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Convocation
2006: Speech
2005: Speech
2004: Speech | Award Winners | Graduates
2002: Speech |
Award Winners | Graduates
2001:
Speech | Award
Winners | Graduates
2002
Convocation Speech
9A.M.-
September 12, 2002
What a beautiful
morning. Welcome back from your summers.
Last year,
convocation was to be held just two days after the devastating
physical and psychological impacts of September 11. I chose to
hold convocation then because education is the only possible passage
over the fearsome beliefs that spawned the events of 9/11, and
because, in my experience, it’s in families and in community
that we best weather the worst of life’s storms –
when we can literally and figuratively hold onto one another as
we mourn great loss and reach for the next breath.
The human
toll on September 11 and in attacks in Afghanistan was staggering;
and our new sense of vulnerability so profound that it’s
impossible as yet to measure.
To help understand
and heal, we held various forums during the course of the year.
And I was pleased with both the quality of yesterday’s events
and the level of campus participation in the commemorative program.
Let’s
pause to honor those who died on September 11, to pay tribute
to the heroes who responded at the scene, and to remember families
and friends who bear crushing grief due to the loss of loved ones,
both in the U.S. and abroad, in our ever-shrinking world.
Please join
hands for a moment of silent thought and prayer.
To contribute
as a university should, we must combat ignorance and bigotry;
seek solutions to the conflict-laden issues that threaten to engulf
the world; and teach our students – and re-teach ourselves
– tolerance for one another and the moral courage to stand
confidently against hatred and those who preach hatred.
It makes no
sense for us to oppose violence, intimidation and meanness in
the world and yet ignore or even perpetrate it on campus. It’s
up to all of us to help assure a safe and fulfilling work place.
While we’ll
remain a sanctuary for free speech – including views we
find offensive – we won’t tolerate hate behaviors,
intimidation or threats of violence. They fall far outside our
vision, our policies and our sense of decency.
I ask that
each of us re-dedicate ourselves to an environment that’s
free of intimidation and harassment, regardless of the reasons
or whomever the culprits or victims might be.
On the behavioral
and other principles statement at your seats that I’ve distributed
many times before, I call your attention to the first four items:
our behaviors – yours and mine – should reflect high
integrity (being truthful and honest); an amicability that builds
relationships; a responsiveness in meeting the needs of others;
and a caring about our colleagues.
Keep the one-pager
handy. Consult it from time-to-time. Ask yourself if you’re
contributing as you might. And if you’re not, work to improve.
And if you believe I’m not living up to the principles,
let me know.
Your assessments
are important to me. That’s why I’ve continued to
hold open sessions – twice each quarter – with faculty,
with staff and with students. I’m also just a phone call
or e-mail away. I want very much to know what questions and suggestions
you have.
And I invite
you to join Marilyn and me this afternoon and evening for the
all-university reception – from 4:30 pm to 7 pm in the upper
commons -- if, of course, the convocation is finished by 4:30!
Before going
further, as we all know, each year our campus experiences its
own sadness and loss with the death of colleagues and former colleagues.
Please join me in a few moments of silence in memory of several
csusb faculty and staff who died this past year.
- Phillip
Anderson, lecturer in Management
- Bennie
Garcia, custodian in custodial services
- Kellie
Rayburn, lecturer in the department of English and
- Robert
West, professor emeritus in the College of Education
I’d
like to now introduce several individuals who, since last year,
are in new administrative positions. Please stand when I call
your name:
Among this
group are two who are part of a reorganization of the president’s
office. Changes have been made in part because of the retirement
of Amina Carter and the departure of Vice President for Advancement,
Joanne Hankin.
First, Dr.
Clifford Young, who’s been Executive Assistant to the President
since 1998: Clifford has been a vital force in more than tripling
the university’s federal grant and contract funds. He’ll
continue to work on federal relations – and he’ll
have more time to spend in Washington and on state and community
relations.
