Chancellor's Report

to the Board of Trustees

July 8, 1999

Chancellor Reed: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. First, I would like to welcome Jim Lyons to his first trustee meeting as the new president of CSU Dominguez Hills. Louanne Kennedy, the interim president at Northridge, is ill and could not be here, but Louanne is doing an outstanding job.

As Chairman Hauck said, we are very pleased with the budget on a $2 billion base. We went over 7 percent and that is a lot of money. So, members, please drop a note, frankly a handwritten note, to the governor and thank him for helping the CSU. We spent a lot of time in the last few weeks on the budget, legislative matters, and labor negotiations. And I am very pleased with the labor contracts and the spirit shown by the folks who worked together in our office and in the labor organizations as they worked and focused on what was best for California State University.

I am sorry that Student Trustee Eric Mitchell was not able to be with us last night and today, but Eric gave notice to the governor and to me that he wants to get on with his life. He has served this board as the student trustee representative in an outstanding way. In a few minutes, this board will be taking action to pass a resolution to honor Eric, but Eric made the decision that he wanted to get to work and do some things that he had always wanted to do. And he thought that also might help get some new trustees appointed to this board.

I have had a brief conversation with the governor a few weeks ago and he anticipates that sometime in August or the first of September he will try to make some appointments to this board. Once he has done that, then what I would like to do is to work with all of you to see if we can schedule a retreat with the board to focus on the main policies of this board and our upcoming budget. We have got to begin work on that. In fact, we have already started. We talked to all of the presidents in a retreat, a week before last, about our 2000- 2001 budget.

Also, this last month, we participated with the governor in launching the governor's elementary reading initiative, in which I am very proud of the CSU and its partnership with UC. We will be providing education instruction to over 6,000 reading teachers throughout California this summer, and that is ongoing on almost all of our campuses. In addition to that, we participated in the kickoff of the LA Times' "Reading by 9" project and thought that that was very successful.

Trustee Larry Gould has also launched the search for a new president at CSU Northridge. We will keep you informed as we progress. We have set a target to try by the 1st of January to be able to name a new president of Northridge. That is optimistic; we may or may not be able to meet that time, but we have set that as a part of our schedule.

We had one of our faculty members receive a simply outstanding recognition some two weeks ago. Shawn Carlson, who is a professor of physics at San Diego State, was awarded a MacArthur Foundation genius award. Not only is it a prestigious award but $300,000 tax- free goes with it, so that's not bad. That is a great honor for Shawn and also for our system.

Since Long Beach State always gets recognized for something in the sports world, I decided to check out the other places and let me just say this: Chico State's baseball team won the Division II National Championship; Humboldt State's women's softball team won the national championship. So, Bob, they are coming at you quickly.

One other thing: we had a meeting with all the presidents yesterday focusing on technology, and I think we are moving down that road with a $10 million appropriation and have a good technology plan in place, so we are not going to need to meet today. So, I am pleased with that.

At this time, I would like to ask Chairman Hauck to join me at the podium because I would like to recognize and honor the CSU Headquarters Building Authority. This is an authority that has been in place for over 27 years and really has made it possible for us to build this new facility, made it possible for the trustees to join in a partnership with the Authority and to figure out how to pay for, in a tax- free way with local bonds, this building. They have performed their fiduciary responsibility in an outstanding way for more than 27 years.

So, Chairman Hauck, I would like to introduce the four members who are here and ask them to stand: Donald Wallace, Gene Lassers, Bill Barnes, and Gerrie Schipske. We thank all of you. Donald-- if you would come forward-- we would like to publicly thank you for your service to the Headquarters Building Authority. Don has served for over 27 years and has been the person that has looked after the bonds, looked after the trustees, making sure the we made our annual payments to retire those bonds and made it possible to issue new bonds to build this new facility. We want to honor the Authority but also honor Don Wallace for his great leadership. What we have chosen to do is to dedicate the largest conference room we have and to name that conference room the Donald C. Wallace Jr. Conference Room. We thank all the members of the Headquarters Authority; we thank you, Don, for your service for California State University. And, as somebody said, this Authority had a mission to keep the CSU headquarters building in Long Beach and you have accomplished that. I ask Chairman Hauck to thank Don.

Hauck: Don, on behalf of the board and on behalf of all of the people who are enjoying this building, thanks very much for a lot of years of great work.

Don Wallace: I've been warned not to take too much time because obviously you're having a longterm meeting, but I would like to introduce my fellow members with my committee. And, actually, I have served with that committee for 37 years, if you can believe it. It started back in 1962 with Glenn Dumke-- I was on his economic studies group and we met in Los Angeles Cal Fed Building. Dr. Dumke asked me if I would like to come down and work on this committee. Then the first thing I knew I was appointed chairman. So ever since 1962, old Don Wallace has faithfully helped to provide for the Headquarters Authority. The committee members signed bonds for $35 million in connection with this new building that was erected; and we certainly feel very proud of the fact that we think the money was extremely well spent. We love the building and we hope we will get better acquainted with it.

