A Summary of the January 25-26, 2005, Board of Trustees Meeting

Contact: Clara Potes-Fellow, cpotes-fellow@calstate.edu, 562-951-4800

California State University, Hayward is now California State University, East Bay

Trustees approved the name change of California State University, Hayward to California State University, East Bay.

University officials believe that the new name and identity will help increase regional awareness and visibility of the university, expand fundraising capabilities, enhance the relationship with the East Bay communities, and recruit students, especially first-time freshmen.

The new name reflects the communities served by the university in the East Bay region, which includes campuses in Hayward Hills and Concord, as well as a professional development center in downtown Oakland.

President Rees said the new name better recognizes the university’s direction and mission in the region. “The new name will position the university for growth,” she said.

Students, elected officials, alumni and business representatives spoke for and against the name change. Each side had 30 minutes to speak.

Trustee Melinda Guzman Moore, who voted against the name change in committee the day before, said that she would change her vote to support the name change. She said she had concerns about the process and whether there was enough consultation with the students, but that she believed the name change was in the best interest of the campus.

For more information, see the campus press release.

Latest External Funding Report Released

Trustees received the 2003-04 report on external funding, which reached $1.3 billion, or more than $3,000 per CSU student. The funding supports research, scholarships, and a range of campus needs not met by state funding and student fees.

Donors provided more than $283 million in new gifts and pledges. Individual gifts surpassed $108 million, the majority of which came from friends of the university. CSU’s more than 113,000 alumni association members are a key part of charitable gifts provided by campus alumni.

“This report shows progress in fundraising by CSU campuses,” said Richard P. West, CSU executive vice chancellor and chief financial officer. “Soliciting voluntary gifts is relatively a new activity for the CSU, and we intend to continue making steady progress in the future.”

In addition to charitable support, the campuses received more than $1 billion in grants and contracts revenue, including federal grants in excess of $684 million in student financial support.
For more information, see the funding news release or the funding report.

Analysis of CSU Graduation Rates and Supporting Initiatives

Trustees heard an analysis of CSU graduation rates for several categories of students including race and ethnicity and a comparison to national averages.

The report showed that overall, and across racial and ethnic groups, the first-year retention rates and the 6-year graduation rates of CSU students exceed those for national benchmarks established by the Consortium for Student Retention Data Exchange (CSRDE).

Trustees also heard about CSU initiatives to improve graduation rates. For example, CSU campuses are developing 4-year and 6-year road maps for all academic degree programs. These maps are term-by-term depictions of the courses in which students should enroll during their academic careers to graduate in a specific number of years.

In addition the CSU is developing class schedules to accommodate the road maps to ensure that the classes are available during the appropriate term.

For more information, see the graduation news release.

Budget Update

Trustees received a report on the specific recommendations for the California State University contained in the Governor’s budget proposal, including enrollment, student fees, financial aid, compensation and long-term needs.

In the 2005-06 budget, the compact with the governor provides the CSU with an increase of 3 percent for general operations and a 2.5 percent for enrollment growth to serve an additional 10,000 students. It increases undergraduate student fees by 8 percent and graduate fees by 10 percent. The state General Fund and additional student fee revenue provide the CSU with an increase of $211.7 million.

Report on the Joint Ed.D. of the CSU and UC

The CSU and the University of California entered into an agreement in Nov. 2001 to establish joint Doctor of Education programs to meet the state’s need for skilled leaders in K-12 schools and community colleges.

Since then, the UC and CSU have four new Ed.D. programs in operation, as follows:

• CSU Long Beach, Cal State L.A., Cal Poly Pomona, CSU Fullerton and UC Irvine
  
• San Diego State, CSU San Marcos and UC San Diego
  
• CSU East Bay, San Francisco State, San Jose State and UC Berkeley
  
• Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and UC Santa Barbara.

Several trustees and CSU campus presidents expressed frustration with the pace of progress in establishing new programs and the number of UC faculty assigned to the existing programs.

“I have serious doubts that UC faculty members want to make this program work,” said Trustee Murray L. Galinson, chairman of the Board. “We owe it to the public to make possible for working people to obtain doctoral degrees in education. The combined program is not working and in the meantime we have CSU campuses that have the ability to develop good Ed.D. programs by themselves.”

Galinson said that he will push forward for the establishment of CSU Ed.D programs without the UC system.

M.R.C. Greenwood, provost of the UC system, said that the two institutions should try the existing partnership for at least five years before deciding to dismantle the program.

Presidents Michael Ortiz (Cal Poly Pomona), John Welty (Fresno State), and Stephen Weber (San Diego State) also expressed little confidence in the UC’s commitment to the joint doctoral program.

The discussion was part of an information item with no action taken by the Trustees.

The Trustees Also Approved:

• Naming the Pyramid Events Center at Long Beach as the Mike and Arline Walter Pyramid in recognition of their recent $2.1 million donation to support athletic programs and faculty enrichment.
  
• Approving tax-exempt auxiliary financing at Sonoma to partially fund construction of a concert hall at the Green Music Center.
  
• Approving tax-exempt auxiliary financing at San Diego to finance the construction of five sorority chapter houses.
  
• Approving the issuance of CSU Trustee systemwide revenue bonds for student housing at Hayward, a parking structure at Pomona, student housing at San Francisco, refinancing for Fresno’s Save Mart Center, and student housing refinancing at San Marcos.
  
• Amending the 2004/2005 Capital Outlay Program, Nonstate Funded to include sorority row housing at San Diego and the purchase of student housing at San Francisco.
  
• Approving schematic plans for the Educational Resource Center Addition at Dominguez Hills, Simulation Center at the Maritime Academy, and the Green Music Center and Music Faculty Office Building at Sonoma.
  
• Approving the Campus Master Plan revision for the Stonestown Apartments for San Francisco State.
  
• Approving a proposed assignment of leasehold interest of the Stockton Center Site Authority to allow the Stockton Unified School District to construct a kindergarten through eighth grade school on a portion of the Stockton Off-Campus Center site.
  
• Assign new Alumni Trustee Larry Adamson to standing committees of the Board.
  
• Accepting the 2005/2006 Legislative Report No. 1.
  
• Adopting the Trustees’ Statement of Legislative Principles.
  
• Adopting the CSU Federal Agenda for 2005.
  
• Assignment of functions to be reviewed by the Office of the University Auditor for 2005.
  
• Adopting a charter to clarify the role and authority of the Committee.
  
• Naming departing Alumni Trustee Frederick Pierce IV a Trustee Emeritus.

The Trustees Also Heard:

• A presentation on the 2004 Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) awards going to CSU campuses.
  
• A status report on the 2005/2006 State Funded Capital Outlay Program—Governor’s Budget.
  
• A report on energy conservation and sustainable building practices.
  
• A report on the California Academy of Mathematics and Science at Dominguez Hills as a national model of excellence and winner of a Blue Ribbon School Award from the U.S. Dept. of Education.
  
• A progress report on joint doctoral programs in education with the University of California.
  
• A status report on current and follow-up Internal Audit assignments.
  
• A report of the systemwide audit in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles including the report to management.
  
• The single audit report of federal funds.

The Trustees Postponed to the March 2005 Meeting:

• Due to an unexpected extension in the presentation of other items in the agenda, the trustees postponed hearing the report on the evolution of trustees financing programs, including the systemwide revenue bond program and an update on the status of the CSU’s debt program.