Chancellor's Report

to the Board of Trustees

January 26, 2000

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. First, I would like to add to your welcome of our two new trustees, Trustee Roberta Achtenberg and Trustee Debra Farar. We are pleased that both of you have been appointed, and we look forward to working with you and to your helping us make the California State University an even greater university system. I also want this board to know that at the confirmation hearing by the Senate Rules Committee, Trustee Dee Dee Myers was unanimously recommended to the full Senate for confirmation.

Every once in a while, something really outstanding happens at one of our institutions. Just recently, at San Francisco State University-- I want to congratulate them-- their Music Composition Department was recognized by a prestigious award. The Music Foundation at Harvard University chooses ten recipients for their international commissions. And this week, three of the ten commissions-- that's three out of the ten commissions-- went to faculty members in San Francisco State's Music Composition Department: Wayne Peterson, Ronald Caltabiano, Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez. The first time ever that more than one award went to an institution, and San Francisco State received three of the ten awards, and they were international commissions.

The other thing that I want to do is, on behalf of the faculty senate, to convey to this board their appreciation and thanks for how this board handled the domestic partners issue. The full support and unanimous vote by this board was very much appreciated.

As you know, we have received an outstanding budget from the governor. It represents some real and significant gains for the California State University. The budget is significant in that there are some real qualitative gains. But the other thing that this budget recognizes is the priorities that this board set this past year. I feel very good about the trustees' priorities and the agenda that the CSU has. That agenda included access, compensation for faculty and staff, and an increase in the quality areas of our libraries, technology, and taking care of our laboratories and facilities. But also it recognized, in a very significant way, the work that President Bob Maxson and his colleagues, presidents and the faculty, have been doing in the area of improving the public schools. This budget has an increase of a little more than 10 percent, or $226 million dollars. Now, not included in that $226 million is another $75 million, which will be shared among the California State University, the University of California, and the private colleges and universities in this state. We, the California State University, will probably receive about 70 percent of that $75 million, because we do most of the work with the public schools.

In the area of continuing focus on improving reading instruction: The governor has added algebra and English language instruction, and the use of technology by K-12 classroom teachers. All that is to say that we, the California State University and this state and the citizens, are in the best of times. I know that this board struggled in the early nineties when it wasn't so good. But I don't think the economy can get much better. And one of the things I hope that the entire family of the CSU will do is to be focused on these best of times and work together as one in Sacramento. Because if we put forth a united front, very, very good things will continue to happen to us. We don't need to have divisions; we need to be all going in the same direction. And if we send that signal of confidence in ourselves and confidence in what we're doing, I am just very optimistic that we can make some huge qualitative gains. We can continue to provide the access to the CSU system that it is really recognized for. So that is my hope and goal for this upcoming legislative session.

The other thing that I just want to briefly report on: President Bob Maxson and Executive Vice Chancellor Dave Spence did a great job in reporting on teacher education. I get criticized every once in a while for spending so much time on teacher preparation and teacher education. But, Harold Goldwhite said all the disciplines in all the schools in all of our universities are pulling together to help improve the public schools. We had a meeting yesterday morning and talked about some of our other outstanding programs-- CSUPERB, Moss Landing, and our Ag programs-- and we're going to be coming back to this board with some recommendations in those areas, especially to seek out some federal funds. But in the area of teacher education, I don't think that there's anything more important that we're doing. Again, if you picked up the paper this morning, you read where 88 percent of California schools are not performing anywhere near a satisfactory level. We really have to do something to help the public schools and help the state turn that around. I'm proud to see this morning that our own school at Dominguez Hills, CAMS, our math/science school, was ranked at the very, very top, in the top ten schools. So, you know, it proves we know what we're doing and we know how to do it.

In addition to what President Maxson said, we are on schedule for the teacher education goals that this board set in July of 1998. But we have got to continue to pay attention to that plan, and stay on schedule. We will report to you on a periodic basis. I'm pleased, though, that the CSU in November hosted, with the help of the Abramson Foundation, public and private college and university administrators in Riverside for two days. They represented the preparation of about 88 percent of all of the new teachers in California. It was an excellent meeting. All of our deans, all of our institutions, were there; our provosts were there, and I think we made some significant progress. One week later, at Stanford, we co-hosted a meeting of all of the public and private college and university presidents in California and focused just on teacher education. It was the first time in this state that all of the public and private university presidents had ever come together for any reason. And so I was very proud. All of our presidents were in attendance, and it was a significant commitment.

In addition to that, about two weeks ago I received a call on a Friday afternoon from Secretary for Education Riley, commending the California State University trustees and our system, because he was hosting a White House conference on teacher education, and 17 of our CSU campuses were represented. That was the largest number of campuses that attended from any state. He was very proud of what the CSU is doing. He also shared with me that later in February-- as you know, he came here last year to deliver his "State of American Education" address-- he will be doing that again, this time in Raleigh, North Carolina, with his friend Governor Jim Hunt, but said that he was going to continue to recognize what the CSU is doing in teacher education.

The other item that I wanted to share, just quickly, is at your desk; you have the newest copy of "California at the Crossroads." This document talks about the commitment to higher education in California's future by the California State University. Russ Gould and our staff, along with Bobbie Metzger, revised the "California at the Crossroads" document that was written by CSU and UC. This new document is California State University-specific. We will be making that distribution in the next few days, and wanted you to have that. Mr. Chairman, that concludes my report.