|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Patrick Lenz, Assistant Vice Chancellor
On February 18, 2004, the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) released their analysis of the Governor’s 2004-05 state budget. The LAO raised concerns regarding the Administration’s overall revenue and expenditure assumptions in the budget and indicated that even with the passage of the $15 billion bond measure (Propositions 57) on the March 2 ballot, the state would still face a $7.7 billion budget shortfall by the end of the 2004-05 fiscal year. This means the Governor and the legislature will need to make additional budget reductions or support additional revenues, tax increases or fees, in order to have a balanced budget by July 1, 2004, the start of the new fiscal year. The LAO offered a variety of specific recommendations to the CSU in the areas of enrollment growth, outreach programs, current fee increases, long-term student fee policy, and financial aid. See www.lao.ca.gov for the full report. Many of the recommendations provided by the LAO fail to recognize the significant state funding cuts already taken in 2003-04 or contemplated for the CSU in the Governor’s budget for 2004-05. The Chancellor’s Office is preparing a comprehensive analysis and response to the LAO’s recommendations that will be sent by mid March to the legislature and staff. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
QUALITY IMPROVEMENT (QI) PROGRAMS Spring 2004 Customer Satisfaction Survey: Customer Satisfaction Surveys will be administered on participating Semester campuses in late March through April. The surveys will be administered on Quarterly campuses in mid April through May. Summary reports and data files will be available to campuses by June 15. “Virtual” Quality Improvement Symposium: Final preparations are underway to offer the planned Quality Improvement Symposium via web-cast seminars. The sessions will be held in 1-2 hour time blocks over the course of a month. It is anticipated that the first session will be held in late-April to early-May. Sessions will be either web cast live, with the ability to have active participation from participants, or be pre-recorded. All sessions will be made available for later viewing for those who are not able to attend during the scheduled times. Details along with information for registering for the live sessions will be coming soon. QI Awards: Campuses are urged to take the opportunity to nominate individuals on their campus who work hard to improve operations. Nominations are being sought in five areas – Distinguished Service, QI Facilitator of the Year, QI Team of the Year, QI Function Chair of the Year, and QI Champion of the Year. Information on each category, along with on-line nomination forms, is available at www.calstate.edu/qi. The deadline for submission of nominations has been extended to March 31, 2004. CMS Benefits Data: CMS Process Impacts and Measures collection instruments have been developed in collaboration with campus functional representatives and project managers. The deadline for submission for the IT, Financial, and HR function areas is March 12. The deadline for submission for the Student Administration instrument has been extended to March 19. Once campus function representatives have submitted their data via the on-line collection instrument, campus project managers will be sent a campus report for final review, approval, and submission of the campus response. For more information on any of the above listed items, please contact Matthew Ceppi, QI Programs at mceppi@calstate.edu or (562) 951-4547. Matthew
Ceppi |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| CAPITAL
PLANNING, DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION Elvyra F. San Juan, Assistant Vice Chancellor Capital Training: In January, CPDC hosted two successful training sessions attended by campus and Chancellor’s Office staff. There were 62 attendees at the Capital Outlay Two-Step – How to Program a Successful Project training, and 57 attendees at the Land Use Planning, Acquisition, Land Records, and CEQA session. The following training is scheduled for the month of April: CSU Design Procedures – Thursday, April 22, 2004: The CSU design process will be explored using a case-study approach. It will follow a project from inception through completion, using SUAM and the Procedure Guide for reference. Process and procedures, as well as pitfalls and possibilities, will also be discussed Construction Delivery Methods – Friday, April 23, 2004: This program is designed for facilities design and construction staff, specifically the design project managers and construction managers. This session will be a brief review of each delivery method along with the benefits and drawbacks for each as they apply to various types of construction projects. Program brochures and registration are located at http://www.calstate.edu/CPDC/Trg2004.shtml Nancy Freelander-Paice, Executive Program & Fiscal Manager The voters were asked to approve another education bond on the March 2004 ballot. Proposition 55 would provide $12.2 billion for our educational systems in 2004-05 and 2005-06, including $9.9 billion for K-12, $920 million for the California Community Colleges, $690 million for the University of California, and $690 million for the CSU, to ensure that students, faculty, and staff can operate in safe and educationally sound facilities. Proposition 55 was narrowly passed