Chancellor, California State University
CSU Board of Trustees Meeting
September, 21-22, 2010
Thank you Chair Carter.
This marks the beginning of the school year now that all of our campuses—including those on the quarter system—are back in session. Unfortunately, we still do not have a state budget, which makes planning difficult.
When our budget was cut by more than $600 million, we were forced to cut our enrollment, and all of our 23 campuses have been working hard to manage this challenge. We had more applications than ever for fall 2010—particularly when you consider that we were closed for spring 2010 admissions—and the demand to attend a CSU is greater than ever.
Our campuses have done a good job with a thankless task—cutting enrollment—and we are now faced with trying to manage enrollment not knowing what our budget will be.
We asked our campuses to open applications for spring 2011 so that we would have students in the pipeline ready to go if we should receive the budget that has been proposed by the Governor and legislature. We have said we will let students know about September 27 whether we will be able to admit them for spring or roll over their application for the fall 20111 semester.
In the meantime, we received a final round of federal stimulus funding that will allow us to allocate about $106 million to begin a limited admission of new students and partially restore course sections and services.
This is separate and apart from the $305 million that has been proposed for our 2010-2011 budget. Across the system, CSU campuses will be able to admit as many as 10,000 new students and restore as many as 3,000 course sections for winter and spring terms. Campuses will also be able to do things such as increase library hours, advisement, etc. that were cut due to budget cuts.
We remain optimistic about the budget, even though the state has now set a record for the longest time without one. With the proposed $305 million, we would be able to add even more students and classes, and start to build back the enrollment that we were forced to cut two years ago.
Even though there is not a budget, overall we had a good legislative session overall. Two of our trustee sponsored bills have already been signed by the governor.
We expect that the Governor will also sign SB 1440, the transfer bill, that will allow students to earn an AA transfer degree and more easily come to a CSU with junior status.
We worked closely with the co-sponsors of the bill—the community colleges, CSSA, UCSA and the Campaign for College Opportunity—to get the bill passed.
This is particularly gratifying because it is something that I have been trying to get done since I came here as Chancellor, and it is finally happening. We have also been successful with our doctor of nursing bill that is also on the Governor's desk awaiting signature.
This will be critical to our long term ability to produce more nurses, which the state desperately needs. Congratulations to Karen and others for their hard work on this bill.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the California State University system. On April 26, 1960, the California Master Plan was signed into law as the Donahoe Higher Education Act.
The Master Plan created three segments of public higher education to provide access to a high quality college education: the California State University, the University of California, and the California Community Colleges. In July of 1961, the California State University's first Board of Trustees was convened.
Throughout the 2010-2011 academic year, the CSU will acknowledge milestones in its history and celebrate significant achievements. The CSU's 50th anniversary theme, messaging and a specially-designed 50th anniversary logo (which you saw yesterday on the bags we gave to the Hearst students) will be incorporated into our major print and digital communications.
We will have a special 50th anniversary website as well as other commemorations throughout the year. Many of our campuses will also be celebrating their 50th anniversary this year with special events.
Chair Carter, that concludes my remarks.