Clifford will
also report to the provost on implementing a multi-million dollar
set of technology transfer programs that he helped to secure and
that promise great benefits to CSUSB and our region.
Second, Dr.
Jan Jackson, till now Dean of Extended Learning, has become Associate
Vice President for Institutional Advancement. In this position,
she’ll employ many of the fine skills she honed in extended
learning. Jan will serve as the university’s chief ombudsperson;
she’ll play a central role in planning, organizing and implementing
various university initiatives; and she’ll assume reporting
responsibility for development and alumni affairs offices –
a role that’s needed in the absence of a vice president
for advancement.
Other new
personnel or in new positions include:
- Laurie Flynn, director of services to students with
disabilities;
- Martha Kazlo, director of the Student Health & Psychological
Counseling Center;
- Hank Kutak, acting director of the Office of Financial
Aid;
- Lois Madsen, associate director of the Office of Financial
Aid;
- Cindi Pringle, now grant-funded Executive Director of
the Inland California Television Network;
- Sid Robinson, who replaced Cindi as Director of Public
Affairs;
- Susan Summers, interim Dean of Extended Learning;
- Olivia Rosas, Director of Admissions and Student Recruitment.
As I thought
about new personnel, it brought home to me that this is the sixth
year that Marilyn and I have been at Cal State. The time has flown
by, and frankly, it’s been my very great privilege to serve
as CSUSB’s president. It’s a position that comes with
much honor and responsibility -– and I’m not oblivious
to either.
Every three
years, CSU presidents are reviewed, so I’ll undergo a sixth
year review this fall. A sampling of faculty, staff, students
and administrators will be sent questionnaires. All others will
also be encouraged to forward evaluations. And a committee of
four will visit campus for interviews in November or December.
The review
is an excellent opportunity to assess university directions and
how I’m doing my job – or whether it ought to be my
job.
Let me briefly
outline what I’ve tried to accomplish, and you can judge
my successes and failures.
I’ve
been fortunate to serve an institution that’s become a potent
engine for intellectual, cultural, health, social, political and
economic empowerment.
I’ve
tried to contribute in a variety of ways:
- By working to secure and allocate resources necessary
to succeed and to control our own fate;
- In telling the university’s story off campus to
help enlighten public opinion about the university;
- In advancing partnerships with a variety of entities;
- In helping to compose the university’s mission,
vision, and long-term plan;
- In seeking to sustain a campus environment that’s
friendly, open, responsive and accessible;
- In building on our considerable quality and strengths,
while seeking to treat standing weaknesses; and
- In concentrating on the long-term – including
far beyond my tenure as president.
Most of the
time, after helping to plan a course, I’ve tried to get
out of the way. I’ve decentralized budgets and decision
making in order to encourage leadership throughout the university.
However, when things aren’t working well enough, I’ve
always seen it as my job to get in the way.
Similarly,
while I always seek consensus and greatly respect our systems
of governance and participation – and I’ve been part
of them myself since I was a junior faculty member – there
have been times in which I felt it my responsibility to decide
against the consensus and recommendations.
In my efforts,
I’ve focused on the charge given when I accepted the position
– to help bring CSUSB to the next level.
You may believe
that I’ve taken the university in the wrong directions or
I’ve been insufficiently successful even when you’ve
agreed with the goals. Participation in the review will permit
your voice to be heard.
Once again,
as I said three years ago, those who think well of me are apt
to find words to describe what they like. Conversely, those who
think I’m a hindrance might consider one or more of the
comments that I’ve picked up. For example, you might say:
- Given President Karnig’s performance over the
past five years, he should go far, and the sooner he starts
the better. Or
- far, and the sooner he starts the better. Or
* When you visit campus to get the real dope, please take
him right away. Or
- Please come quick: he’s hit rock bottom, and he’s
burrowing still deeper. Or this one I really like:
- We’re the good people, and President Karnig is
the bad thing that keeps happening to us.
