By Ava Uhlack, August 26, 2025
Today marks 30 days since Iris Levine stepped back onto Cal Poly Pomona’s campus to begin her role as interim President. Levine officially started as interim president July 27, according to an email sent out campuswide. Since taking that first step on her first day, Levine shared that those steps around campus are one of her favorite parts of the job
“Just walking around to see people, I feel, is really important for the president to do,” Levine said. “It’s about the relationships that you make and the support that you get from faculty, staff, and administration so that when you walk across the stage at graduation, it’s the best thing ever.”
As interim president, Levine oversees the vice presidents of departments like academic affairs, student affairs, IT, university advancement and finance that report to her the happenings within campus.
The university president is also a part of the Cal Poly Pomona Philanthropic Board of Executives, the Foundation Board, and attends People, Culture, and Institutional Affairs meetings, according to Levine.
“I get these little pieces of paper each day that say this is where you have to be and what you have to do each hour of the day,” Levine said. “I have constant meetings with people. My calendar gets filled with events, meetings, and presentations. Sometimes it’s even off campus to work with donors.”
But even amidst the frequent 9-5 business happenings, Levine has pushed to prioritize community engagement over the past 30 days, which is something she valued throughout her career of 30-plus years at CPP.
Levine previously worked at Cal Poly Pomona for 32 years, retiring in 2022, according to coverage by The Poly Post.
Levine went through an abundance of roles during her initial three decades on campus. She began as a professor in the Music Department before becoming chair, associate dean and then dean of the College of Letters, Arts, and Social Science. She also advanced to interim provost before ending her tenure as special assistant to the president, President Soraya M. Coley at the time, according to The Poly Post coverage.
“She’s a people-centered person,” said Sara Garver, a retired faculty member from the CLASS Dean’s office. “When I think back to our years working together in CLASS, what was important to us was putting students first. Enjoying the work and paying a lot of attention to detail helped us get a lot of meaningful work done.”
From heading the Steinway initiative to pushing for the music department’s accreditation, Levine kept her focus on setting high standards and pushing for student success, according to David Kopplin, a lecturer in the music department.
“She doesn’t surprise you,” Kopplin said. “She treats everyone equally and fair.”
Levine emphasized one of the reasons she chose to step back into a role at CPP was largely due to missing seeing student life and being a part of it.
“It’s always about the people for me,” Levine said. “What I’m here to do is to create community and keep the culture strong. When the next permanent president walks in, they know they are coming into a new community that is healthy, vibrant and exciting.”
Levine will not be considered for the permanent president position. It’s written within her contract that she will not be up for the permanent position, according to Levine.
“I love being retired,” Levine said. “I have my community choir Vox Femina. It’s very difficult to keep that position going as artistic director when in an impactful position here.”
The Chancellor’s office will run the search for CPP’s new, permanent president and will launch the search in September.
“I don’t have a timeline for the search; my contract doesn’t have a timeline,” Levine said. “It’s my hope that a new president will be named anytime between six months from now and the full academic year.”
Even though her role as interim president is only temporary, Levine still wants to make impact, one way she hopes to do that is by reinstating is the senior leadership team within the administration office.
According to Levine, this senior leadership team consists of the vice presidents and deans of the colleges working together. This team was previously active; however, the conditions of the pandemic caused the team to dissolve.
This change only affects the people in those positions, not the entire university per se, according to Levine. There were no other upcoming changes specified that would affect the university as a whole.
“It’s truly my honor to be here, to represent Cal Poly Pomona to the community, to the CSU, and to be the interim president, representing all the good things that we are,” said Levine.
Feature image courtesy of Tom Zasadzinski
