 
NEWS FROM THE DIRECTORS
ACCOUNTING
Audited Financial Statements
The systemwide audit in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) and the report to management were presented to the Board of Trustees on Tuesday, January 26. Richard West, Senior Vice Chancellor, presented an overview of the financial statements and Mark Thomas, Engagement Partner from KPMG Peat Marwick, the external audit firm, presented the results of the audit. The financial statements included financial information for all 22 campuses and the Office of the Chancellor, plus a column including 72 discretely presented auxiliary organizations. This report brought together financial information from nearly 100 entities and presents a wealth of information about the California State University. Copies of the audited financial statement report, complete with the footnotes and the audit opinion letter, have been mailed to each campuses and can be viewed on our website at: http://www.calstate.edu/finances.shtml 1998-99 Mid Year Status Report
As part of our interim fiscal review, the Accounting Department will be sending a current appropriation status report to all agency financial officers during the month of March. CFO's will be requested to submit a year-end forecast detailing projected appropriation balances for general fund and capital outlay funds allocated to their campus. These reports will be used to identify potential uncommitted balances and formulate plans to effectively administer these resources prior to year-end. If you have any questions regarding the mid-year report, please contact Sean Boylan at (562) 985-2731 or sboylan@calstate.edu. Non-Resident Alien Tax Reporting Workshop
The Accounting Department along with Balance Consulting Inc. will present a one day workshop on tax information reporting and compliance for Non-Resident Aliens. This workshop will take place March 4, 1999 at the Holiday Inn Capital Plaza in Sacramento. A highlight of issues covered include: 1042 & 1042-s reporting and compliance, TIN and ITIN solicitation procedures, withholding at source issues for educational institutions, the new four W-8 forms and procedures, scholarship and tuition reporting, and a review of the reporting requirements for various types of payments made by educational institutions. Campus personnel that are targeted for this workshop include: Payroll, Personnel, Procurement, Accounts Payable, Financial Aid, Internal Audit and Foundation personnel. Space is limited. Information about the workshop may be obtained from our website at: http://www.acct.co.calstate.edu/Accounting.shtml Tax Reform Act of 1997
On January 5th, of this year, the IRS issued proposed Hope Scholarship and Lifetime Learning (TRA97) Tax Credit regulations. The proposed regulations include previously undefined qualified fee and expense guidelines. The new definitions provided us with an opportunity to perform an analysis of campus fees based upon the new regulations. The result is an interactive website that allows TRA coordinators on each campus to review their fee structure as it relates to the tax credits and to compare their fees among the other campuses, as well as having the ability to update, query, sort and run ad hoc reports. The website also contains a file for each campus to retrieve and post to their campus websites that will provide students with a tool to determine the tax credit eligibility of the fees they paid. Questions regarding TRA97 may be directed to Mark Osborne at (562) 985-2886 or mosborne@calstate.edu. Bill Musselman, Acting Director BUDGET OFFICE
FOA Winter Workshops
The Financial Officers Association (FOA) held two workshops in January, one at the San Bernardino campus and the other at the San Jose campus, relating to student fees. A panel of Chancellor's Office staff, General Counsel staff and campus representatives covered a wide range of topics relating to student fees and Executive Order 661 (Student Fee Policy). At both sites the panel discussed the legal and policy bases of student fees, campus fee policy procedures and other current issues. As a result of campus input, the CSU Budget Office, with assistance from several campus representatives, will review the fee policy to determine if improvements can be made. The goal will be to propose minor changes in the policy while maintaining the basic foundation of the fee policy which includes ensuring student consultation prior to establishing new fees or adjusting existing fees. At the same time, the policy seeks to encourage campuses to consolidate and eliminate current fees. A lengthy fee policy review process, which includes student consultation and involvement by a presidential committee, is expected. Governor's Budget
The Department of Finance released Governor Davis' first proposed budget in January. The Governor proposed a $129.2 million increase including an additional $12.3 million in fee revenue for CSU in 1999/2000. The proposed budget would increase CSU's General Fund appropriation to a total of $2,138,388,000 and includes provisions to commence negotiations for a new four-year funding compact for higher education. The Governor's proposal contains a four percent general fund increase which includes a one percent growth in enrollment. The Governor has also proposed a fee increase buyout linked to the California Per Capita Income growth index of 4.1 percent. Furthermore, the Governor proposes to fund an additional two percent enrollment increase for 1999/2000, 8,381 FTES (Full-Time Equivalent Students), bringing the system total to 279,403 FTES. The Budget Office will distribute preliminary campus allocations based on the Governor's budget in the first part of March. Several items were specified in the Governor's Budget including: State University Grants, Plant Maintenance, Channel Islands, and Applied Agricultural Research. After providing for mandatory costs, the amount remaining for compensation is approximately $45 million representing a 2.45 percent pool for all employees. CSU requested a compensation pool of four percent for faculty and staff ($73.4 million) plus an additional two percent for faculty ($19.5 million) aimed at closing the faculty salary gap. Legislative hearings to discuss CSU's budget priorities are being held on February 17, 1999 with an overview provided by Chancellor Reed. John Richards, Director CONTRACT SERVICES AND PROCUREMENT
Professional Development Library
Campuses Procurement and Support Services Officers (PSSO) have agreed to fund the development of a professional resource media library, comprised of audio and video tapes and self-study reference books which will be maintained by the CS&P office and will be available for check out by campus purchasing and contracting staff. The target for implementation of the program is May 1999. Questions regarding this initiative can be directed to Loren House, lhouse@calstate.edu. Desktop PC's - Systemwide Master Agreement Ð Tom Roberts
