Chancellor's Report

to the Board of Trustees

November 17, 1999

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It is a great pleasure for me today to formally welcome Jolene Koester as the new president of Cal State Northridge. I know of Jolene's passion for the CSU's mission and her leadership abilities. Jolene, I look forward to working with you and your colleagues.

When you do a presidential search-- some of you have participated in that process-- all of them are different, and I just want to say that the search committee did an outstanding job, as did the faculty, the student representative, and the community leaders. The committee had outstanding trustee leadership and that leadership came from Larry Gould, who did a great job. It wasn't hours-- it was hours and days of hard work, but what I liked about Trustee Gould was he worried a lot. He almost drove Bill Dermody nuts, who kept half of it to himself and only shared half with me. But he did, he worried at the right time, which was on the front end of that process. Then, once we began, Larry took it from there and provided great leadership. So I appreciate that.

The other person who I would like to recognize as a part of that whole process is a person who will continue to provide leadership at Northridge and that is Louanne Kennedy. As the interim president, Louanne has done an outstanding job. Louanne, please stand and let us thank you. Louanne, Jolene, and I met last night and we are going to meet again and work out the transition to Northridge, and we'll let Don Gerth worry about that part of it.

Mr. Chairman, this board meeting in November marks a special time for me. This board gave me the privilege of providing leadership two years ago at your November 1997 meeting; and I want to thank you for that privilege because this is a great university system and I can say that I have enjoyed almost every day that I have been here.

As a part of that, when I came, this board, and Barry Munitz with his leadership, had really struggled and worked really long and hard on a couple of areas. The first was Cornerstones; and I had the Cornerstones document before I ever got here and spent time with that and shared that with others. One of the things I said that I wanted to do was to implement the Cornerstones document and I remember reading someplace where even folks that had worked on the Cornerstones document said, "What, we are really going to implement this? We thought we were just going to plan and put it away."

I want to thank Dave Spence and the faculty senate for their hard work on the Accountability Plan that you will give final approval to in a little while. As Gene Dinielli said, there was some pushing. If you don't let folks know that the train is going to leave the station, they don't tend to get on it. But I can remember when everybody said that they will never be able to get the train to the end of the station. But somehow it stayed on track and it did, and so we are moving forward with the implementation of Cornerstones and with the accountability process that is so important to this board.

We have to be fully accountable to the public. As a part of our informing the public about what the California State University is all about, those indicators of performance and accountability measures that are in that document to implement Cornerstones are really important. I think if we can communicate, in clear language, what the California State University is doing with the resources that this state is providing us, we will get more confidence, more resources, and more support for this university system. Because I truly believe that this is the economic engine of California. So I thank you and I thank Dave and the faculty senate and everybody who worked so hard to put that together.

The second item that we are right in the middle of is what are we going to do about remediation. I think we have taken a good first step with Ralph Pesqueira's pushing and Denny Campbell's and others, about reducing the numbers. The first thing we had to do was to make sure that we were testing all students. We weren't testing everybody when I got here that November. But we think we can say now that we are giving a diagnostic test to everybody before they get to us.

Now, I would like to see us give our diagnostic test back in the 10th or 11th grade. We are going to continue to push in that direction. We are trying out some other diagnostic instruments in the 9th and 10th grade. They are inexpensive, but they are telling students what it is all about to go to college-- what the expectations are.

The other thing I know that we did-- this board was firm. You said we mean it and we are going to stick to it. I think the mistake that some other states and systems have made is that they were not firm. I have said we can be firm with some compassion, but we have to be firm. We have to be willing to say if you can't do college-level work, we are going to wish you the very best and we are going to recommend that you go to the local community college. We will bring you back, but here are our standards and here's the amount of time that we have to accomplish that.

Dave said this and I think this is really important. We have to push that so that as soon as those students leave the 12th grade they start their remedial work that very summer. Rather than waiting until the fall, waiting until whenever, they start right away. The outreach program that Superintendent Eastin talked about is really going to help us with our remedial problems. We have to work on the remedial problems on both sides, our side and the K-12 side. We will never get down, Trustee Wang, to the 10 percent if we don't do something earlier in the K-12 system.

