Summary of the January 2001 Board of Trustees Meeting

CSU TO DISTRIBUTE FACULTY SALARY INCREASES AS REQUIRED UNDER CURRENT FACULTY CONTRACT

Increase Will Raise Tenure-Track Faculty Salary to Nearly $72,000

Collective Bargaining Committee Chair Trustee Ralph Pesqueira announced at the California State University Trustees meeting that the CSU will begin the process of distributing the salary increases required under the current faculty contract so that faculty can receive retroactive pay checks as soon as possible. Pay checks will begin to be distributed as early as March.

The six percent increase to the faculty salary pool will increase the average salary for full professors -- who comprise nearly 60 percent of the CSU full-time tenure-track faculty -- to more than $80,000. The average salary for all tenure-track faculty will rise to nearly $72,000, well above the national average.

The CSU and the California Faculty Association (CFA) have been bargaining since last February. Earlier this month a fact-finding report on the negotiations between the CSU and CFA was released, exhausting all of the phases in the collective bargaining process.

"California State University faculty have been waiting since July to receive the salary increases they deserve. It is not fair for them to wait any longer. Now that the collective bargaining process has concluded, it is time for faculty to receive their salary increases, and the current contract requires general, service and merit pay salary increases," said CSU Chancellor Charles B. Reed. "Once again, the union's resistance to merit pay has brought us to this point. The CSU is committed to merit pay as a way to improve the quality of education for CSU students and reward outstanding faculty performance."

The CFA contract has included a merit pay program since 1995. The current merit pay program was agreed to by the CFA and is in their current contract, which expires at the end of June 2001 and contains the merit pay process and schedule for fiscal year 2000/01.

All of the universities with which the CSU compares itself for salary purposes, and most universities in the nation have merit pay systems. In fact, all represented and non-represented CSU employees are compensated in part based on merit.

The CSU and CFA will begin bargaining on a new contract in March or April, and will consider alterations to the current merit pay process.

For the entire news release on the increase go to www.calstate.edu/tier2/News.shtml.

CSU NETS A RECORD $881.6 MILLION IN EXTERNAL SUPPORT

The CSU received a record of $881.6 million in external support in 1999/00, according to an annual report presented to the CSU Trustees. The amount tops last year's record total by about $20 million.

The total includes a record $251.5 million in gifts from alumni, parents, individuals, corporations, foundations and other organizations, which is an increase of about 8 percent over the previous year. In addition, the CSU campuses raised another $630.1 million through special revenue from sources such as sponsorships, bequest expectancies, pledges, contracts, grants, property transfers and income from endowments.

"I want to thank our advancement division and campus advancement offices for the good news we received in the latest report on external support. This revenue allows the CSU to provide a margin of excellence in the education it provides to its students," said Chancellor Reed. "The increases we are seeing in external support reflect a growing confidence in the CSU on the part of its alumni and friends."

Substantial increases over last year came from grants from foundations, which doubled to $58.9 million, and gifts from alumni, which rose by nearly 35 percent to $29.3 million.

In the early 1990s the CSU Trustees encouraged campuses to increase their efforts in fund-raising and provided support for their efforts. As a result, private donations have nearly tripled over the past seven years. Altogether, external support has totaled more than $4.6 billion since 1993.

For the entire news release on the report go to www.calstate.edu/tier2/News.shtml.

CSU FRESHMAN PROFICIENCY IN MATH INCREASES AGAIN, PROFICIENCY IN ENGLISH REMAINS THE SAME

Ninety-seven percent of CSU fall 1999 freshmen who returned in the fall of 2000 were proficient in both mathematics and English, an increase of three percentage points over last year, according to a report presented to the CSU Trustees.

"I want to compliment our institutions and our students on reaching that goal of completing remedial education courses within a year," said Chancellor Reed. "We raised the bar and our students and institutions rose to meet it. That says a lot about what we can accomplish as a university."

