MacAllister named Special Assistant to the President, Affirmative Action Officer
Linda
S. MacAllister's coffee mug is enameled with a self-deprecating
verse: "I'm proud to be an atturney, atorny, aturnee, lawyer." It belies the
importance of her job.
A CSU veteran of 23 years, MacAllister comes to CSUDH from the California State University, Office of the Chancellor, where she worked as a university counsel in the Office of General Counsel. On July 6, President James E. Lyons, Sr. named her special assistant to the president for equity and internal affairs.
"Many of you know Linda," said Lyons' letter announcing her appointment to the campus, noting her experience providing legal representation to Dominguez Hills and to Cal Poly Pomona.
"In her new role here," he explained, " she will focus on the crucial issues of faculty/staff employment, student grievances, immigration/employment, as well as on other matters as deemed necessary."
He added in an understatement, "Higher education is familiar terrain to Linda…."
MacAllister's experience has its origins at Hughes Aircraft Company, where an executive remarked that she impressed him as someone who'd be moving up and moving on, then handed her a brochure about a paralegal program.
He was prescient.
In 1977, while in her final semester in the Paralegal Program at USC, MacAlister became the first paralegal Ð later, the first senior paralegal - to work for the General Counsel at the Office of the Chancellor. In 1988, she graduated from Pacific Coast University School of Law with a juris doctorate. The following year, she passed the California Bar Exam and was assigned by the Chancellor to the Office of General Counsel as a university counsel.
"With the difficult issues that often complicate the workplace, we need bright minds such as hers to help show us the way," Lyons' letter said.
Though the law doesn't figure in her job title, she expects her legal experience will help her do her job. "I am not here as the lawyer for the campus," MacAllister says, "but knowing the law does help interpret the issues involved in some matters."
In a very real sense, MacAllister grew up knowing how to resolve disputes. The middle child of six, she learned daily how to try to settle disputes leaving everyone feeling they had won.
MacAllister is confident that experience will help in the various issues, grievances, and disputes that come her way at Dominguez Hills, where her responsibilities will call on her to play cop, counselor and confidante.
"A lot of my job means reaching resolutions that are acceptable to all persons in problem situations," MacAllister says. "Obviously, that isn't always possible, but that is what you strive to accomplish.
"I think people sometimes want the 'quick fix' to their difficulties. The quick fix may sound good, but it doesn't always offer the lasting, long-term solution. Sometimes, it takes a little longer to do things right."
That's been her determination since pursuing her degree in law and arriving in higher education, MacAllister notes.
"Prior to the Chancellor's Office, I had worked only in the private sector," she says. I don't think I could go back to the private sector. I feel like I am doing something here that matters, and not working for the almighty buck…
"There are times when you have to say 'no' to someone. But, the university is a place where we find ways for people to accomplish, to help them find a way to succeed. This is where we say, 'Let's find a way.'"
There will be challenges, but MacAllister sees them as opportunities to find solutions to problems to help people stretching to improve their lives.
"There's a lot to be excited about. I tend to bite off more than I can chew, I know. But, after 23 years with the CSU, I can say that I have invested myself in my work because I care."
- T.W.
