Thomas A. Parham’s seven-year stint as president of California State University, Dominguez Hills, is coming to an end. During his tenure, the campus made progress in graduating and retaining students, though it fell short of some goals and remained below the average across Cal State. Dominguez Hills established a place on national college rankings for social mobility and student diversity, though enrollment has declined from roughly 18,000 to 15,000 students since 2020. And while new construction and accreditations on campus are a point of pride for Parham, 71, Dominguez Hills is also among Cal State campuses that have enacted difficult budget cuts in recent years, prompting protests from some students and faculty. In an interview during his last month leading the university, Parham defended the campus’s achievements. “I don’t have any regret about the job we did, the difference we made, the transformation that we helped engineer on this campus and the lives that we transformed as a result of the work that we put in place,” he said. Dominguez Hills’ performance on measures like graduation rates should be understood in the context of its student body, which includes many first-generation, low-income and historically underrepresented students, Parham said. And he called on California lawmakers to invest more in campuses like his. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Your campus, Dominguez Hills, is among the CSUs where enrollment has taken a dip since the pandemic. Why should students go to college? It’s a good question, because if you…
