Chancellor's Report

to the Board of Trustees

November 19, 2003

Thank you, Chair Farar. I would like to suggest that when this board adjourns today, it adjourns in memory of Michael Stennis.

Today is a very important day for this board because we will be asking you to approve our budget for 2004/05, which will be a road map or a set of guidelines that we will use explain our needs to the Department of Finance, the Senate and the Assembly. Hopefully after May, we will come out with a good budget.

I am optimistic because of some of the brief conversations that we have had with the new governor and his staff. They really ran on a platform and talked about the values of creating better business environment in California. One thing we know is that we can't create a better business environment in California without the California State University. We are the economic engine of this state. This past May and June we provided 77,000 well-prepared graduates to enter the business communities of California. I think that we have to tell our story and we have to advocate for the students of the CSU. We have to prove that we are vital to California's economic prosperity. I think if we do that we will be a success.

The one thing that I did hear the new governor say was that things will probably get worse before they get better. I think I understand what that means. The deficit is somewhere between $25 and $28 billion when you get right down to it. I also think that we are very vulnerable to mid-year adjustments. Frankly, when you have a $28 billion hole, it will be more painful to make cuts next July than this January, but others have got to work that through. So those are some of the major hurdles that we are facing.

It is truly a California crisis and that crisis is going to challenge this university and every other part of government, and so we are not by ourselves. There are a lot of other people that are part of this and have responsibilities as important as we do. Debra referred to this and I want to say this again: I cannot compliment enough all of our presidents, Richard and his staff, and Dave, Jackie, and others. We worked for the last 18 months to prepare for this year and it shows what good planning can do. We welcomed a new group of students. We have 409,000 students attending the California State University. Very few people lost their jobs and almost all of those students are being served with classes and sections on our campuses.

We don't have 18 months to plan for this next crisis and we don't have anything left to save up to carry over into this next year. But what we're doing this year is that we are managing this system with $304 million less than what we had this last year. We are serving more students. Our faculty is working harder and they are teaching more. Our class sizes are larger so we are demanding more of our staff and providing services to our students. I think we have found some new ways to improve our efficiency and we will continue to do this but we also have to remember that there's a relationship between the amount of money you have and the number of students that you can serve with quality. We will keep our eye on that.

Now, several of us will be meeting in about two weeks with the UC and Bob Dynes, the president of the University of California. We worked very well together this past year and we plan to do the same thing this year. Bob is having group of university and community college presidents and senior staff such as Richard and his colleagues join him at UCLA the first week in December to talk about how all of public higher education in California can work together. As a part of that, Bob and I have talked about the importance of the California dream or access and what else can the CSU and UC do about access. Part of that conversation will include the private college and university sector of California so we can figure out what to do if we have to refer students and or provide information as how to apply to other places.

Let me finish with good news. First I want to let you all know that former Cal Poly Pomona President Bob Suzuki is going to receive a very high honor this winter. He will receive an "Order of the Rising Sun," which is the Japanese government's highest award.

Also, Jackie McClain, who is our vice chancellor for human resources, just received the Donald E. Dickason Award from the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources. Jackie has been in this business and a member of that association for about 30 years. In her most recent service she was the president of the national board and the national board recognized her with their highest honor. Congratulations, Jackie.

Last, I want to congratulate Kim Wible for her service as the systemwide police coordinator. Kim joins us from San Francisco State, where she has served as the chief of police since 1988. She has helped us out at the systemwide level for a little more than two years. Now, a call from Kim to me is not good news, especially when it's in the middle of the night. But I have full confidence in Kim that we would know what was going on and when bad things happened we would have people at the scene no matter what time it was or where it was. We had a fire not very long ago at Fresno at 5:00 in the morning and before 9:00 we had our insurance risk management people there to help them. Kim has also helped us improve communications systemwide with all the other police chiefs. She also fined tuned the reporting process on criminal statistics. Kim is a national expert on Clery Act compliance. Because of Kim, the California State University was nationally recognized for its reporting on the Cleary Act this past year. Kim was also recently named to the California Campus Sexual Assault Task Force. Kim, we are going to miss you. I don't know who's going to take your place, but they will have a big job to fill.

Chair Farar, would you join me in honoring Kim.

That concludes my remarks.