Glenn Schroeder Dumke (May 5, 1917 – June 30, 1989;
pseudonym
A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...
Glenn Pierce) was an American historian, educator, university president, and
chancellor of the
California State University
The California State University (Cal State or CSU) is a public university system in California. With 23 campuses and eight off-campus centers enrolling 485,550 students with 55,909 faculty and staff, CSU is the largest four-year public univers ...
system. Dumke was the 6th President of San Francisco State University (SFSU; formerly San Francisco State College), serving from 1957 to 1961. He served as chancellor of the California State University system from 1962 to 1982, most of its first twenty years.
He developed common standards for the colleges and universities in the system, supported affirmative action to recruit women and minority students, and assisted the establishment of four new campuses.
Early life and education
Glenn Dumke was born in 1917 in
Green Bay, Wisconsin. When he was age five, his family moved to
Glendale, California. His father, William Frederick Dumke, was a buyer for a southern California grocery business. His mother, Marjorie Schroeder Dumke, was a homemaker who later went to work as a title searcher in Los Angeles.
Dumke attended University of California, Los Angeles's (UCLA) Training School and graduated from Glendale Hoover High School in 1934. He earned a history degree from
Occidental College in 1938; completed an M.A. degree in history from
Occidental College; and a Ph.D. in history from UCLA in 1942.
At UCLA he studied under John Walton Caughey.
Career
Dumke's first academic job was teaching Western American and Hispanic history at Occidental College. During the 1940s he conducted extensive research and published his most notable historical works, including ''The Boom of the Eighties in Southern California'' (1944) and ''A History of the Pacific Area in Modern Times'' (1949), co-authored with Osgood Hardy. In 1950 he became Dean of Faculty at Occidental. In 1957 he accepted the position of president at San Francisco State College. Shortly thereafter, he was invited to join the committee creating the
California Master Plan for Higher Education The California Master Plan for Higher Education of 1960 was developed by a survey team appointed by the Regents of the University of California and the California State Board of Education during the administration of Governor Pat Brown. UC Preside ...
(1960), which distinguished among the
University of California
The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Franci ...
(UC) system, whose research campuses would offer degrees through the Ph.D., the California State Universities & Colleges (now known as CSU), which would offer bachelor's and master's degrees, and the
California Community Colleges
The California Community Colleges is a postsecondary education system in the U.S. state of California.California Education CodSection 70900(added to the Education Code by Chapter 973 of the California Statutes of 1988Assembly Bill No. 1725 secti ...
, which would offer two-year programs. Dumke was appointed the first vice chancellor for academic affairs of the CSU system. When Buell Gallagher, the first chancellor of the new system, resigned suddenly after only eight months on the job, Dumke was offered the position.
As CSU chancellor from 1962 to 1982, Dumke's accomplishments were significant. Under his leadership 19 separate state colleges became the largest system of higher education in the United States, and enrollment tripled to 319,000 students.
He created a system-wide academic senate. He began the practice of meeting monthly with the campus presidents, giving them significant input on system policies. He pushed for strong
accreditation
Accreditation is the independent, third-party evaluation of a conformity assessment body (such as certification body, inspection body or laboratory) against recognised standards, conveying formal demonstration of its impartiality and competence to ...
standards, and a system-wide
general education
General Education is a 2012 comedy film, directed by Tom Morris, starring Chris Sheffield, Maiara Walsh, Elaine Hendrix, Bobby Campo, Janeane Garofalo and Larry Miller and produced by Pelican House Productions. The film was shot in Chico and G ...
program. He advocated for admission standards, which the CSU finally adopted in 1990. During his term of office, he helped create four new campuses at
Dominguez Hills
The Dominguez Hills are a low mountain range in the Transverse Ranges, in southern Los Angeles County, California. They are named for the locally prominent Californio family of Manuel Dominguez, which owned Rancho San Pedro.
They are between ...
,
Bakersfield,
San Bernardino
San Bernardino (; Spanish for "Saint Bernardino") is a city and county seat of San Bernardino County, California, United States. Located in the Inland Empire region of Southern California, the city had a population of 222,101 in the 2020 cen ...
and
Sonoma. Dumke was a staunch opponent of student and faculty strikes in the period of unrest from 1965 to 1971, issuing a ban on faculty strikes in 1969. Other initiatives of Dumke include the establishment of off-campus and extension programs in 1971, and a 1978 five-year
affirmative action plan to increase enrollment of women and minorities in the CSU.
Later life
After his retirement in 1982, Dumke was president of several think-tanks, including the conservative Institute for Contemporary Studies (1982–1989) and the Foundation for the 21st Century (1986–1989). He also sat on the governing boards for
Pepperdine University
Pepperdine University () is a private research university affiliated with the Churches of Christ with its main campus in Los Angeles County, California. Pepperdine's main campus consists of 830 acres (340 ha) overlooking the Pacific Ocean and th ...
,
University of Redlands
The University of Redlands is a private university headquartered in Redlands, California. The university's main, residential campus is situated on 160 acres (65 ha) near downtown Redlands. An additional eight regional locations throughout Califo ...
, and the
California Chamber of Commerce
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
. Among his national awards were the USO Distinguished American Award and the award for Individual Excellence in Education from the
Freedoms Foundation
The Freedoms Foundation is an American non-profit, non-partisan, non-sectarian educational organization, founded in 1949. The foundation is located adjacent to the Valley Forge National Historical Park, near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.
Bill of R ...
. He was a member of a number of social clubs, including the
Bohemian Club and the
Commonwealth Club of California
The Commonwealth Club of California is a non-profit, non-partisan educational organization based in Northern California. Founded in 1903, it is the oldest and largest public affairs forum in the United States. Membership is open to everyone.
Act ...
.
He was married to Dorothy Robinson Dumke for 44 years.
Dumke died on June 30, 1989 of a heart attack in Los Angeles.
Books by Glenn S. Dumke
* ''The Boom of the Eighties in Southern California'' (1944;
Huntington Library Press, 1991).
* editor, ''Mexican Gold Trail: The Journal of a Forty-Niner'' (Huntington Library, 1945; reprinted 2006).
* co-authored with Osgood Hardy, ''A History of the Pacific Area in Modern Times'' (1949).
* ''The Crossing of the Tahachapi by the Southern Pacific'' (Book Club of California, 1954).
* co-authored with Robert Glass Cleland, ''From Wilderness to Empire: A History of California'' (Knopf, 1959).
Dumke wrote several historical novels under the pseudonyms Glenn Pierce (''The Tyrant of Bagdad'', 1955; and ''King's Ransom'', 1986) and Jordan Allen (''The Condor'', 1970; ''Texas Fever'', 1980; and ''Cavern of Silver'', 1982).
See also
*
Membership discrimination in California social clubs
Membership discrimination in California social clubs has been based on sex, race, religion, political views and social standing. In the late 1980s, a successful effort was made in many of the clubs to open up membership first to racial or religio ...
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dumke, Glenn S.
1917 births
1989 deaths
Chancellors of the California State University System
Occidental College alumni
University of California, Los Angeles alumni
Presidents of San Francisco State University
Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)
20th-century American academics