improvements and his plans for the future at California State University, Sacramento, also known as Sacramento State, where he began as the eighth permanent president on July 1st, 2015.

Nelsen and his wife made the choice for him to come to Sacramento State in large part because, of all the universities west of the Mississippi, California State University is what most people would call the seventh most “diverse.”

“I’m trying to get away from the word ‘diverse,’ because that’s about separation,” Nelsen said. “We’re the seventh most inclusive. …What we’ve done is we’ve made education affordable here.” The Sacramento State tuition, at $5,412 per academic year is among the 10 perecent lowest in the United States.

Nelsen talked about what he is doing at Sacramento State. He talked about helping to bring two large corporations into the Sacramento area that will eventually provide nearly 5,000 jobs between them, by providing the curriculum and the brain power that will supply the skilled work those companies will need to have done.

He talked about helping students avoid the costs and wasted time of a year of remedial work because they did not take the classes they needed before coming to university. He talked about his five-year goal to raise the four-year graduation rate from 8 to 25 percent, and the six-year graduation rate from 46 to 60 percent.

He advised those who attend a community college before transferring to Sacramento State to get the full Associates Degree. He said he was not proud that of those who transfer without the degree 76 percent graduate within four years after the transfer. “I’m disgusted by it,” Nelsen said.  “Because they probably took four years to get there, and now we’re saying another four years? That’s an eight year graduation rate. If a student has completed their Associates Degree and has the full degree, 85 percent of them graduate in two years, because there is no losing of classes.”

Nelsen grew up on a ranch in Montana, earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree in political science from Brigham Young University, and his doctorate from the University of Chicago’s Committee on Social Thought, where his fields of study were modern literature, modern philosophy, and modern political theory.

After teaching English at the University of Illinois, Chicago, Nelsen spent 18 years at the University of Texas, Dallas, where he founded and was director of the creative writing program, and served as professor of literary and aesthetic studies, and as vice provost.

After a stint in 2008-2009 at Texas A&M University he moved back to the University of Texas as President of the UT Pan American, where he helped create a new University in South Texas. “I did that because my students down there were impoverished,” Nelsen said. “So, when we found a loophole in the constitution that allowed us to be able to create a new university and get into the Texas permanent university fund—14.98 billion dollars in West Texas oil money—I said: ‘I’m going to work myself out of a job, but I’m going to do it for my kids.’ And I did it. And today there are 348 million dollars in new buildings coming up there and a new medical school.”

When Nelsen concluded his address, he said he had to do something. He proceeded to approach the audience, and shouted at the top of his voice, “Sac State number one! Stingers up!” holding his pinky finger up in the classic sign of the of the Hornets’ stinger.

“He is student driven and student focused, which is tremendous,” said Robert Dugan, director of governmental and civic affairs at Sacramento State. “He’s got everything focused on how we help students be successful and be ready to walk out with a degree and contribute to society. That is his driving focus, which drives all of our activities.”

To learn more about Sacramento State, go to http://www.csus.edu.