Now, having said that, I do appreciate how the students really buckled down and took very seriously the standards. Dave said this too. It just proves to me that if you work hard, you can do a great deal. And that is what our faculty, our presidents, and our student services people did-- they, with intensity, attacked the remedial problem this past year. Last summer there was tremendous intensity; the presidents put their resources there. We made the fees so students could afford it and we also told students they weren't going to do anything else but remedial education and, frankly, that works. If we can continue that, I know we can make some good progress.

At your place is a poster. This poster, beginning with the 6th grade, tells students, teachers, parents, the whole world, what the expectations are if you want to be successful and go to college, and what the CSU requirements are. We are printing 75,000 of these and we are going to be distributing them

to all the middle schools and high schools and the classrooms throughout California. We want to get the word out about what our expectations really are. We are going to print these in Spanish also. Now, Trustee Fallgatter this morning said, "I even have a better idea for you-- a community college poster." This was a good idea and we need to go to work on this. We need to do the same thing for our community colleges because they are not transferring a high enough percentage of the community college students to us. It is just too low. Those community college students do not complete a baccalaureate degree at the level that this state needs. And so we will go to work and, hopefully, Colleen Bentley- Adler, by the next board meeting, will have a community college poster put together too.

The third area is in the area of teacher preparation. Again, the Ed Policy Committee was providing the leadership, with President Maxson, when I got here that November. I can report to you: we are on schedule still for a 25 percent increase in teacher certification production. We are not over 25, we are not under, we are right on, so that's scary, but, I can say this: all of our universities and presidential leadership, faculty and the deans have taken that very seriously. We have reformed many and most of our teacher education programs. We have built new and better and expanded partnerships with our public school friends, and so that is on schedule.

A couple of other items: next week, the CSU is going to be hosting a conference in Riverside on the best practices in teacher education. The invitees will cover about 88 percent of the production of teachers in California. These are public and private institutions. I believe there are two or three UCs in there and our private partners. We are going to spend a day focusing on best practices in teacher education, and all of our institutions will be involved. The following week, on December 6, all of the college presidents in the state of California will come together at Stanford where Gerhardt Kasper and Dick Atkinson, and I will all host a day-long meeting of all the presidents of all the institutions, public and private, in California to talk about our mutual commitment to teacher preparation for the public schools of California.

At your place today is a publication that has just been released within the last two weeks by the American Council on Education called To Touch the Future: Transforming the Ways Teachers Are Taught. I am proud of this document in the sense that California had a major influence in putting this document together. What this document says is that in American higher education the preparation of teachers needs to come back as the central mission of all of our colleges and universities and has to be raised to a much high priority. Last week in San Francisco at the meeting of the National Association of the State Universities and Land Grant Colleges, folks said that California is leading the way because the California State University system has made that commitment. So I thank my presidential colleagues for their leadership in that area.

I have a few announcements that I would just like to share. President Welty has been selected by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education as the Outstanding CEO of District VII, which includes California. President Rosser has just recently been appointed by Governor Davis to serve on the statewide taskforce on outreach and diversity. President Lyons has received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Connecticut. At Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, President Baker has just received one of the largest gifts there-- an endowment of a chair by the Dunn Edwards Corporation in biochemistry so it will be the first endowed chair that they have. Don Gerth, who has provided such great leadership to his athletic programs at Sacramento-- I remember reading something about that last year-- can claim credit, Bob Maxson, for the state women's volleyball team Big Sky championship. So don't let them say that you are not putting enough resources into the sports program, Don.

I would like to recognize and congratulate Professor Julie Glass. She is an assistant professor of mathematics at Cal State Hayward. She has just been named the 1999 California Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Professor Glass hosts a popular program called Math on TV, which is beamed out to high school students throughout that area. She co-founded a math and science day camp for young girls, and I would like to ask President Norma Rees if she would more formally introduce Professor Glass and show us a short video presentation.

President Rees: Thank you very much, Chancellor Reed. It is my great pleasure to introduce Professor Julie Glass from Cal State Hayward. I can't think of any better timing than introducing her today after this very important and in-depth discussion that we had about remedial education and the importance of good math education. Julie Glass, as you heard, is assistant professor of mathematics and was just named the 1999 California Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching; and in selecting Julie Glass, the foundation expresses its own view of the priority of helping students achieve in math learning.

