Chancellor's Report

to the Board of Trustees

May 19, 2004

Thank you, Chair Farar. I, too, want to take this opportunity to thank you for having served as chair of this board since March of 2002. You've served a little longer than most people get to serve because of Larry's term ending. But I also want everybody to know how hard you've worked and how diligent you have been. You have brought the CSU through some of the toughest times this system has ever had and you have earned the respect of this entire board, all the presidents and the CSU family for your leadership, for your fairness, for your good judgment and your hard work. Thank you again for your service. Also I think Sim is here and he has supported this system by supporting Debra this whole time. Sim, would you please stand so we can recognize you. Thank you.

I also want to wish the best to Alex Lopez as he graduates in another week and goes out into the tough world. I've gotten to know Alex probably as well as any of the student trustees. Alex, whatever you do, you will do well.

I've also gotten to know Jose Solache. I don't know if people here realize Jose is already an elected official, but he is a school board member. After about two months in office, he came back and said to me, “You know it’s a lot harder than anybody told me it was going to be. These people come and talk forever, and we've got to sit there.” So he is really learning.

Bob Cherny, I want to thank you for your leadership with the Academic Senate this year. You have been very helpful. You have helped steer many of the big issues through the Academic Senate. So thank you for your leadership and we want to wish you well as you go off on a Fulbright this next year. Thank you.

This is the last board meeting for two of our presidents. First I want to recognize President Tomás Arciniega. Tomás has given 31 great years to the California State University. Tomás is revered among the Latino presidents in the United States. He helped found the Hispanic-serving institutions group, HACU (Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities) and served as the chairman of that board for years. He went off that board and he is now going back on the HACU board to serve with Alex Gonzalez and Milt Gordon. But Tomás is not just going to retire. Tomás is going to help us put together a leadership institute to help people who want to go into academic leadership and move up the rung. So, I'm looking forward to working with you, Tomás, on that. And, thank you for your service to this system for so many years.

Also, this will be the last meeting for San Jose State University Interim President Joe Crowley. As I said to a to a group of people last night, I called Joe up about this time last year and lied to him. I said, “Joe I promise you that if you will just come from Nevada and spend six months, I'll have you home for good before Christmas.” Well that didn't work out, Christmas got here and I called Joe and said, “Joe, do you think you could do this another six months?” And he didn't hesitate. Actually, he did. He said, “I have one person to check with – my wife. I'll call you right back.” And he called back in a few minutes and said, “I think we can do that.” Joe, when we needed you the most you came to the CSU. And being a CSU graduate yourself, you showed your true CSU colors. So thank you for the outstanding job you did for students, faculty, staff and the community in San Jose and for keeping things going forward. As Chair Farar said, Paul Yu will begin his service at SJSU on July 15.

I also want to echo Chair Farar's comments about the new compact with the governor. I've gotten a lot of credit today and a lot of thanks and I really appreciate that. As you know chancellors get a lot of criticism, too. You get more criticism and more compliments than you deserve. I just want to say that Richard West and Patrick Lenz and others on our staff worked a lot harder than I did to get this compact. We have an outstanding staff, we have a great team and it was the team that put that together. So, Richard, Patrick and others, thank you for all of the work that you've done.

This new agreement puts the governor on record. He has made a commitment to the future of higher education and the California State University. This compact lets us see some light at the end of the tunnel, even though it’s going to take us one academic year to get there. But it has been my experience in California that what the governor says has the biggest influence in how the budget ends up. In the past, the governors have even used the May Revise to add to their compact and partnership agreements.

This compact recognizes the importance of the CSU continuing to grow and have enrollment increases. It provides for stability in fees. It establishes a floor and there is no ceiling to the compact. We need this because if you are going to run a high-quality university system, you have to be able to plan. Our students apply for admission in November and they expect to start to hear in December and January. The presidents have to make sure that they provide the faculty and staff to meet our student enrollment needs.

Last week we learned that the May Revise did not call for the CSU to take any additional cuts for 2004/05. So as it stands, we have a plan to manage ourselves through 2004/05, hopefully for the last time with a reduction. I think we can manage ourselves out of this one last time, but I don't want to see this in the future. I think that there is a possibility, even today, that the Legislature can do something between now and June 15 that would supplement this budget. I want to ask everybody in the CSU family to continue their efforts in Sacramento to influence the Legislature, to influence the governor, to say that we would like to see something happen to our budget to help improve it. We will all work together over the next several weeks to see if we can accomplish that. I appreciate the coalition that John Travis and the CFA have put together. We can see and feel a difference in terms of a greater respect for the CSU and the access we provide, and in terms of recognizing the CSU’s enrollment and budget needs. I only hope that the CFA continues their coalition. We need to continue that coalition into next year so that we can continue to get public support for the CSU and so that our budget can go up and not down.

Trustee Achtenberg had a good suggestion, which is to talk about the previous compacts and what the state owes the CSU. We also need to continue to work with legislators and the governor in the off cycle time, not just during the short legislative experience that is going on now. If we do that, the CSU will be better off for it, so I am committed to do that and I hope that all of our faculty, staff and students will continue to do that as well.

And, lastly I too want to congratulate Roberta Achtenberg and Norma Rees for being named two of the 100 most influential women in the Bay Area. Congratulations to both of you.

Chair Farar, that concludes my report.