Chancellor, California State University
CSU Board of Trustees – Chancellor’s Report
Long Beach, CA
July 22, 2014
Thank you Chair Monville, and congratulations Karen to you and your colleagues at San Marcos–I think reflective of all campuses.
I want to join you, Chair Monville, in welcoming Kelsey Brewer as our new student trustee. We look forward to our time together.
This is the first meeting of our two new presidents officially in their roles–Lisa Rossbacher at Humboldt and Jane Close Conoley at Long Beach. We are also very pleased to have Lori Lamb joining us as our new vice chancellor for human resources–an appointment that was supported unanimously by the trustees earlier today.
Lori comes to us from being the director of human resource operations at the University of Minnesota, has a vast amount of experience in human resource issues for well over 20 years and will be a stellar addition to our executive team–and to the success of the CSU as we serve California.
We also have a new president of the Academic Professionals of California, Patrick Choi of CSU Bakersfield. Congratulations, Patrick.
And the day can’t pass without wishing Paul Zingg and Ryan Storm each a happy birthday. No better way to celebrate it than at the CSU.
Robert Garcia
Robert Garcia, in local news, a Cal State Long Beach alumnus, was elected mayor of the City of Long Beach last month.
He was a budding political leader and policy maker at an early age. He served as student body president at the Long Beach campus and as chair of the CSSA
I know that President Conoley and my fellow members of the board all join me in congratulating him. We look forward to continuing our close partnership with the city, and we are proud to have such a strong supporter of the CSU in such a visible position.
And in fact, he has already hosted, along with President Conoley, one of his major platform initiatives which addresses education in the City of Long Beach. So, we are off to a very good start with the new mayor.
CSU Budget
As discussed earlier, the governor has signed off on the 2014/15 state budget.
It provides the CSU with an increase in our resources, which will enable us to maintain some degree of stability in our programs, services, and tuition fees.
The final budget reflects the tremendous grassroots advocacy work of our students, faculty, staff, campus leadership and folks in the Sacramento office along with alumni and business leaders–who were in the trenches meeting with lawmakers and the executive branch about the importance for California’s future to invest in the California State University.
Those efforts are ones to pause and reflect on. You would be hard pressed to find a trustee here who remembers when more than 70 percent of legislators committed in writing to “Stand with the CSU” in the budget negotiations, which led to both houses recommending increases to the base funding of the CSU.
And so, we will come back at it again in the next season. We will continue to collaborate and work with the trustees, the governor, the legislature, and all of our business and community partners–as well as our students, faculty and staff–as we pursue next opportunity to serve the students of California.
TELACU CREO Award
Earlier this month, I was honored to accept, on the behalf of all of you, the distinguished CREO award provided by the TELACU Education Foundation in Los Angeles.
TELACU is a community development corporation that empowers the educational aspirations of Latinos–from middle school to graduate students.
And the CREO award is presented to outstanding individuals and organizations that exemplify the highest ideals and commitment to improving our nation through personal and public service.
We received the award at a black tie event on a very exciting evening at L.A. Live, while the Kings were next door winning the Stanley Cup. Mayor Eric Garcetti showed up at the gala straight from Kings game, still with his jersey on, and was very gracious.
We are proud and grateful to be recognized for our work, and to have TELACU as both a partner and supporter.
Chair Monville, that concludes my remarks.