Sonoma State U foundation’s strategy in question

by E Wayne Ross on July 29, 2009

Press-Democrat: SSU foundation’s private land loans

Acting with little oversight, SSU nonprofit invested tens of millions of donors’ dollars in private loans for more than a decade; now critics are asking why

When Ruben Armiñana arrived as president at Sonoma State University in 1992, the SSU Academic Foundation was a tiny organization that helped professors apply for federal grants.

A year later, Armiñana ordered the foundation be transformed into a fund-raising machine, ending its role managing academic grants and turning it into a vehicle that would ultimately be used to pursue his vision of building a $110 million music center on campus.