Chancellor's Report

to the Board of Trustees

January 27, 1999

I too want to welcome Trustee Fred Pierce. I look forward to working with you and your colleagues in the Alumni Council, which is very, very important to the well-being of the California State University.

I was thinking this morning about last January's meeting, in which you allowed Barry and me to share, although neither one of us actually worked for you at the time. And I wanted to share with this board how supportive and how helpful to me Barry has been this past year. In every case that I have called on Barry to help me and help the CSU, he has really gone way beyond the call of duty. So if you see Barry, or talk to him, thank him for his continued support of the California State University. He also worked very hard on the governor's transition and I know that we were wellrepresented in that political process also. And a lot of people don't know how hard that work is, and Barry took six or eight weeks there in which he did some very heavy lifting to help the new administration get under way.

I would like to remind the board and the presidents: California State University is honored to host Secretary of Education Dick Riley who, on February 16 at Long Beach State at the Pyramid, will deliver the State of American Education address. You have probably already received your invitation. Then, later that afternoon, Secretary Riley and several others-- including California Secretary of Education Hart-- will spend two or three hours in the afternoon focusing on teacher preparation nationally and in California. As you know, that continues to be one of our top priorities.

We continue the development work with the British Open University and the CalStateTEACH program. Presidents Peter Smith and John Welty co- chair the committee. Our faculty continue to work hard on the development of the curriculum. We have identified the regional centers that will be in operation beginning this summer. We plan to start this program, if it is successful, with approximately a thousand emergency certified teachers, and we hope to complete all of our negotiations with the Open University by the end of February. Sir John Daniel and I remain in close communications and it has been a "trust me" relationship so far these past six months. Now we're working with the attorneys but we're almost to the end.

In today's LA Times Education section there is a major piece about the need in California for new teachers. They estimated in the column that California will need approximately 27,000 new teachers annually for the next ten years. That tracks with our numbers. We are estimating 250,000 to 300,000 net new teachers in the next ten years. As a part of this university's effort, we have launched a $2 million recruiting effort, called CalTeach, which should be hitting the airwaves; and we will be interested in whether you see this or not. We have purchased on the cable stations approximately $2 million worth of airtime in the next few months. I'd like to take 30 seconds to show you what this ad looks like. There's also material available for you to read. (The CalTeach spot is shown.)

We are pleased with the number of hits on the web site and calls to the 1- 888 number. We believe that we have directed to our institutions approximately 1,800 individuals who indicated that they want to become teachers. Gary Hart, since our last board meeting, has joined the new administration as the new Secretary of Education. Again, Barry, I think, had a lot to do with that. And that should assist us and help our efforts in improving the public schools and preparing teachers.

Yesterday you heard a report by Richard West about the Governor's Budget. I will be committing a major part of my time now for the next three or four months to be in Sacramento with Richard. Our budget is about $120 million short of what we had asked for, and so we are going to be working on that part of the budget over the next several months.

I am continuing my campus visits. I will be making Round Two, and in some places Round Three; I'm looking forward to doing that. I will be joining the governor and his group visiting Mexico next week and spending three days there. Chairman Hauck invited me last week to address the Business Roundtable. Business Roundtable has established a new committee on reforming K-12 education. It is very consistent with the goals of the California State University but focused on accountability, accountability measures, and achieving the standards that have been set by the State Board of Education. I really want us to do everything we can to support the efforts of the Roundtable and the business men and women who have created it. Bill Hauck may want to say a little bit more about this new group to focus business' attention on education in California.

The other thing is, in June the California State University will be hosting here in Southern California the National Business-Higher Education Forum made up of the Fortune 100 CEOs and chancellors and presidents of the major institutions throughout the United States. We will be getting invitations to you for that meeting.

President Bob Corrigan mentioned it this morning, but I want to make sure you realize how well California is represented in the national effort to improve reading and mathematics. Bob has been on the America Reads and the America Counts steering committee of university presidents for a long time, but President Rosser and President Suzuki also have been appointed by the Vice President of the United States to serve. And it's a very worthy national project that they'll give direction to.

I also just want to share and congratulate Chuck Lindahl who has been chosen to receive Emporia State University's Distinguished Alumni Award. The alumni award will be presented to him this spring. Thank you for your leadership and congratulations on that recognition.

I have been here approximately a year. I've been here longer than a year but you've been paying me at least for ten months. And I have been trying to get to know all the folks that are working here and their roles and how our organization works. Today I'd like to announce that I'm going to be changing a few titles. I have been told I did not need to get board approval because it's a title change. But, I would like to make the titles fit the way I have been working. And that is, I'd like to change Dave Spence's title slightly to the Executive Vice Chancellor and Chief Academic Officer of California State University. And I would also like to change Richard West's title to Executive Vice Chancellor and Chief Financial Officer of California State University. These modifications reflect the way that I have been operating and I thought it was only fair that the titles should match. The other reporting relationships will remain the same.

The other thing that I'd like to do now is to ask Bob Maxson to come up and join us. Last weekend the Long Beach Press-Telegram had a color section featuring CSULB. This is the 50th anniversary of Long Beach State, so the 49ers have become 50 this year. And this week, on Friday, out at Long Beach State, they will be celebrating Founder's Day to celebrate the 50th anniversary and kick off a year of celebration of fifty years at Long Beach State. And so I would like to congratulate Bob Maxson for his leadership and commend Long Beach State for going from being a 49er to a 50-year university. (Chancellor Reed presents proclamation to President Maxson.)

Mr. Chairman, that completes my report.