The California State University Board of Trustees conferred the title of President Emeritus to retired Fresno State President John D. Welty at the Sept. 24-25 meeting.

Welty was the seventh president of Fresno State, serving from August 1991 to July 31, 2013, the longest presidential term in the university’s history.

The CSU board bestows the honorary title “in recognition for exemplary service and one’s accomplishments in higher education.”

The resolution conferring Welty’s status highlights his personal achievements and university accomplishments under his leadership, including:

  • Fresno State enhanced its academic programs and grew the university’s enrollment from approximately 19,800 to over 22,000 students.
  • Fresno State became one of the first campuses in the CSU system to implement an independent doctoral program in educational leadership and later added doctorates in physical therapy and nursing practice.
  • Welty was one of the nation’s first university presidents to understand the importance of incorporating community service into academics and partnered with benefactors Jan and Bud Richter to establish the Richter Center for Community Engagement and Service-Learning.
  • Through his leadership in the CSU system, Welty played a key role in addressing strategic planning, accountability issues, athletics gender equity, emergency credentialing, alcohol programs and online learning.
  • He led the campus intercollegiate athletics programs first into the Western Athletic Conference and then the Mountain West Conference.

University Communications news assistant Ashlie Day contributed to this report.

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