by the voters of California on March 2, 2004 and will pave the way for an extensive capital outlay program for the CSU. While the CSU is making every effort to accommodate its students within existing facilities by implementing year-round operations, expanding weekend and evening course offerings, establishing more off-campus centers, and improving distance-learning opportunities, additional facilities must be built and existing structures renovated and retrofitted in order to provide eligible students a quality education for the 21st Century. Proposition 55 will fund projects for the next two years to the level of $690 million including approximately $20 million annually for Minor Capital Outlay, and $44 million in 2005/06 for the Capital Renewal program. The combination of these resources will provide funding greatly needed for campus projects to support the mission of the CSU. Proposition 55 will provide the CSU with funding to accommodate nearly 7,000 additional students in 200 new classrooms and 38 new laboratories, while providing for library renovations and the construction of 657 new faculty offices to support growing enrollment demand. The Minor Capital Outlay and Capital Renewal funds will be used to modify facilities to better serve the academic programs at each campus. The CSU Office of Governmental Affairs provided tremendous support toward ensuring successful passage of the bond. Stephanie Giordano, Principal Facility Planner Energy Efficiency Update: Recently the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) approved funding for the 2004 – 2005 Energy Efficiency Incentive Program. The UC/CSU/Utility Partnership Program was one of 43 out of the 440 applications approved by the CPUC. This statewide program received the largest share of money for third party partnership applications and provides incentive funding of $15.1 million dollars for all UC/CSU campuses that are served by the four Investor Owned Utilities (IOU’s). This program is unique because it is the first statewide partnership program between a third party (UC/CSU) and the utilities that is a multi-year comprehensive program that includes three key program elements of energy retrofit, re-commissioning of existing buildings and education and training for sustainable design and best practices. The partnership believes that this program will become the model that is used as the framework for future programs and will help UC/CSU and the state move toward achieving long term energy savings. The incentive funds will be divided equally between UC and CSU allocating approximately $7.6 million for CSU campuses for the next two years. A retrofit project call letter was issued to the campuses in March with a project applications due March 19, 2004 to the Chancellor’s Office. Energy Outlook: Governor Schwarzenegger commented in his State of the State address, “If we do not act now, California will face energy shortages as early as 2006.” In response to this growing concern about potential power generation shortages, a Distributed Energy Resource committee has been formed to evaluate and report on the feasibility and approach for campuses to develop onsite power generation systems. The committee, comprised of representatives from the campuses and the Chancellor’s Office, will focus on long-term reliable and economic solutions that will meet the campuses future energy requirements. Monthly Energy Reporting Process Improvement: One of the provisions of Executive Order 785 requires the campuses must submit monthly energy reports to the Chancellor’s Office for inclusion in a systemwide database tracking and monitoring system. The current reporting processes and database tracking systems are labor intensive and do not render readily accessible information that can be used to monitor and forecast energy use and cost in an effective manner. In response to this concern, an Energy Information Systems Process Improvement committee has been formed to evaluate the current process and recommend improvements. The goal is to develop a web-enabled reporting system integrated with campus-managed automation systems to improve charge-back accounting, reduce reporting delays and errors, and provide enhanced data to aid with performance analysis and accurate forecasting. A final report on the committee’s findings is due in June 2004. Systemwide Comprehensive Energy Services Master Enabling Agreement: A streamlined method for procuring comprehensive energy services through a master enabling agreement (MEA) is being finalized. The solicitation will be released in March, qualified firms will be identified in April, and the project delivery system will be ready for campus use in May 2004. The MEA is expected to shorten the time to develop and contract for energy efficiency projects by 3 to 6 months. The MEA is the umbrella under which campuses sign a Campus Participation Agreement (CPA) and control the scope and project cost through a streamlined development and delivery processes. For further information on any of these items, please contact Joyce Kerley at (562) 951-4121 or via e-mail at jkerley@calstate.edu Len Pettis, Chief of Plant, Energy, & Utilities |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| FINANCIAL
SERVICES Dennis Hordyk, Assistant Vice Chancellor CONTRACT SERVICES AND PROCUREMENT CSU Planned Purchasing Activity
Further information can be obtained at: http://www.calstate.edu/csp/ or by contacting Pat Dayneko at (562) 951-4595.