Through CSU's Integrated Technology Strategy, critical information technology resources were identified as crucial in the support of students, faculty and staff in meeting the academic mission of the CSU. An arrangement where the CSU's campuses could aggregate their purchasing power, purchase common configurations of computers, and standardize equipment maintenance and warranty service was determined to be a best practice to implement. It was anticipated that the expected total cost of ownership and the unit price reduction from common computer configurations would result in significant savings to the university system. The successful vendor, Inacom Information Systems, was chosen from a field of thirteen computer manufacturer's and value-added resellers who were responsive to an RFP issued in October 1998. The resulting contract with Inacom will provide CSU campuses with a single, competitively bid vendor to furnish several Gartner Group Tier One brand desktops, notebooks and servers. The scope of the agreement extends to all campuses, students, faculty and staff. The pricing under the agreement will also allow all CSU Auxiliary Organizations to buy at the pricing plan of 2% over Inacom's cost. Inacom and the CSU will jointly manage the negotiation of Inacom's cost of computers and peripherals with manufacturers. Inacom, the largest reseller of IBM equipment and final assembler of IBM, Compaq and HP, will provide IBM, Compaq, HP hardware under this agreement. A listing of services and prices being provided can be found at the following web site: http://pcadmin.calstate.edu. Contact Tom Roberts (562) 985-9159 or troberts@calstate.edu. for information. CS&P Bulletins
CS&P Bulletins A complete listing of all CS&P Bulletins related to policy changes in contracting and procurement and recent announcements of systemwide contracts and active solicitations is available at http://www.calstate.edu/csp/. Pat Dayneko, Director FINANCING AND RISK MANAGEMENT
Student Union Program
In upcoming months, the student union programs will be submitting their budgets to campus administrations for review and approval. These budgets will then be submitted to the Office of Financing and Risk Management to assure compliance with bond covenant requirements. In order for student unions to receive funds for operations in the coming fiscal year, the auxiliary organizationÕs operating agreement and lease must be current. In those cases where such agreements must be renewed, it is recommended that campuses start the renewal process as soon as possible to ensure that the necessary agreements are executed by the first week of June 1999 when the final budget is submitted. Questions relating to this item should be directed to Rosa H. Renaud at rrenaud@calstate.edu. Parking Program
On December 21, 1998, coded memo FRM 98-11 was issued releasing over $9.8 million of parking reserve funds to campus parking programs. This distribution completes the decentralization of the parking program. Please contact Rosa H. Renaud at rrenaud@calstate.edu with any questions on the distribution of these funds or the financing of capital projects on your campus. CSU Housing Program
The following summarizes current information relating to the DRF Housing Program:
State Pro Rata Charges
The State Department of Finance has informed the CSU that the state pro rata charges for fiscal year 1999/00 will increase by approximately 18 percent compared to the 1998/99 charges. In general, state pro rata charges relate to state services from agencies such as the State Controller, Department of Finance, State Treasurer, the Board of Control, the Legislature, and more specifically, to costs related to health benefit retirement annuitants. These state pro rata costs affect both our Continuing Education and the Dormitory Revenue Fund Programs. The Dormitory Revenue Fund Programs include housing, parking, student unions, and health center-facilities. The pro rata charges for the upcoming year take into account any differences related to prior year actual costs and thereby recovers (or returns) any prior year over (or under) state expenditures. For fiscal year 1999/00, an over expenditure rollforward of $399,117 from fiscal year 1997/98 accounts for approximately 78 percent of the upcoming year increase. The Financing and Risk Management Department will be distributing the 1999/00 state pro rata charges for each of the individual campus programs, together with other centrally paid costs, in the next few months. Richard Leffingwell, Director GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS
For copies of CSU Legislative Reports or other legislative information pertaining to the CSU, please visit our website at http://www.calstate.edu/oga/. Karen Yelverton, Chief Professional Officer INFORMATION RESOURCES AND TECHNOLOGY
The Technology Infrastructure Initiative is proceeding on course. There is activity in each of the major components of the plan, The Technology Infrastructure Initiative: Status and Directions, published October, 1998. Highlights include:
The Collaborative Management Systems (CMS) initiative is progressing with development of a Human Resources application system prototype by campus HR professionals. This Òbaseline prototypeÓ will be implemented using PeopleSoft software beginning in early 2000 among the CMS Òfirst waveÓ campuses and ultimately all 23 CSU campuses. A similar prototype development strategy will be employed with the subsequent PeopleSoft modules supporting Financial and Student systems functions. Detailed progress reports are available on the web at http://its.calstate.edu/. Tom West, Assistant Vice Chancellor CAPITAL PLANNING, DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION
Capital Outlay Program Status Reports
The following is an update of the general status of the ongoing and future CSU capital outlay program: 1998/99 Program
1999/00 Program
2000/01 Program
Contract General Conditions
We have completed the update of the Contract General Conditions for Major Capital Outlay Projects. These general conditions have been modified as follows:
This document is now available on our web site at the address below: www.calstate.edu/tier3/ppd/cm. Contract General Conditions for Minor Capital Outlay Projects are currently under review by General Counsel, and should also be available for 2/99 publication and inclusion on our web site. Major changes to this document include:
General Counsel has completed its review of the Design/Build Contract General Conditions, which should be available for 2/99 publication and inclusion on our web site. If you are unable to access the documents from the web site, you may request a printed copy by e-mailing Barbara Nicholson at the following address: bnicholson@calstate.edu. Be sure to include your mailing address in that e-mail message. Thank you. CPDC Website
The CPDC website is a resource to assist the campuses in meeting their capital planning objectives. The following summarizes available information on the CPDC website at www.calstate.edu/tier3/ppd/:.