Joking aside,
I really do encourage each of you to participate in the review.
Comments are confidential -- and the more who respond, the more
valid the review itself.
There were
countless honors and recognitions of faculty, staff and students
this past year as well as an incredible array of highlights. I’ll
mention just a few of them. I’ve left off a number of items
– including some prominent awards, athletic successes, and
several initiatives – because they’re contained in
a video we’ll show at the end of this convocation –
surely no later than 4:30!
Among the
highlights are:
Victoria Seitz
and Sue Greenfeld were given Fulbrights for study in Romania and
Turkey, respectively.
Buckley Barrett’s
book, Churchill: A Concise Bibliography, received the American
Library Association’s Reference and User Services Association
2001 Award for best bibliography in history.
Juan Delgado
was honored by the Hispanic Caucus of the American Association
of Higher Education with its outstanding Latino in Cultural Arts
Award.
Dean Eri Yasuhara
was elected secretary of the Asian Caucus of the American Association
of Higher Education.
Ted Ruml was
elected president pro tem of the Western Society for 18th Century
Studies.
Ed Bostley
was chosen president of the Pacific Southern Chapter of the College
Music Society.
Brian Levin,
director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, was
a regular on CNBC, CNN and MSNBC as well as interviewed frequently
by the New York Times.
Arturo Concepcion
and Herra Totapally filed a provisional patent for a collaborative
design system and method.
Cynthia Olivo
was honored by the North Side Impact Committee as a Latina of
the Year.
There were
many other highlights:
The psychology
department played the key role in creating the Institute for Child
Development and also proposed the campus’s first joint Ph.D.
– in collaboration with Loma Linda University – with
a focus on experimental psychology.
The computer
science program was successfully accredited without any deficiencies.
The office
of Public Affairs won several recognitions last year. For example,
the award for Most Improved Campus Magazine and Best Web site
from Apex Communications.
In addition,
CSUSB was given first place honors by Arrowhead United Way for
our 2001–2002 employee campaign which, thanks to Jiggs Gallagher
and his colleagues, had a 13 percent increase over last year.
Jill Messing,
a psychology and sociology double major, was one of only 52 students
nationally to receive a Phi Kappa Phi Fellowship. She’s
CSUSB’s fourth such fellow in the past five years.
Jessica Flynn,
a biology graduate, is now at Johns Hopkins Medical School; in
fact, all of the Biology Department’s applicants to medical
school were accepted last year.
Sharon Cooper,
a chemistry undergraduate working with David Maynard and Klaus
Brasch on anti-cancer agents, won the CSUSB undergraduate research
competition in 2001.
We also had
highlights in many of the ways we’ve sought to secure resources
necessary for us to excel, including considerable overall growth
in fundraising. For example, last year’s Annual Fund gifts
of $150,000 were a record, as were the 2,600 Alumni Association
members – a rise of 23 percent in one year and twice the
number of five years ago.
And the university
never received as much as $5 million in fundraising in any year
until 1999-2000. In the past three years, however, we’ve
averaged $8 million – and in every year exceeded the $5
million base.
Even sharper
gains were made in grants and contracts, with over $18 million
in grant funding secured this past year – up from less than
$6 million just five years ago. And overhead returns to the university
shot up 20-fold – from $24,000 to $466,000.
Notable were
the efforts of the College of Natural Sciences, which more than
doubled its grants and contracts. Applause should also go to the
Office of Research and Sponsored Programs and to Clifford Young
for his efforts as CSUSB liaison in Washington, D.C.
And there
are other developments galore on campus, including new degree
approvals for masters in Child Development, in Public Health and
in Spanish, as well as a bachelor’s in Information Systems.
I mentioned
the proposed Ph. D. in Experimental Psychology. There’s
also likely to be an Ed.D. in consort with UCR and three other
CSU’s. And we now have recommendations for Chicano Studies
concentrations.
