Chancellor, California State University
CSU Board of Trustees Meeting - Chancellor's Report
July 11, 2007
Thank you, Chair Achtenberg.
First, I want to recognize and thank Boice Bowman for serving as interim president at Cal State Dominguez Hills. Thank you for your excellent leadership and for your service to the campus.
Second, I want you all to join with me in thanking and congratulating Jackie McClain for her service at the CSU as she retires from her position as Vice Chancellor for Human Resources.
Jackie’s been here since 1999, and has been a valuable member of my senior executive team since that time.
We honored her at dinner last night, and in just a few minutes I will recommend to the board that we confer the title of Vice Chancellor Emerita on her, a well-deserved honor.
You all know how complex her job can sometimes be overseeing employee relations, personnel, compensation and other issues involving our 46,000 employees. Something is happening out there everyday on one of our campuses.
Many of us in this room have spent countless hours on collective bargaining issues over the years.
I am sure Jackie will NOT miss those countless hours or our collective bargaining committee meetings.
I also want to thank her for helping reorganize the HR office here, and for working with the campuses on all their varied issues, including compliance with federal crime reporting requirements.
The campus police chiefs also asked me to convey their thanks to Jackie. The systemwide chief reports to Jackie, so she gets those 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. calls, then calls me. I don’t think she will miss those calls either.
Jackie has been honored nationally by her colleagues at the College and University Personnel Association (CUPA), and has received their top award. She is also the author of several HR publications.
Jackie will be serving as a Special Assistant to the Chancellor from August through December 2007, helping with the ongoing audit and the transition for the office.
Thank you, Jackie, for all you have done for the faculty, staff and students of the California State University.
We will miss you, and wish you well as you move to Chico. We know where you will be when we need to get ahold of you.
For those of you who have not met her, Gail Brooks will assume the interim vice chancellor for human resources position on July 20th. Gail, please stand. We are pleased that she joined the CSU a few months ago, and we wish her the best.
Degrees Awarded:
Next, like Chair Achtenberg, I want to express my pride at the number of graduates that the California State University has just put into the state’s workforce.
Commencements began the last Saturday in April and continued through the third Saturday in June.
It is estimated that 96,000 students have just received degrees from our 23 campuses.
Not only is that the highest number ever, but this group is the most ethnically diverse class ever. One-half of these graduates were students of color and or from our underserved communities. For that we can all be proud.
These are students who worked hard in their classes and now will be working hard for California. The CSU is the biggest engine that feeds the state’s workforce. People are amazed at what we do for California’s economy.
New Ed.D. Programs
Yesterday we heard a presentation on our seven (7) new educational doctorate programs that are slated to begin this fall.
I am very proud of our staff here and the campuses for putting together these very important programs that will benefit the leadership of our community colleges and our public schools.
I especially want to thank Gary Reichard, Beverly Young, Joan Bissell and Chris Hanson in Academic Affairs, and former CSU Long Beach President Bob Maxson for all their work on this effort. I also want to thank the Academic Senate for their work.
We worked long and hard two years ago to get the Legislature to grant us the authority to offer these degrees, and we are now seeing it come to fruition.
In academia, things often take longer than they should.
But these seven (7) campuses worked extremely hard to get these programs up and running, and they did it.
The Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) has approved six of the campuses to begin – Fresno, Fullerton, Long Beach, Sacramento, San Diego, and San Francisco.
We will hear later this month on San Bernardino, and we will then be seven for seven, a remarkable and unprecedented achievement.
We cannot fail at this program. We are under more scrutiny because some others did not think we should do this. I am confident that we have the best program possible; it is unique and different from all others. We will be a model for others, and even the Carnegie Corporation is watching to see our results.
This is a valuable program for our state, and much needed, especially at the community college level where turnover in their leadership ranks is very high.
Three years from now, we will celebrate our first group of graduates. That will be another proud moment for the California State University.
Voluntary System of Accountability Meeting:
Next week here at the Chancellor’s Office we will host a series of meetings to further discuss a Voluntary System of Accountability that could be adopted by any public college or university.
The project is a partnership between two higher education associations: AASCU (American Association of State Colleges and Universities) and NASULGC (National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges).
Accountability was a prominent element of the recent Spellings Commission on the Future of Higher Education.
Rather than let the federal government develop measures for us, we are getting ahead of the curve.
This Voluntary System is being created so that we can be accountable to the public on learning outcomes and other comparable issues. We will do this reporting online.
We need the public and our elected officials to maintain confidence in our colleges and universities and what we are providing to students, and being accountable is a key way to do that.
Three of our presidents are involved in the meetings:
- King Alexander from Long Beach
- Jolene Koester from Northridge and
- John Welty from Fresno
Several other CSU administrators are among the 78 from across the country who are involved in this project.
We will finalize a draft document for adoption at the AASCU and NASULGC meetings in November.
Finally, we can use some help getting our budget through Sacramento. So let’s all work on that.
Chair Achtenberg, that concludes my report.