CPDC Due Dates for CPB&G Agenda Items (May 11-12, 1999 Trustees' Meeting)
J. Patrick Drohan, Senior Director PLANNING AND ANALYSIS
Year 2000 Compliance Update
Following the December Executive Council meeting, campus presidents were asked to designate a senior campus official to verify and "sign-off" future Y2K progress reports. All presidents and the Chancellor's Office have named their representatives. Designees are being asked to review their quarterly campus reports for both accuracy and adequacy to meet their Y2K objectives. In December, the Chancellor's Office made a special allocation of $50,000 per campus to assist campuses in their Y2K compliance efforts. Guidelines for the use and accountability of these funds were discussed with the Presidents' Y2K designees. A Y2K information item was shared at the Board of Trustees January meeting, describing the objectives, scope and status of the systemwide activities in the areas of mainframe and application software systems, networks and servers, desktop systems, telecommunications equipment, embedded systems in facilities, and academic equipment. The Board has requested updates at the May, September and November 1999 meetings also. A follow-on to the Long Beach embedded systems pilot project has been initiated. The new project will assist campuses in performing the vendor contact phase of their embedded systems assessments and is designed to achieve systemwide efficiencies by eliminating the need for each campus to contact each manufacturer separately. Eight campuses have already expressed an interest in participating. If you have questions regarding this project or other aspect of the systemwide Y2K compliance efforts, contact Glenn Ducat at (562) 985-2721 or by e-mail at gducat@calstate.edu. Benchmarking Project
Survey responses from attendees at the November 20, 1998 Quality Improvement Symposium has been compiled and the feedback on the symposium was very positive. Both satisfaction with and importance of the speakers and workshops were rated above four on a one to five scale with five being very important and very satisfied. More detailed workshops covering the Baldrige criteria and Balanced Scorecard framework were requested. A day-long training session is being organized and is scheduled for March 24, 1999. More information will be available by early March. The CSU Benchmarking Task Force has been renamed as the Quality Improvement Steering Committee (QISC) reflecting their expanded role of promoting a variety of quality improvement frameworks and tools. A planning sub-committee has recommended a number of near-term and long range plans to promote the quality improvement tools. These recommendations will be shared with the Vice Presidents of Student Affairs and Administration at their February meetings. < P> The Òmini-benchmarkingÓ 1998/99 project covering Mail Services, Health Centers, Career Centers, Libraries and Public Safety has completed its data collection and function chairs are reviewing the data. The final data will be submitted to NACUBO on February 12. Preliminary reports will be returned to the campuses by the first of April. Final reports complete with national comparisons will be distributed in June 1999. Customer Satisfaction Survey
The operational area survey instruments for students, faculty and staff have been newly revised. Since many operational functions desired feedback from students, the student survey is broken into two separate documents, for use with more than one constituent sample group. Campuses are encouraged to participate in all the surveys but may choose to use only one or two of the surveys. There will be no document or tabulation cost to the campus. Campuses are responsible for developing their own sampling plans and providing their own analysis of the campus specific data. Review copies of the customer satisfaction surveys have been sent to all campus Vice Presidents of Academic Affairs, Student Affairs and Administration. V.P.s have been requested to notify the Customer Satisfaction Survey Committee by February 15 as to whether or not their campus will be participating administration of the survey during March 1999. Surveys will be ready to be shipped by the end of February. Process Mapping
The Quality Improvement Steering Committee is currently negotiating process mapping training in support of the first wave participants in the Collaborative Management Systems efforts. Training workshops with the human resource professionals could begin as soon as late February or early March. If you have any questions concerning benchmarking, customer satisfaction surveying or process mapping training, contact Ron Ashcroft (e-mail: rashcroft@calstate.edu. , phone 310-985-2706, fax 310-985-2710). Lenore Rozner, Senior Director
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