Please let me introduce my wife, Elizabeth Wallace. She was a member of the Long Beach Board of Education for 21 years. To her left is my daughter, Ann Wallace McAndrews; then there is her daughter and my secretary, Jenny Edley, and also my son Alex.

Let me introduce the committee. Gerrie Shipske comes from to us from Long Beach as a joint appointee. Gerrie has served for many, many years. And then Gene Sassers, who has been with our committee, the Building Authority Committee, for many, many years - very loyal. Then, Bill Barnes, who dates back to Long Beach Poly High School when he and I were appointed to be the cochairmen of the Interracial Committee, and who has been in education now for the last 40 years or so. It has been a pleasure to serve for these last 37 years with our particular committee, and our Authority is very, very proud of your new building. Thank you very much.

Reed: Next, I would like to ask former Chancellor Dumke's wife, Mrs. Dorothy Elliott, if she would come forward. As all of you know, Dr. Glenn S. Dumke served as the CSU chancellor from 1962 through 1982. That's a record in these jobs. During his distinguished career, the CSU grew from 16 separate state colleges to become the nation's largest senior system of higher education universities. Dr. Dumke's extraordinary vision and remarkable leadership molded and built an outstanding California State University which is highly regarded today. In 1991, this board named the auditorium in the building across the street as the Glenn S. Dumke Auditorium. We have decided to transfer the title of the old auditorium to the new auditorium to express our ongoing admiration for Dr. Dumke's work. So I am pleased to let you know today that this auditorium is hereby named the Glenn S. Dumke Conference Center. So thank you, Mrs. Elliott, for joining us, and allowing us to honor Dr. Dumke for all of the work that he did for California State University.

Mrs. Elliott: I just can't lose the opportunity to thank Chancellor Reed for the beautiful statement; it's a beautiful building. I haven't seen anything but this magnificant meeting room. Glenn would have been so pleased to know that his name is carried on; and, of course, I keep up to date with your various successes through the Los Angeles Times and other sources. So, anyway, it is wonderful to be here, and thank you for honoring Glenn and for allowing me to be here.

Reed: We will continue naming some conference rooms and other places in the building as we continue to meet. We expect Barry Munitz to be here in September and we will dedicate the Munitz Room. I may also say that I have the privilege today to mark the 25th anniversary of the CSU Board of Trustees' Award for Outstanding Achievement to students. The awards started in 1974 with a generous contribution from Evelyn D. Armer which established a scholarship trust. Then and now, the $2,500 trustee scholarships are awarded each year to CSU students who show financial need, superior academic performance, remarkable accomplishments, and community service. When the scholarship fund was depleted, the CSU trustees and other contributors continued to fund the scholarship program; and for that, we have to thank Ali Razi and the other trustees for their service, for their generosity and their contributions that kept the scholarship program alive. Ali, thank you and your colleagues for that.

The good news this year is that the Hearst Foundation has agreed to merge the Hearst Scholarship program and the CSU Trustees' Scholarship program. With that, the Hearst Foundation has increased its endowment to support the scholarship program from $100,000 to $300,000, allowing us to offer even more scholarships to deserving students. The program now will be called the Hearst/ CSU Trustees' Award for Outstanding Achievement. We thank the Hearst Foundation for its generous support, and we even believe after next year the Hearst Foundation will give us another $100,000.

I would like to give a brief introduction of these award recipients. They are, first, Andrew Casagrande, a junior at Cal State Long Beach with a 4.0 grade point average in psychology. I believe that Andrew is from western Pennsylvania. Andrew has succeeded in spite of a difficult family situation. He counsels other students and helps the disabled and is active in university athletics.

Second is Susan Jones who comes to us from San Francisco State with a 3.9 grade point average in humanities. Susan is a transfer student from the City College of San Francisco. Despite the hearing loss and health problems that ended her long career in the theater, she continues to help students as an English tutor.

And, third, Aimee Webb, a re-entry junior who is at CSU Chico with a 4.0 grade point average in sociology. As a young mother with personal challenges, and no high school diploma, Aimee turned her life around. She entered a recovery program, graduated from a community college with a 4.0, and then transferred to CSU Chico. She has written a play entitled Life of an Addict, which she directs and performs in local schools to teach kids not to use drugs. These three students we applaud today because they are among the best and brightest in the CSU system. As we prepare to build an even better CSU in the future, these students represent the very best about what we are all about. Now, I would like to ask if somebody would turn on the video so that we can see something about these students.

{Video presentation on the three trustees' scholars}

Reed: That concludes my report, Mr. Chairman.