Chancellor's Report

to the Board of Trustees

January 26, 2005

Thank you, Chair Galinson.

I would like to begin by thanking Murray for a gift that he and his wife Elaine made to the CSU. They made a bequest to the CSU system to create an endowment fund after their lifetimes that will recognize faculty members’ work in their communities.

Thank you for your generosity, Murray.

Also special thanks to Trustee Melinda Guzman Moore for a gift she made to Cal State Fullerton for student scholarships. Thank you, Melinda.

I want to join the chair in welcoming Larry Adamson as our alumni trustee. I also want to say a few words about two colleagues.

First, our Executive Vice Chancellor and Chief Academic Officer Dave Spence has accepted a position as the president of the Southern Regional Education Board.

Without a doubt, Dave Spence is the best academic administrator I have worked with. He is smart, passionate about student learning, and he understands the importance of partnerships with K-12 and the business community. We will miss him greatly.
I will be working with this board to determine when we will begin a search for his replacement.

Also, CSU Monterey Bay President Peter Smith announced last month that he would be leaving for a job in Paris as the Assistant Director-General at UNESCO, which is the United Nations’ education agency. Peter was the right president at the right time for CSU Monterey Bay. He set its tone and its emphasis on academic excellence and community service. He will remain on campus through June, but he will leave a lasting legacy as the university’s founding president.

Budget

Chair Galinson, I’d like to follow up on what you said about the budget by saying that we are extremely pleased that Governor Schwarzenegger honored the compact in this new budget. We took a lot of criticism and heat for agreeing to that compact, but I believe it is one of the best decisions I’ve made.

We need to remember that over the past three years, the CSU has seen a net budget reduction of $522 million, which resulted in enrollment reductions, cuts in student services, and a growing faculty and staff salary gap.

The compact funding provided in the governor's budget will allow us to begin to improve student access, employee compensation, and our ability to cover mandatory costs.

We will be working very closely with the governor and legislators over the next several months as the negotiations continue on the budget. Once our budget is back in shape, we can continue to focus on our primary purpose: to produce well-prepared graduates for California.

As we learned in the impact study released last fall, the CSU plays a major role in the development of our state's key industries and helps California remain competitive in the global economy. When the CSU flourishes, everyone wins.

Asian Newspapers

Last, I know most of you have seen the CSU’s “How to Get to College” poster. We have distributed an English/Spanish version of the poster to middle and high school students around the state. Last fall, the CSU worked with three Asian newspapers to translate, print and circulate the “How to Get to College” poster in Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese. We have distributed copies of these posters to high schools with large populations of Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese students.

I would like to ask Chair Galinson and Colleen Bentley-Adler, director of Public Affairs, to join me at the podium so we can recognize our partners in this effort:

1. Chinese Daily News, Grant Wu, Advertising Account Executive and Cathay Bank, business sponsor, Kim Morris, Assistant Vice President
   
   
2. The Korea Times, Karen Ra, Corporate Marketing Manager and Polymath Academy, business sponsor, Dr. Min Yang, Owner
   
   
3. Nguoi Viet Daily News, Minh-An La-Pham, Executive Assistant.

Thank you all for what you have accomplished to help students prepare for college. We are proud to have you as partners.

Chair Galinson, that concludes my report.