Shields to Head State Science Council

SACRAMENTO — L. Donald Shields, former president of both Cal State Fullerton and Southern Methodist University, has accepted a position as head of the new California Council on Science and Technology, officials said Wednesday.

Shields had been president of Cal State Fullerton for nine years. At the time he was appointed, he was the nation’s youngest state university president at age 34.

He resigned from SMU citing medical reasons in 1986, as a school football scandal was unfolding. After it was revealed that the school’s trustees, with Gov. Bill Clements as chairman, had approved a play-for-pay scheme for athletes, the NCAA imposed its “death penalty” on the school and its football program was dropped for two years.