Published 2003-10-22T00:00:00Z”/>

Jordan Wittman<br>Staff Writer

While Chico State students stress over upcoming midterms, approaching deadlines and surviving classes, the only thing on former university President Manuel Esteban’s mind is how many Euros he’s getting per dollar.

For the last month and a half, Esteban has been crisscrossing the landscapes of Western Europe. He has already traversed through Italy, France, Spain and Portugal, Esteban said in a recent e-mail. The trip, which began on Sept. 1, will go for another two weeks and conclude in early November.

Accompanying Esteban on the trip are his wife Gloria, his brother Julio and his sister-in-law Nory, said Carol Berg, executive assistant to the president.

While he wrote that he was staying up-to-date on the search for a new university president, there’s not really much he can do from 3,000 miles away.

“I think he was planning not to get too involved and enjoying his vacation instead,” Berg said.

Esteban told The Orion last semester that he plans to remain in Chico after taking a one-year sabbatical, which includes his two-month trip to Europe.

Esteban announced his retirement last fall at the president’s annual convocation address. Teary-eyed and nearly choking on his words, Esteban struggled to declare his planned retirement with faculty and staff in attendance.

“It’s probably the most difficult decision I’ve had to make in a long, long time,” he told The Orion after the speech. “I’m not sure that I’m ready to leave. I’m very attached to this university.”

Back in 1993, the year he arrived in Chico to serve as president of the university, Esteban said he planned on staying for eight to 10 years.

Aside from remaining true to his words, Esteban said another motivation for retiring was having more time to spend with his wife and family.

“My wife and I would like to spend more time together, and now the time we spend together is at university social events,” he said. “But that is really not the same thing as having time to yourself.”

During his stay as president of Chico State, Esteban oversaw a number of changes and landmarks at the university.

He brought Nobel Prize winners to speak at the campus, including Mikhail Gorbachev and Shimon Peres. He oversaw the founding of the University Research Foundation and the President’s Scholarship Program, which has awarded more than $13 million in scholarships to Chico State students to date.

Esteban also oversaw the completion of Nettleton Stadium, the renovation of Colusa Hall, the expansion of the Bell Memorial Union and most recently, the construction of Yolo Hall.

Not all was bright throughout Esteban’s tenure. In 1997 Esteban made the controversial decision to cut football from the university’s program list.

At present, the future appears to be open for Esteban. His European vacation will conclude his three-and-a-half months of vacation. After that he’s not sure what he will do, he told Chico Statements, a magazine from Chico State’s publications office, last spring. He also told the magazine he has plans to co-author a book with Walt Schafer on the effects of alcohol use and abuse on college campuses.

While Esteban said last spring that he plans to work part-time with the California State University Chancellor’s office, in a recent e-mail he said that he had no plans to pick up a new job.

“I have been contacted by head-hunters, but I am not interested in other offers,” his e-mail read. “When I accepted the position at Chico I announced that I would retire from CSU, Chico.”

So far, the highlight of Esteban’s vacation has been reading, speaking and dreaming in five different languages, he said.

In between leaving the university in July and leaving for Europe on Sept. 1, Esteban spent time with his wife and family at their residence in British Colombia.

Esteban was born and raised in Spain, where at age 14 he began working as a glassblower.

<em>Jordan Wittman can be reached at <a href= “mailto:[email protected]”>[email protected]</a></em>