Remarks by Dr. Timothy P. White – May 22, 2013

​Chancellor, California State University
CSU Board of Trustees Meeting: Chancellor’s Report
Long Beach, CA
May 22, 2013

Thank you, Vice Chair Monville.

I want to join you in welcoming our newly appointed presidents and congratulating the search and advisory teams for a job well done. I thank the trustees who have committed three days-as volunteers-serving the CSU.

And of course I want to join you in thanking our departing presidents - Presidents Welty, Rosser, and Alexander - for their distinguished service to the CSU. We wish all three of you the best for the future.

I am reminded of a story that is a tradition among departing Presidents to pass along to new presidents. The tradition is for the outgoing president to prepare three envelopes and leave them in the desk drawer. The first envelope is to be opened during the new president’s first crisis. The paper inside says, “blame the last one.” The second envelope is to be opened during the second major crisis and the paper says, “reorganize.” The final envelope is to be opened during the third major crisis and the paper inside says, “prepare three envelopes.”

Finally, I would like to thank Ian Ruddell for his service to the California State University as a student trustee. This will be Ian’s last meeting. However, I will see Ian one more time when I go up to Chico State this weekend and proudly watch as he crosses the platform at graduation.

As of today I have made official visits to 12 campuses and I plan to visit the rest before the end of 2013. And by the end of next week, I will have set foot on all twenty-three. I’ve had a chance to meet with faculty members, staff, students, and community members I’ve toured our facilities, explored student research projects, marched in a marching band and I’ve even pulled out a few rusty dance moves.

I recently said this in a video message that I made for all CSU employees, but it’s worth saying again: What I have learned so far is that this is an incredible university system: Each campus is like an individual jewel with its own characteristics and personality. And together, our campuses make up a system that is breathtaking in its depth and brilliance. I am truly honored to be a part of this magnificent system.

As Lou mentioned, we will have granted approximately 100,000 degrees this year. That is a phenomenal accomplishment.

I was proud to partake in two ceremonies so far: a recognition ceremony for members of the LGBT community at Cal State Fullerton, and the commencement ceremony at Cal State Dominguez Hills. I will be at Chico State for commencement this coming weekend.

Being able to take part in the joy of a graduation ceremony is one of the biggest perks of this job. It is the single most important day of the academic year.

My office has made it possible to share all of those moments with the public on our new commencements web page, which you see on the screen behind me. You can find CSU commencement pictures, bios, videos, and fun facts all at calstate.edu/graduates.

Last weekend the CSU held its 27th annual Student Research Competition at Cal Poly Pomona. In this unique systemwide competition, student participants make oral presentations before juries of professional experts from major corporations, foundations, public agencies, and colleges and universities in California. I had the honor of visiting some of these presenters and checking out their research first-hand when I visited Cal State Dominguez Hills last month and many other campuses.

Our students are truly doing impressive work. Congratulations to all who participated.

The governor released his May Revise this week and it looks like the governor’s proposed funding increase for the CSU will remain intact. Last week we also spent a day with our advocacy teams in Sacramento getting our message out.

I am feeling optimistic about the direction we are going, but we still have plenty of work ahead of us, especially when it comes to access and enrollment, and sustaining progress on our graduation initiative including eliminating gaps among student groups.

Congratulations to the CSU’s Office of the General Counsel. Corporate Counsel has named the office one of its “Best Legal Departments” for 2013. This is the first time a university legal department has been chosen for the honors. Corporate Counsel gave our recently retired General Counsel Chris Helwick and the team that remains much credit for the group’s achievements.

Congratulations to all.

Last but not least, it is my duty under the Education Code to report to you of approved changes in admission practices before those changes can be enacted. The Humboldt, Los Angeles, Maritime, Pomona, and San Francisco campuses demonstrated that they are receiving more applications from applicants in additional academic programs during the initial filing period than there is capacity to support these applicants on that campus. All five campuses have complied with the provisions of the law that require a series of public hearings and public disclosure in advance of submitting their final program impaction requests.

The following academic programs at these five campuses provided justification and received permission to impact additional academic programs beginning with the fall 2014 term:

Vice Chair Monville, that concludes my report.