Report of the Chair

In spring, approximately 89,000 degrees were conferred at our 23 campuses. This is what it is all about: getting students through college and to graduation. Congratulations to each degree recipient. I want to personally thank members of the Board of Trustees who participated in commencement ceremonies. From my own experience, I can tell you that the presence of trustees is much appreciated by the graduates and their families, the campus faculty and staff, and the presidents. It truly is an uplifting experience for us to celebrate with our graduates.

One May graduate from Long Beach State already launched his career. Avery Holleman won top honors and $20,000 in the Microsoft Next-Gen PC Design contest. In addition to winning the competition, Mr. Holleman was selected for the Chairman’s Award by Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

Just to give you a flavor of the commencements speakers’ comments, at San Francisco State several of us heard Mayor Gavin Newsome urge graduates to be willing to take risks. He told them, "Mistakes are portals of discovery... When you fail, you're learning something new."

And, for a sampling of graduates, at Cal State L.A. Danielle Krasner graduated with a B.S. in biochemistry. At age 16 she was the youngest graduating senior at Cal State L.A.— and was admitted into the Ph.D. program in molecular biophysics and biochemistry to pursue her goal of becoming a research scientist. Krasner was admitted into the Cal State L.A.’s Early Entrance Program at age 13.

A couple of weeks ago, the Fresno State Bulldogs won the College World Series. This is their first-ever NCAA Division I national championship fro Fresno State in baseball. Chancellor Reed will have more on Fresno State’s baseball accomplishment in a moment.

Also to be congratulated is the women’s softball team from Humboldt State who won the NCAA Division II softball championship. Humboldt’s coaches were named the Division II fast pitch coaching staff of the year.

Finally, this is the time of the year where under Trustee policy, the Board Chair approves and reports on the annual operating budget for the State University House. An operating budget of $74,000 for 2008-2009 was approved with provisions for supplies and services, insurance, and utilities.

The funding, all of which is non-state money, is derived from the proceeds of the sale of the previous State University House in Bel-Air. The trust fund is restricted to supporting the operation, furnishing, and maintenance of the State University House. When the trust was established in 1991, two spending rules were instituted to protect the corpus and ensure there are sufficient interest earnings in the future to cover operational and maintenance costs without using General Fund dollars. We have held true to this commitment. Do any Board members have any questions?

That completes my report. Chancellor Reed, will you deliver your report.