The report also showed that the percentage of freshmen who entered the CSU in fall 2000 and were proficient in mathematics increased by about three percentage points to 55 percent, and the percentage proficient in English remained at about 54, when compared to figures from the fall of 1999. After several years of decline, the percentage of freshmen proficient in English and in mathematics has improved for the last three years.

There are two factors that make increasing proficiency in math and English particularly challenging at the CSU: the CSU math placement standards are higher than any other state, and about 40 percent of CSU students come from households where English is not the primary language spoken.

Increasing proficiency in English and mathematics for incoming freshmen has been a CSU priority for several years. In 1996 the Trustees adopted a policy designed to reduce the need for remediation at the college level and called for annual reports on the progress of the policy. The Trustees' goal is to increase proficiency in to 90 percent by 2007.

Since the policy was adopted, the CSU has implemented many collaborative initiatives with the K-12 system that are designed to reduce the need for remedial education. The CSU credits the improvement to these initiatives.

The CSU allocated $9 million in 1999/00 to campuses for such outreach efforts to 150 public high schools that send the CSU the most students needing remedial education, and the Governor has proposed an additional $8 million to expand to 300 schools in 2001/02.

In addition to working with the high schools, the CSU in the fall of 1998 began implementing a policy that strongly urged incoming freshmen needing remediation to get the assistance they need before beginning their sophomore years or face possible disenrollment. The students took the policy seriously, and 94 percent of those returning for their second year in fall 1999 were proficient.

The policy allows for case-by-case exceptions for students who do not become proficient by the end of their first year. In the fall of 2000 about three percent of freshmen who did not complete remediation were allowed to return for their second year.

For the entire news release on the report go to www.calstate.edu/tier2/News.shtml.

TRUSTEES UPDATED ON ENERGY PROGRAMS

In the wake of the state's energy crisis, Chancellor Reed updated the Trustees on energy conservation programs at the CSU and recent initiatives in response to the current crisis.

"Long before the current energy crisis, the California State University had a history of taking great efforts to minimize energy use and implement conservation programs," said Chancellor Reed. "Now it is even more important to maintain and expand those programs and seek new ways to save energy. We will continue to discuss this critical issue and look for new solutions to these costly problems."

The CSU has a $50 million annual electric bill and a 600 million kilowatt-per-hour annual consumption. Over the past 20 years, the CSU has implemented energy saving programs that have saved a cumulative 123 million kilowatt hours beyond minimum state code requirements.

In addition to those programs, the CSU has taken several recent steps to respond to the energy crisis. They include the following:

• The chancellor recently requested that all campuses reduce consumption by following the state's basic energy conservation guidelines, such as setting thermostats to 68 degrees.
• The CSU has received $7.6 million from the legislature and the Public Utilities Commission to implement energy savings projects that will save 8.3 megawatts by summer 2001.
• The CSU has submitted a list of an additional $184.7 million in distributed generation and demand reduction projects that could save 93 megawatts by summer 2002. Much of the savings from these projects would be permanent.
• The CSU has been actively participating in shedding loads of energy during electrical emergencies in response to the Governor's directive, and the CSU will continue to do so.

Also, two years ago the CSU and the University of California launched a four-year agreement with Enron Energy Services, through which Enron became the sole provider of electricity for most of the CSU and UC campuses. In return the CSU and UC have benefited from a reduced and fixed rate that has saved the CSU an about $6.3 million.

For the entire news release on the CSU reponse to the energy crisis go to www.calstate.edu/tier2/News.shtml.

CSU RECEIVES $1 MILLION GIFT FROM BANK OF AMERICA

The CSU received the second half of a $1 million gift from the Bank of America Foundation to expand the university's efforts in the Governor's Elementary Reading Initiative, which enhances collaborations among K-12 schools and university partners to improve students' reading achievement.

"Two years ago, the Bank of America Foundation made an extraordinary commitment to literacy efforts in Southern California," said Chancellor Reed. "I want to thank the Bank of America Foundation for its generosity and commitment to this important educational initiative."