Other accomplishments
of the year surely include completion of both the Social and Behavioral
Sciences Building and the first Palm Desert Campus facility; as
well as finishing the second phase of our residential housing
project, meaning that we’ll have added 640 new units over
the past two years – and now have more than a thousand students
living on campus.
Significant
other achievements include installation of the temporary fitness
center that resulted in a 350 percent increase in participation;
approval of planning for the Science Annex; and improved lighting,
especially in areas of concern across campus.
I’d
also add as accomplishments the introduction of a winter graduation
ceremony, live Web casts of the June commencements, and the institution
of year-round operations, which more than tripled summer enrollments.
And it’s
not just the physical and service nature of the university that’s
improving. For example, there’s strong evidence of academic
development in surveys of graduating seniors taken in 1992 and
then again in 2002.
In 1992, for
example, 80 percent said CSUSB had a good academic reputation.
That went up to 86 percent in 2002. In 1992, 76 percent thought
most courses required intensive study and preparation out of class.
That was up to 83 percent in 2002.
In 1992, 77
percent said that “Faculty value careful reasoning and clear
writing.” By 2002, a full 91 percent said that “Faculty
value careful reasoning and clear writing.” That’s
up from 77 percent to 91 percent.
in 1992, only
a dismal 48 percent thought that the campus had a “rich
array of lectures, concerts and student discussions.” But
in 2002, rather remarkably, the percent went all the way to 72
percent. Obviously, we’re going some things better.
In 1992, 90
percent of students said that most professors showed an interest
and concern for teaching. That number was 92 percent this past
year.
In the one
troubling set of answers, to a question asked only in the 2002
survey, just 56 percent said they would choose the same advisor.
We will return to the question of advisement during the year.
We also need
to concentrate on remediation, especially reducing the need for
it. There’s a nice story of a math class in which the instructor
asks a student to solve for: 12x – 417 = 330 + 510. The
student answers 71, and the class pleads, “give him another
chance.” The instructor asks the student to solve for x
– 500 = 150 + 150. The student answers 6000, and the class
yells, “give him another chance.”
Finally, out
of compassion, the instructor offers a simple problem, x = 10
+ 10. The student answers: x = 20 – and the class shouts,
“give him another chance.”
The story
reflects a real problem – with over 60 percent of our students
needing remediation in math. (By the way, similar numbers are
also in need of English remediation.)
Now let me
turn to a brief discussion of our regional environment. “Extraordinary
growth” are the two words that cleanly summarize the last
decade and what’s projected for the next two decades.
Between 1990
and 2000, for example, the Inland Empire – made up of San
Bernardino and Riverside counties -- grew 27 percent, or nearly
700,000 residents, to roughly 3.3 million.
Out of that
700,000 growth, Latinos contributed roughly 550,000 – nearly
doubling to 1.2 million residents. African Americans also increased,
in this case by 75,000, to nearly a quarter of a million. And
Asian Americans grew by almost 50,000 residents, to 133,000. Anglos,
on the other hand, declined by about 82,000, down about 5 percent
to 1.5 million.
There’s
now no majority in the Inland Empire. Anglos were 63 percent in
1990. They were 47 percent in 2000. That’s an astounding
shift.
While Los
Angeles County lost 300,000 jobs in the 1990s, Inland Empire employment
expanded swiftly. The region now has the nation’s fastest
job growth rate.
If the Inland
Empire were a state, it would be larger than 20 in population
– about the size of Oregon -- and it would be the fourth
fastest growing in the nation – behind only Florida, Texas
and California -- with roughly 100,000 new residents every year.
By the year
2020, there will be an additional 1.8 million residents or more
than five million population.
The unfortunate
result of this growth has been mounting transportation gridlock
and ongoing questions of air quality – though most air pollution
comes from the populous coastal areas.
