Photos by Juan Carlo / Star staff Ted Lucas plays violin at Cal State Channel Islands as part of the Channel Islands String Quartet. Lucas, who helped create CSUCI, says he thinks his musical and administrative sides have blended well in his career.

Ted Lucas, who helped create CSU Channel Islands — including writing the Camarillo school's alma mater — will leave his job as provost and vice president for academic affairs this fall.

But he's not leaving the CSU system. Lucas, 67, has been named special assistant to the executive vice chancellor. His new responsibilities include streamlining the transition for community college students to CSU campuses and possibly developing arts programs.

Lucas comes from an arts background, having started his academic life as a musician. Those two worlds — the creative one of music and the more policy-driven one of administration — might seem at odds. But Lucas believes they've blended well in his career.

"As a musician, you have to work with large groups of people," he said. "You have to get everyone to work toward the same goal."

Plus, he said, he's able to bring the creativity of music to policy decisions, encouraging others to be more innovative in their thinking.

While he'll be working for the chancellor's office, which is based in Long Beach, Lucas will stay at the Channel Islands campus, where he started as academic planner in 1999, back when the university was still in its planning stages.

In that job, Lucas helped decide the majors the new school would offer, interviewed candidates for the 25 original faculty positions and crafted the policies that would govern everything from student grades to curriculum.

Along the way, Lucas also composed the school's alma mater and a march for the president's inauguration.

That job history hints at Lucas' academic interests, as well as his pursuits outside work.

"He's a wonderful guy," CSUCI President Richard Rush said. "He's low key but a very accomplished musician with a long list of successes. He's a man of many interests."

So what is Lucas proudest of in his work at Channel Islands? The faculty the school has hired, which he described as "probably among the best in the country ... and they're nice people, too."

He's also proud of the accreditation that CSUCI received last summer, on the earliest possible date, for seven years, the longest possible time. Accreditation, a formal recognition that a school is meeting standards, is not required but does affect academic standing and eligibility for financial aid.

Outside work, Lucas enjoys flying a rented airplane above Ventura County. He rides motorcycles and horses. He takes his RV camping in state and national parks. And he enjoys cooking Italian, French and Indian food.

He's also maintained the passion for music he developed as a young man, playing violin in the Channel Islands String Quartet, serving as organist and choir director for All Saints' Episcopal Church in Oxnard, playing piano in a jazz band and writing works for his grandchildren.

He'll continue with his music into retirement, he said.

"I would like to spend more time composing, focusing especially on choral compositions," Lucas said. "I also have a number of unfinished research projects I need to complete."