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Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval image by Fresno State

published on May 19, 2021 - 2:34 PM
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Fresno State University announced Wednesday the schools interim president will be stepping up to president, effective immediately.

 Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval will serve as the ninth president of Fresno State after serving as interim president since early 2021 after the former president became chancellor of the CSU system.

 During a press conference on Wednesday, Jiménez-Sandoval said he has short term goals to get students back on campus safely and long term goals to promote graduate programs and build stronger relationships with industries, among other goals.

 “We don’t need to look to Los Angeles or San Francisco or or the coast, or anyone else,” Jiménez-Sandoval said. “We need to say to ourselves ‘we are proud to be from this region, we are proud to feed the world, and we are proud to really promote this sense of Central California that’s ours with diversity from everywhere in the world’.”

 He also said he’s going to work to partner with industry in the Fresno area to use the one million hours of work, internships and volunteering Fresno State students give to the Valley every year to promote economic development.

 By increasing the capacity of the nursing school and partnering with key industries in the Valley, Jiménez-Sandoval said he also plans to help meet skilled worker shortages and increasing demands on the region’s agriculture.

 “As an academic and a tenured professor, President Jiménez-Sandoval understands the central role faculty play in a university, as well as the importance of a well-rounded liberal arts education for training the San Joaquin Valley’s future movers and shakers,” said Thomas Holyoke, chair of the Academic Senate.

 Jiménez-Sandoval first joined the Fresno State faculty in 2000 and served in a number of positions including coordinator of the chair of the Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures, interim associate dean of the College of Arts and Humanities, dean of the College of Arts and Humanities and provost.

 He holds a Ph.D. in Spanish and Portuguese literatures University of California, Irvine, as well as various certificates from Cornell University and school in Madrid, Spain and Lisbon, Portugal.

 Originally from Mexico, Jiménez-Sandoval moved to Fowler at a young age where his family ran a family farm. He has two sons, Arion and Leo, with his wife Mariana Anagnostopoulos, who is a member of the Fresno State philosophy department.


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