Born in Capetown, South Africa, Linda De Kruif, new president of the Academic Senate of Fresno City College, has an easy going and inviting personality.
After many years of membership as a senator, De Kruif was elected last year to take the reins of leadership in the fall semester of 2009, She, however, assumed leadership a semester early because of the sudden departure of past president Rick Santos. Even though she’s only presided over one senate meeting so far, De Kruif, an instructor in women’s studies, seems poised to take the Academic Senate to new heights, with compliments already coming in.
“Linda’s a great colleague and I’m sure she’ll make an excellent President of the Senate,” said Paul Gilmore, history instructor at Fresno City.
She didn’t see herself in this position as a child.
“It was actually kind of interesting,” she said. “Once I started going to high school [at Clovis high], I knew I liked psychology, but I loved little kids so I thought I was going to be a child psychologist. I finished my bachelor’s with the idea that I would be a child psychologist.
“It wasn’t until I actually started my graduate program that I took some clinical psychology, some intense classes that I thought ‘I can’t do that.’ I get way too attached to those kids or to anybody, so I wouldn’t say ‘gosh that’s a horrible situation you’re in, but your hour is up so I’ll see you next week for another hour.’ So I knew that wasn’t going to work for me because I’d bring my home work home with me all the time.”
De Kruif eventually changed the emphasis of her major and began teaching at FCC as an adjunct professor in 1994. She has since become a full-time professor and earned her tenure position.
She’s been an officer at large and the chair of different committees, and as senate president, De Kruif looks to make a few changes but keep the legacy that Rick Santos has left.
“I do think one thing that I would like to stress more is that faculty gets more involved with what’s happening on campus. More open ways of communication between faculty members,” she said.
De Kruif said she believes that students should follow what happens in the senate, either by attending the meetings which take place every other Wednesday from 3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. or by talking with their respective ASG (associated student government) representatives. She said, “I think it is important, just like I think it’s important for all constituent groups to follow what happens in other groups. I don’t think they know that we have ASG reps to represent them either.”
So would De Kruif be opposed to students bringing concerns to her?
“The best way for students to be better served is to go to one of their ASG reps, not just Brandon, but any of the ASG reps on campus…It’s the same thing I tell faculty. I don’t tell faculty ‘just come to me directly’, because otherwise I get individual concerns, which is fine as well, but it’s more efficient and works a lot better if faculty goes to their senate reps or students go to their ASG reps. Then that person can bring it up in the senate.”
At home, Linda enjoys the company of her loving niece and border collie. “My family thinks my dog is my kid,” she laughs, her good nature coming through in a warm smile. With her spare time, “I love going to the beach. I love to travel, visiting the bay area or the mountains…people ask me all the time, ‘well you come all the way from South Africa and you guys move to California, so why do you live in Fresno?’ and that’s part of my answer. I can live in different places but the thing I like about Fresno, my family’s here and I spend a lot of time with my family, so I like Fresno for that component but I really like it that I’m not that far from the beach, I’m not that far from the mountains…I can get to different places and it doesn’t take me that long. I like the centrality of it.”