A significant
driver of the population growth is the cost of housing. In Orange
and San Diego counties, only about a quarter of the residents
can afford a median priced house. In Los Angeles, it’s 33
percent. In the Inland Empire, one-half of the residents can afford
a median priced house.
As a result,
in the six counties in Southern California, including Ventura,
San Diego, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties,
the Inland Empire had a staggering 40 percent of all new home
sales and 26 percent of all used home sales.
While there
are still not enough high-skill jobs, there are more and more
upscale new homes in Corona, Chino, Rancho Cucamonga, and north
Fontana. The new housing creates the likelihood of higher skilled
jobs, because the necessary skill base is increasingly found here,
and the desire to stay off the road will influence workers to
want to be employed locally.
In part because
of regional growth, but also substantially due to efforts of our
admissions office and the improving reputation of the university,
we continue to expand rapidly. For example, we had a 15 percent
application increase this year -- versus an 11 percent increase
for the system overall. Our upper division increase was nearly
22 percent (making us third in the entire CSU), and triple the
system’s less than 7 percent.
We have a
target of 13,500 FTES. That’s roughly 4,000 more than we
had five years earlier. We’ll have nearly 17,000 on campus
this fall – on the way to 25,000 by the decade’s end.
The median
age of undergraduate students has declined to 22 and about 85
percent of them are full time. In fact, virtually 100 percent
of our freshmen class are full time.
As the student
body has grown and changed in age, it’s also become more
diverse. Over the last five years, members of historically underrepresented
groups went from 48 percent to 54 percent of our enrollment –
with Latinos soaring from 23.5 percent to over 30 percent.
And as we
grew larger, we recruited heavily for faculty – with 143
tenure track faculty hired in the past five years and another
42 to be recruited this year.
Of these faculty
hires, 26 percent were from underrepresented groups – the
same as the current proportion of underrepresented group faculty
at CSUSB. And 60 percent of the new hires were women, resulting
in female faculty now composing 44 percent of the overall faculty.
The university
is budgeted for an enrollment increase of 4 percent, and we’ve
made requests to fund an additional percent as well. To control
enrollments, we established early application dates for freshmen
and transfers.
We believe
those were successful strategies. Still, we’ll have quite
robust enrollments this fall – roughly 5 percent higher
than last year’s.
Let’s
discuss budgets. We still don’t know exactly what our budget
will be, but it’s clear this will be the first of several
years in which we’ll have strained finances, with state
shortfalls of $24 billion this year and predicted to be $10 billion
or so in each of the next five years.
We had a good
roll. For the last two years, for example, California ranked number
two among the 50 states with nearly a 23 percent increase in higher
education budgets.
Our circumstances
are similar to many others universities – with 46 states
also having deficits that must be treated. So while we shouldn’t
celebrate the deficits, there’s no reason to feel sorry
for ourselves.
We need to
absorb the cuts in ways that are orderly, participatory, thoughtful
and effective, though they can’t be entirely painless.
To protect
the university against reductions, I had instituted a soft vacancy
freeze – with half of the positions being filled temporarily
rather than permanently, so there would be a cushion against which
we could balance the budget.
In addition,
I had asked the vice presidents to hold 4 percent of their budgets
flexible to deal with possible budget cuts.
You should
have at your chairs an outline of budget principles that I’ll
employ. I alert you in particular to the first principle, which
is to get your advice regarding how we can save money, how we
can undertake activities more efficiently, and what it is that
we might defer till later.
I look forward
to hearing suggestions at open meetings with faculty, staff and
students.
We’ll
seek to spread the impacts over several years, we’ll pursue
revenue enhancements, and we’ll diversify our funding sources.
We’ll
also employ a few lessons that Noah learned from the flood: first,
as I recall, it wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark,
so we want to make sure we plan ahead; second, we need to remember,
as principle five indicates, that we’re all in the same
boat together and that we all need to care about the boat’s
success; and finally, no matter what else we do, to make sure
we all get to the boat on time.
