Report of the Chair

Good morning and happy New Year to all.

I would like to officially welcome Larry Adamson to the board as the alumni trustee. Larry will serve until the CSU Alumni Council completes its very thorough nomination and selection process later this year. Welcome Larry.

On New Year's Day, many of us watched the Pasadena Rose Parade on television or in person. Once again we are proud of the float entry from the two Cal Poly campuses. This was the 57th consecutive year that Cal Poly students worked together to design, build, and decorate their float. Participation in the Rose Parade provides the two Cal Poly campuses with special recognition across the nation.

Earlier this month, the governor issued his proposed 2005/2006 budget. Even though many parts of state government were identified for budget reductions, Governor Schwarzenegger honored his commitment in the higher education compact to gradually increase our funding. He recommends funding a 4.4% general increase and funding an enrollment increase of to.5%. The enrollment growth funding of $63.7 million allows the CSU to serve an additional 10,000 students in 2005/06.

This reverses the budget reductions visited upon the CSU system in the past few years. The next step in the annual budget process is legislative review of the governor’s budget. Chancellor Reed, Richard West, Patrick Lenz and others will be working hard to protect the funding the governor recommended, and point out the pain the university has gone through in previous years. The chancellor will say more about the budget in his report in a few moments.

The search for president of CSU Stanislaus began in late fall. The selection committee and its advisory committee continue working and are on schedule.

With regard to career changes, President Peter Smith will be leaving CSU Monterey Bay to become the assistant director-general of UNESCO in Paris, France, and our chief academic officer, David Spence, announced that he has accepted the position as president of the Southern Regional Education Board. We will miss both individuals. They both have been critical members of the team that leads CSU. We will have more to say to praise their huge contributions later in the spring when it is closer to their departure dates. I congratulate them both and wish them well in their new and most prestigious positions. Meanwhile Dave and Peter work double time to get things ready for your leaving.

While important business and policy matters are always before us in our bi-monthly agendas, I did want to note that we considered two very significant topics at this month’s meeting. The proposed name change for CSU Hayward to CSU East Bay attracted a lot of interest and challenged the trustees to carefully consider the best, long-term interest of that campus. We appreciate the expressed interest of so many students, faculty and supporters of the campus. I can assure those of you who are present here today that we will listen to what you have to say today and what you have said to us over the months in making our decision. Whatever that decision is, I sincerely hope you will stay as involved and concerned with the campus.

We also will have an opportunity to become more aware of the progress in starting the joint doctorate programs in education. This is a program that all of those concerned, the CSU family, those who are involved in education and need a doctorate to further their career, and the legislature, feel the expansion of this program is critical.

To allow people who are out in the field working with those dedicated to helping our youngsters learn is critical and badly needed. From my perspective the ramping up to start these critical programs has been painfully slow, and the true market demand is not being properly addressed. Included in our legislative program for this session is a proposal that CSU be given authority to offer the doctorate in education without a partner institution. I hope this remedy will allow for the appropriate correction.

At the January board meeting the chair is required to nominate five trustees to serve on the Committee on Committees. I nominate Bill Hauck as chair, and trustees Roberta Achtenberg, Herb Carter, Debra Farar, and Ray Holdsworth. A vote to approve the committee membership will be taken at the March meeting. This committee nominates the slate of officers and nominates trustees to the standing committees.

Last weekend I had the privilege of meeting with the California State Student Association (CSSA) at their session at San Diego State. Manolo was a kind host and helped facilitate a constructive discussion with CSU’s student leaders. I must say that students are what we are all about at CSU. We can be proud of the more than 400,000 students who attend our 23 campuses. As the delegates from each of the campuses to the CSSA again showed me last weekend, we have a group of very bright, talented and dedicated students who are receiving a first-class education from a first-class faculty in the CSU. We should all be proud of our system.

That concludes my report.