The 2004 Year-end Legal and GAAP workshop is tentatively scheduled for June 7-8 at an LAX Airport hotel. Confirmed dates and location will be sent as soon as possible. George Ashkar, Director of Systemwide Financial Services |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY SERVICES (ITS) David Ernst, Assistant Vice Chancellor TECHNOLOGY INFRASTRUCTURE INITIATIVES (As a reminder, the build-out phases group campuses in the order that they undertake the TII project. Stage 1 refers to the physical construction of pathways, spaces and media on campuses; Stage 2 represents the installation of the necessary electronic components.) Infrastructure Build-Out Project - Stage 1 and Stage 2: All fourteen TII Phase 1 and Phase 2 campuses have entered into contracts for their Stage 1 physical infrastructure upgrade projects. Fully half of those construction projects have either completed or are nearing completion. Three Phase 3 sites Bakersfield, San Jose and San Marcos were due to receive bids during February. All Phase 3 campuses are expected to begin Stage 1 construction by Summer 2004. Six campuses (Dominguez Hills, Maritime, Northridge, Sonoma, San Bernardino and Stanislaus) have completed Stage 2 of the infrastructure build-out. These campuses now have an upgraded network infrastructure, including new Cisco network electronics, which meets the baseline standards to support the needs of campus students, faculty and staff. Two more campuses, Long Beach and Los Angeles are expected to complete Stage 2 by June of this year. Network Management System (NMS): The NMS is a set of software tools that allow campuses to monitor and measure their network performance and quickly identify points of failure when problems arise. The initial Network Management System installation was completed in mid-November, with the system operational on twenty campuses. The last three campus installations will take place in early March. Rollout of the next NMS version will occur in spring 2004 and will update the network management tools to coincide with current vendor software releases. Network Infrastructure Asset Management System: The Asset Management tool is a software application that allows campuses to maintain records of their network infrastructure by tracking cables and equipment locations on campus, in both a graphical and database format. The CSU Network Technology Alliance Committee (NTA) has created an Asset Management Working Group tasked with defining a standardized methodology for implementation and integration requirements. Training: Advanced training for campus network staff the Network Management System (NMS) software tools began in November. The course curriculum builds on previously offered training and teaches students to use the more advanced network monitoring features of the software tools. Eighteen campus network staff members have taken advantage of this training opportunity and an additional twenty-two students are signed up for the final sessions.
Increased SA Functionality on campuses: CSU campuses continue to implement additional functionality for students. Cal Poly Pomona had a successful rollout of Admissions in January and they plan to start using the financial aid functionality later this month. San Jose is planning to deliver self-service advising functionality to students in February. This will enable students to view unofficial transcripts and advising reports. At Sonoma, additional self-service functionality recently enabled students to view and make changes to addresses, phone numbers and email addresses. Final testing for Finance 8.4: San Luis Obispo and San Jose are slated to go live with Finance 8.4 in mid-March. They are in the process of completing their final testing. The Long Beach campus follows close behind in April. Benefits Administration: The Fresno campus is leading a campus collaboration project with three other campuses to develop the PeopleSoft Benefits Administration software as a proof of concept. The scope of the project is to automate the benefits enrollment process for vision, basic life and LCD (Labor Cost Distribution) by automatically enrolling employees in the plans and sending a file to the SCO.
For more information on CMS, please visit the website at http://cms.calstate.edu/ Academic Technology Initiatives: As part of the Foundational Skills Initiative, the CSU Math Success website project is underway, with the CSU Center for Distributed Learning at Sonoma State University leading the effort. The scope of the project is to develop a website for the CSU system that will provide prospective students and incoming freshman a wealth of math resources, academic advice, and skill development services. The goal is to help more incoming CSU students avoid the need for remediation in mathematics by passing the Entry Level Math (ELM) placement exam or otherwise qualifying for for-credit study in mathematics. The delivery date for the first version of this website is July 2004. As part of the Digital Marketplace Initiative, the SWAT II (Systemwide Acquisition of Technology) program will deliver the following within nine months:
In addition to the renewal of Turnitin (Plagiarism detection) and Macromedia systemwide contacts, which will provide the CSU significant savings, a high priority will go to developing opportunities for cooperation on course management systems (e.g. Blackboard, WebCT, and others) across campuses. MERLOT has grown to a digital library of over 10,000 online teaching and learning materials with over 1,100 peer reviews posted. MERLOT Metrics:
MERLOT has signed an MOU with Sentient Learning to provide faculty and students the MERLOT within the WebCT and Blackboard environments through the Sentient Learning services. Sentient Learning services enables faculty and students to search institutional library collections, learning object libraries, and commercial online “bookstores” from within Blackboard and WebCT. MERLOT has signed an MOU with the Colorado Community Colleges Virtual Speakers Bureau to provide the MERLOT institutional partners a database of online “speakers” you can augment the instruction within online courses though their guest presentations and facilitation of student learning activities within online environments. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| GOVERNMENTAL
AFFAIRS Karen Y. Zamarippa, Assistant Vice Chancellor Trustee-Sponsored Legislation Update: On behalf of the CSU, the Assembly Higher Education Committee has introduced Assembly Bill 1999, the system’s annual omnibus bill to address non-controversial and technical items. This year’s bill deletes several obsolete sections of the Education Code, including a section enacted in 1995 that authorized CSU, Chico to dispose of six houses known as the “Language Houses” to parties willing to preserve and restore the houses. All transactions authorized by the section have been completed. In addition, the bill conforms sections of the CSU Contract Law to existing authority in the State Contract Act, to ensure that the minor contract limit for CSU is automatically adjusted to be consistent with the limit that is set for state contracts. At their January meeting, the Board of Trustees also authorized legislation that would allow CSU to pursue claims under the False Claims Act against contractors who have made false claims for payment. Under current law CSU must depend on the Attorney General’s Office to pursue such claims, and they do not always have sufficient resources to take such actions. On the advice of Assembly Member Ellen Corbett, Chair of the Assembly Judiciary Committee, CSU is not introducing legislation at this time to address the issue. Rather, Assembly Member Corbett and her staff have organized a meeting between CSU and the Attorney General’s Office where it is hoped that an amicable resolution can be achieved that will result in CSU receiving better service on false claims and other legal issues. Bill Deadline Passes With Avalanche of Legislation: The deadline to introduce bills in 2004 was February 20, and as in past years the vast majority of legislation was introduced in the week prior to the deadline. This year, 1,583 bills were introduced in the final four days. Among the bills introduced in the final days prior to the deadline was AB 2469, an omnibus bill sponsored by the Assembly Higher Education Committee that would delay and/or repeal the submission of numerous statutory reports that are required of the CSU and other public institutions of higher education. CSU has been conducting an internal review and analysis of state and federal mandates to determine those that should be eliminated given the funds and non-faculty personnel time/position required to implement them, especially in the context of ongoing budget cuts. CSU will be working with Assembly Member Carol Liu (committee chair) and her staff to include some of those mandate relief items in the bill. Student fees is also an issue of particular interest to legislators this year. Four bills have been introduced that would place in statute some variation of a long-term student fee policy: AB 2574 (Diaz), AB 2710 (Liu), SB 1329 (Denham), and SB 1535 (Karnette). The latter bill is sponsored by the Schwarzenegger Administration to implement the long-term fee policy that was outlined in the January Budget Summary. Beginning with the 2005-06 academic year, the bill would tie fee increases to the increase in California per capita income. Upon a finding of unique fiscal circumstances, fees could be raised by up to 10%. The bill would also authorize graduate fees to be increased by whatever percentage is deemed appropriate by the Trustees until they reach a level that is 50% higher than undergraduate fees. It is expected that the issue of fees will be discussed at some length with the Legislature this year, and the position that CSU takes on legislation to enact a fee policy in statute will depend largely on whether each bill is consistent with the policy expected to be considered by the Board in May. Other bills of interest introduced prior to the deadline include the following: AB 1969 (Negrete McLeod), which would require CSU to offer ethics courses to each employee that is required to file a Statement of Economic Interest. AB 1973 (Nation), which would repeal provisions in HEERA that prohibit memoranda of understanding from including provisions that require additional funding from the Legislature. AB 2637 (Diaz), which would enact a Whistleblower Protection Act pertaining to CSU that is based on the existing California Whistleblower Protection Act. AB 2678 (Koretz), which would require CSU to establish a textbook rental library service for undergraduate students at each campus, beginning with the 2006-07 academic year. AB 2903 (Campbell), which would increase state employees’ annual retirement contributions by 1 percent of their gross pay (in most cases, an increase from 5 percent to 6 percent). The bill also would place new state civil service employees in a second tier retirement plan with lesser benefits. SB 1445 (Dunn), which would require CSU to take several actions with respect to public safety operations, including a) ensuring that every vacant police officer position is filled within six months of a vacancy; and b) requiring every CSU police department to maintain a minimum of 12 police officers in each department. Copies of CSU Legislative Reports and other legislative information pertaining to the CSU are available on the OGA website at: http://www.calstate.edu/GA/ |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|