Let me now
shift to a discussion of priorities for the university. I’d
say that along with the quality of academic and related programs
and consistent access to them, among our highest priorities will
be control over our own destiny.
While there
will be much change we can’t control, it’s clear that
we can more fully influence our fate and further energize our
efforts.
The goal is
to make sure that we have sufficient financial and other control
to excel as a university, to assure quality and to promote access
– all in ways that do not jeopardize the development of
our students or the employment of our faculty and staff.
In the past
five years, we’ve used a number of approaches. First, as
you know, we’ve fundamentally decentralized budgets to assure
the best and most efficient pattern of spending based on the insights
and knowledge of campus units.
In parallel
fashion, we created a focused strategic plan so that expenditures
would meet broad university goals and units would not pull in
different directions.
We’ve
also created new resources, as I mentioned, through fundraising
efforts, for example, – and the Palm Desert Campus is an
excellent example of the possibilities.
And I’ve
noted, while tripling our federal funding over the course of five
years, we’ve also sought to engage in creative ventures
with partners from government, health care, schools, business,
and the like.
Next, we’ve
fine-tuned our enrollment management model to assure that we’re
not buffeted by enrollments too high for us to handle or so low
that they jeopardize our state budget.
As part of
enrollment management, we’ve focused beyond numbers in general
to various types of students. We created merit scholarships to
try to recruit top students and made efforts to attract international
and non-resident students, who add to the diversity of the institution,
help create valuable future networks for our students, and contribute
to the fiscal base of the university.
In addition,
beyond the types of students we’re recruiting, we’ve
concentrated on our year-round summer sessions, which tend to
be more entrepreneurial than at our sister campuses. This past
year, we netted more than $2 million in revenue over costs –
funds that have been sent back to the units.
For example,
75 percent went back to Academic Affairs, allowing more hiring,
more travel and equipment budgets, and importantly, more hedge
against possible budget cuts.
With greater
summer enrollments, there will be somewhat fewer in the academic
year, thus allowing us to meet peek load challenges more readily
during fall, winter and spring.
In addition,
we’ve identified various efficiencies. For example, a reduction
in utility demand resulted in a savings of roughly $70,000. We’ve
gone to the four-day workweek during summers, which results in
lower utility expenses. And we’ve emphasized as much as
possible E-commerce to create a paperless campus – which
will lead to cost savings.
Similarly,
we’ve tried to make smart decisions, for example, with CMS
conversion. Rather than paying each year out of pocket or borrowing
from external sources, we’ve loaned year-end funds from
ourselves, with a net savings of roughly $100,000 in interest
expenses.
Another way
in which we’re trying to control our future is by controlling
the land that surrounds us. To that end, we’re in the process
of negotiating over development across from our residence halls,
which is apt to result in new housing with nearly 500 additional
beds -- bringing the campus total to over 1,500.
And on our
Palm Desert Campus, we’re discussing the possibility of
a privately-built arena which would host many of our events, as
well as provide a partnership to secure more Coussoulis programs
and a revenue stream for the university.
Finally, to
help control our fate, we should help pass Prop. 47, the $14 billion
bond referendum on the November ballot. If approved, it will fund
the modernization of our science facilities. If passed, there
will be another bond referendum, this time including a $47 million
College of Education building.
Each bond
is, in a sense, a huge domino that must fall before anything behind
it can also secure bond funding.
The bond will
be of even greater importance in creating much needed facilities
– including about 46,000 K-12 classrooms and much needed
restoration of facilities. K-12 will receive $12 billion, the
lion’s share of the $14 billion initiative.
There’s
much that we need to accomplish during the course of the next
year. First and foremost, we must wend our way successfully through
WASC accreditation – and I want to especially thank Associate
Provost Jerry Pritchard and members of his group, including Ward
McAfee, who have worked diligently on WASC accreditation.
In addition,
we need to successfully secure accreditation for art, theatre,
music, business and public administration, as well.