During the 1999/00 academic year, the first half of the grant was used to broaden the impact of the reading initiatives in Southern California. So far, the Governor's Reading Initiative has helped more than 6,000 teachers add to their expertise in teaching reading. In addition, students in second and third grades have made greater improvements on the SAT-9 test than any other grade level in the state.

With the first installment of $500,000, the CSU was able to: link faculty expertise with K-3 reading instructional goals; expand service areas of the project; connect community resources more closely with the Governor's reading goals; and collect data on schools with successful student achievement in reading.

IN OTHER ACTION

The Trustees Approved:

• A conceptual plan for a CSU Fullerton Branch Campus at El Toro.
  
  
• The categories and criteria for the state-funded five-year capital improvement program 2002/03 through 2006/07.
  
  
• Assignment of functions to be reviewed by the Office of the University Auditor for calendar year 2001.
  
  
• Reappointment of the Ad Hoc Committee on Off-Campus Facilities.
  
  
• Reappointment of Don Wallace to the CSU Headquarters Building Commission.
  
  
• Conferring the title of Vice Chancellor Emeritus on Douglas Patiño, who is retiring as Vice Chancellor for Institutional Advancement at the end of the month.
  
  
• Schematic plans for the East Campus residential development phase I faculty and staff housing at CSU Channel Islands and the Western Center for Adaptive Aquatics at CSU Northridge.
  
  
• Schematic plans and real property development project for the Internet Switching Center at CSU Hayward.
  
  
• Approving a paid holiday for employees for Cesar Chavez Day on March 31.
  
  
• The implementation of a commercial paper financing program for the CSU.
  
  
• Student housing revenue bonds not to exceed $25.5 million at CSU Fullerton and student union revenue bonds not to exceed $4 million at Humboldt State.
  
  
• The concept of developing a classroom and office complex project and a campus housing and retail village project at San Jose State.
  
  
• The concept of a project at CSU Northridge for the Los Angeles Unified School District Academy High School, and at Cal Poly Pomona for the International Polytechnic High School. This will be brought back to the Trustees at a later date.
  
  
• Naming the future faculty development center at CSU Stanislaus in honor of John Stuart Rogers, who has given the campus more than $5.6 million over the last ten years.
  
  
• Naming the second permanent building at CSU San Bernardino Coachella Valley Off-Campus Center the Indian Wells Center for Educational Excellence in honor of the City of Indian Wells' contribution of $5 million toward the building.
  
  
• Naming the College of Business at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in honor of Al and Virginia Orfalea, parents of Paul Orfalea, founder and chairman emeritus of Kinko's, Inc., who gave the university $15 million -- the largest gift of securities or cash in the history of the CSU.
  
  
• Naming the children's center at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo the Orfalea Family and ASI Children's Center, in honor of Paul Orfalea, who contributed $1 million to the center.
  
  
• Adopting Trustees' statement of legislative principles.
  
  
• Adopting the 2001/02 Legislative Report number 1.
  
  
• The annual report on completed CSU capital outlay projects.

The Trustees Heard:

• Four reports from the Office of the University Auditor - status report on current and follow-up internal audit assignments; quality assurance review of the Office of the University Auditor; report of the systemwide audit; and single audit report of federal funds.
  
  
• Auxiliary organization funding for fraternity housing not to exceed $3 million at San Diego State. This will be brought back to the Trustees at a later date.
  
  
• A presentation on the National Sports Complex at CSU Dominguez Hills.
  
  
• The status report on the 2001/02 support budget and the status report on the Governor's budget for the 2001/02 state-funded capital outlay program.
  
  
• The latest in the series on outstanding teaching, research and scholarship with a summary and a video of the master of art in multimedia at CSU Hayward.
  
  
• A report on CSU debt capacity.
  
  
• An update on advancement activities including CASE award recipients.
  
  
• A recognition of the 40th anniversary of CSU Stanislaus.

January 26, 2001