Dr. Glass's contributions to education at Cal State Hayward go well beyond the traditional classroom work. In addition to her cable television work, which has been an interactive program connecting high school students and teachers to learn algebra, there is her work in authoring math-oriented children's books and the summer math and science camp on campus that you have heard about. That camp is funded by the National Science Foundation. But her work with math majors is equally important and I want to read you a quote from one of her upper division math students, Kirk McMorris, who said, "She is largely responsible for my decision to become a math teacher and pursue a graduate degree in math. She rekindled my passion for mathematics and helped me to discover my style of teaching as I emulate her." And now I would really like to show this short video. (Video Presentation).

Chancellor Reed: It is my pleasure to present this plaque to Julie Glass for her extraordinary dedication to undergraduate teaching for our students in California State University. Thank you for all your hard work and dedication.

Professor Glass: I am especially pleased to have received this award because it celebrates teaching; and in confronting the challenges that the CSU faces as a public education institution, I think it is very important that we recognize the vital contribution that teachers make to the state of California and to our nation. To me this award really honors the whole California State University system in recognition of its essential role in providing an outstanding education for all California's students.

Cal State Hayward in particular takes very seriously its mission of excellence in education for a diverse society. Since joining the mathematics faculty at Cal State Hayward, it has been my privilege to receive the encouragement of the faculty and the administration to pursue a wide variety of educational and professional activities. I've had students approach me after seeing my mathematics class on TV and tell me that I make math seem like it's fun. If what I do encourages a few people to feel like math can be fun, I'm glad I became a teacher. I have had students take my classes and decide afterwards to become math majors. If what I do encourages a few people to pursue mathematics as a career, then I'm glad I became a teacher. I have had students take classes from me and decide to go on to become teachers and if what I do encourages just a few people to go on to become teachers, then I'm certainly glad that I chose to become a teacher.

Our students need skills, tools, and knowledge to achieve their goals and to participate in a global economy, and they also need a love of learning and a desire to continue learning throughout their lives. If we succeed in providing these vital components, our students will give back to the university and to the state of California. The faculty of the California State University system are helping to create an educated and enthusiastic human resource base for our state, and in providing these students with access to a high quality, broad education designed by faculty who are experts in their discipline, we help to ensure a prosperous future for each of our students and for the state of California.

Chancellor Reed: Julie, we are glad that you became a teacher too. Thank you and thanks for that passion. I will say this, we want to invite you back because there are a lot of people sitting at this table who need some remedial algebra and we probably could improve their math skills, but thank you for being a teacher.

Two other special recognitions and anniversaries. This year is the tenth anniversary of California State University, San Marcos, and I would like to ask President Alex Gonzalez if he would come up. We are all proud of CSU San Marcos. It was my privilege this fall to go to San Marcos and participate in part of their tenth anniversary celebration which was combined with Alex Gonzalez's inauguration and many of his colleagues were there. Alex, to the nearly 6,000 students at San Marcos, to you, and the faculty and staff, and your colleagues, congratulations and many, many, many more years. Thank you.

President Gonzalez: I just want to say one thing. This is the year that we are celebrating our first decade of excellence and we are embarking on our second decade of excellence. Thank you.

Chancellor Reed: It is also the fortieth year of celebration for CSU Fullerton. President Milt Gordon is not here today because he is in an NCAA meeting deciding what kind of bats they can use for the upcoming baseball season. But we have a proclamation that I will see is delivered to Fullerton. I see one of the faculty senate members here. Vince, if you would come over and we can go ahead and let you deliver this to Milt. This will really please Milt that you are going to do this.

Professor Buck: It's always a pleasure to be able to stand in for Milt. I'm one of the senators from the Fullerton campus and a member of the Executive Committee of the Academic Senate; and it is a pleasure to be able to celebrate 40 years of excellence. We are pleased to have this and thank you for inviting me up here.

Chancellor Reed: That is my report, Mr. Chair.