With regard
to programs, as I noted, we look forward to initiation of the
Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology, the Ed.D. in Education, and
a number of new masters and bachelors degrees.
We’ll
address committee recommendations regarding advisement and retention;
and examine graduation rates, as well. We want to assure that
we offer effective advising and promote retention and graduation.
As part of
our effort to recruit very strong students who will help lift
academic standards for everyone, we’ve initiated a number
of scholarships that focus on the top 1 percent of San Bernardino
County high school graduates. Dean Rob Carlson has offered considerable
leadership on this issue.
And led by
Honors Director Ruth Burke, Provost Lou Fernandez and Dean Milton
Clark, we’ve targeted honors’ program improvements.
The internationalization
of programs is another major emphasis, and involves further development
of Islamic studies courses, and initiatives in Taiwan, Korea,
China, Mexico, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and France.
We also need
further development of enrollment management plans for the Palm
Desert Campus. And given changes in our student body, we need
plans for full-time student services and programs.
I’m
also very excited about the development of a center that will
concentrate on long-term learning and development of the teaching
academy.
During the
year we will also aim intently on assuring that we’re well
organized in our multiple distance education initiatives and effective
in meeting the goals of grants we’ve received.
Because our
enrollments are now about 65 percent women, we’ll add a
woman’s sport this next year to comply with Cal NOW and
Title IX. And in a very major venture, we’ll work with the
other CSU’s to recruit larger numbers of faculty, with the
ultimate goal of reaching an 18:1 faculty/student ratio.
There are
also significant capital goals, including:
- The full use of the Social and Behavioral Sciences Building and moving
faculty and staff into an array of new quarters;
- Completion of the Science Annex;
- Construction of the second Palm Desert Campus building;
- Planning for doubling the size of the Student Union, in which
the current union and the events center will be wrapped into a
single building;
- Planning for a 40,000 square foot Recreation and Fitness Center;
- Development of the technology strategic plan;
- Further improving the number of smart classrooms;
- Introducing VPN and wireless technologies to the campus, which
will allow access to campus from other sites and allow us to use
wireless capabilities across campus;
- Improvements in signage;
- Additional campus social spaces and walkways;
- And the addition of three new parking lots.
We’ll
also work with students to forestall alcohol abuse; continue the
significant project with African American and Latino-concentrated
churches to assure early contact with both students and parents;
and collaborate with the city in creating a university district
around CSUSB which will lead to a new street being cut, by the
end of the academic year, from Kendall down to Fairview Drive,
as well as better on and off ramp access and signage to Cal State.
On the campus,
we’ll continue the $4.6 million telecommunications refresh,
funded by prior bonds, which will provide state of the art wiring
to desk-top computers, resulting in greater ability to send data,
much faster video and possible voice on computer.
Finally, we
hope to implement previously approved diversity and child development
institutes; secure federal funding for a transportation center;
and to finally see the implementation of the television initiative,
which will bring roughly a million cable viewers along the I-10
corridor – from Montclair to Yucaipa as well as a few other
cities – nightly news and public affairs programming.
The Inland
California Television Network, funded virtually all from grants,
presents the university an extraordinary opportunity to teach
on arts and culture, science, education, water and air quality,
diversity, transportation, history, economic development, and
a host of other subjects.
It’s
also a remarkable chance to showcase the university and its faculty,
staff, students and programs.
Now, in mentioning
an opportunity to showcase the university’s faculty, staff,
students and programs, sit back a few minutes to watch this latest
university video.
That was excellent,
wasn’t it? I want to thank Jiggs Gallagher for the script,
Carey Van Loon and Robert Whitehead for the visuals, and J.J.
Gould for the voice.
In addition,
I want to thank each of you for what you contribute to CSUSB’s
excellence. In the last analysis, you’re the reasons for
the accomplishments I spoke about today and for what you saw in
the video. Have a great year and I hope to see you at the reception
tonight.
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