It was beautifully gray-skied today up at Humboldt State University — just the weather the institution’s new president, Lisa Rossbacher, had been promised she could (happily) expect here in her new home county.

After a surprise blast of welcoming horns from the Marching Lumberjacks, Rossbacher hiked around campus on her first official day, meeting staff and some faculty and taking care of initial business. First she got her library card, saying she had her priorities straight. She also picked up her keys: four metal ones and a plastic access card. “Oh, my goodness, it’s old school,” Rossbacher teased when Traci Ferdolage, associate vice president of facilities management, laid the metal keys before her. As Ferdolage explained the complicated ins and outs of locks and security alarms, Rossbacher joked again, “So it’s a lot of opportunities to set off alarms.”

She also visited the auto shop, mail room, print shop, forestry building and veterans, disability and sustainability programs and more. Rossbacher asked people about their work, how long they’d been doing it, and then often delved deeper into conversation.


Rossbacher is Humboldt State University's seventh president and its first woman president. She takes over from President Rollin C. Richmond, who retired this year.