Convocation

2008 Convocation Speech
September 22, 2008

Good morning. It’s a good day to begin what I hope will be an exceptional year for students, faculty and staff. Welcome!

This room is full, and I know others are watching over the Internet from our Palm Desert Campus, from the Student Union Theatre, and from homes and offices, as well.

This is my 12th Convocation, and after so many sleep-inducing, hour-plus presentations, this should be a good year to redeem myself with a crisp, brief, interesting 20 minutes of comments. Unfortunately, as you know by now, I can’t change. So it’ll stay predictably long and numbing.

Someone once said that the amazing thing about the human brain is that it’s already working when you’re born, but stops the very minute you start a public presentation. Too bad.

As at prior Convocations, I’ll introduce the Faculty Senate Executive Committee, new leaders of ASI, new academic department heads and new administrators.

I’ll take a few moments to recall colleagues who died last year. I’ll name those who earned degrees, announce staff award winners and describe their accomplishments.

I’ll also discuss this year’s budget situation, some relevant regional issues, and our enrollments. I’ll then share remarks about a few key achievements over the past year, as well as outline goals for the new year. At the end of the hour, we’ll view the annual highlight video, which I also use when I give off-campus talks.

As always, I encourage your comments, whether by e-mail; at open meetings with faculty, staff and students; at the reception; or give me a call. Your suggestions and comments are particularly important during a year in which we’ll have formidable budget challenges.

State appropriations – that’s the money we get from the state – will be reduced. But because of a student fee increase, our funding this year will be up, overall, by $3.5 million. Remember that number: up 3.5.

We also have $5.6 million in added mandatory costs from, for example, salary increases, rising health-benefit expenses, and higher utility costs. Thus, we’ll have an overall deficit of $2.1 million.

Just like you balancing your own budgets, if you make an added 3.5 but have 5.6 more in unavoidable expenses, you wind up with 2.1 less than you had before.

At this point, we’re fortunate to have planned reasonably well for the reductions. So unless there are some surprises, we’ll be able to cover the $2.1 million shortfall, this year, with $1.4 million in the baseline reserve and another $700,000 from one-time funds. However, we all need to be aware that the state budget is likely to be bad again next year.

But there is a slender silver lining in that the $4.5 million of the mandatory costs in this year’s budget are for needed salary raises and cover benefit cost increases.

If the additional salary raises that were negotiated, but unfunded by the state, were also to be given, our campus deficit would grow from $2.1 million to nearly $8 million. As a consequence of the added amount that such raises would cost system-wide, I believe the chancellor will re-open contract negotiations.

Due to our precarious financial situation, as well as our goal of being increasingly thoughtful about energy uses, We need to continue to improve energy and other efficiencies, as well as reduce utility and other costs, though, as I’ll suggest, various major energy steps have already been taken.

Moreover, we must, on an ongoing basis, supplement state funding with other revenues. Last year, for example, we received $107 million in state support, but the total of grants and contract spending, cash gifts, and student fees and tuition amounted to even more – $114 million.

Simply put, we can – and need to –help ourselves as much as possible.

Let me make one additional budget comment. We’re in less bad shape fiscally than we might be if it wasn’t for the cooperation that’s developed between the unions and the CSU on legislative matters.

As CSUSB president, I’m interested, just as you are, in obtaining the best possible budget, so that we can assure quality education for our students as well as support our faculty and staff. I offer my personal appreciation to each of our unions. In addition, I’d like to applaud the CFA for its leadership role in closely collaborating with the Chancellor’s Office.

The CFA has an alliance for education table outside the events center. I encourage you to visit.

Let’s chat a bit about the Inland Empire and some implications of economic, demographic and educational factors. With 4 million residents, more than in 25 states, and a land mass both larger than 10 states and equal to one-sixth OF California itself, in 2006, the opportunities loomed great.

The San Bernardino-Riverside-Ontario metropolitan area was the nation’s third fastest growing, and tied with Las Vegas as the best area for economic development.

Given our dependence on the housing industry, which is in total disarray, however, unemployment has spiked to nearly 10 percent – well above the 7.7 percent rate in the state, and hugely above the national level.

This region was vulnerable to an economic downturn not merely because it relied heavily on housing, but, more critically, because it has such low levels of educational attainment.

To get a feel for the problem, let me provide some benchmark data. In California, about 38 percent of those over 25 years old have a college degree. That’s about 1 percent higher than it is nationally. In the Inland Empire, only 20 percent – about half of the national average – are college graduates. And it may get worse for both the state and the region.

California now ranks only 48 out of 50 in the percent of high school graduates going to college – 48 out of 50, third from last. That’s scary.

Moreover, in every state, including California, over half of high school graduates attend college, but only one-third of those in our region do so.

Despite recent setbacks, the region will grow, because it has open space for development and offers lower cost housing than in coastal areas. In turn, CSUSB will grow because of the larger population that will be close to us.

However, we shouldn’t be complacent. Although we can’t entirely level the playing field, there’s much we can do to improve the chances of children who will otherwise be left behind. Our efforts should include:

• Producing the very best possible K-12 teachers, because good teachers make a difference;
• Offering programs such as GEAR UP and Upward Bound, which give youth both academic skills and educational aspirations;
• Promoting relevant research, including scholarship examining health disparities among various groups; and
• Expanding outreach efforts that have promise, including Dr. Tom Rivera’s inland empire future leaders program.

There’s much to be done. But as Peter Drucker said, the best way to predict the future is to create it. Thanks to those of you who are making the future brighter for youngsters.

This fall’s enrollment appears roughly on target or a bit above. The best guess is that it will be 1 percent to 3 percent higher than last fall, with somewhat over 17,000 students.

Our institutional research office projects an increase in the number of international students on campus. This is a valuable outcome because these students contribute significantly to campus diversity and to future networks for our resident students. International students also tend to be highly motivated, and they add to the university’s budget, since, for funding purposes, they’re separate from our state budgeted targets.

CMS issues have been resolved, and out recruitment personnel have worked hard. In addition, as you know from the award ceremony, a team led by Vice President Spencer Freund made great strides in revamping the university Web page and those of academic units. To build on these successes, this year we’ll review recruitment, student communications and marketing materials, as well as scholarship processes.

Given our limited budget, funds from student fees and international tuition help assure the continuity of key student services and reduce the chances of layoffs.

Since it’s expected that next year’s budget will not fund an increase in students, enrollment management may become critical in balancing freshmen, transfers, grad students, credential students, Palm Desert Campus students, housing and so on.

We’ll close freshman applications again on March 1. And we won’t accept transfer applications after we’re sure that we’ll meet our target.

We’ll also complete the shift of post-baccalaureate admission duties to the graduate school, thereby freeing the admissions office to focus on undergraduates, and facilitating the graduate school’s work with academic units to accelerate graduate program development.

Given flat enrollment targets, we also may be able to introduce more meaningful deadlines for admission and for completing remediation.

And given the added costs of our quarter system – publishing materials three times a year, recruiting and admitting three times, billing three times, advising three times – rather than twice – as well as academic and other issues –while we won’t have enrollment growth pressures, I’ll ask the Faculty Senate to gather information and assess the value of a change to semesters.

Our housing occupancy looks good – at virtually 100 percent. And in view of the positive impact of increasing the number of students living on-campus from 400 to 1,500 in recent years, we’ll explore new housing to be located on campus or across Northpark Boulevard.

In addition, now that we belong to the Western Interstate Compact for Higher Education, known as WICHE, students from the western United States can attend CSUSB and pay only 150 percent of in-state fees – an amount frequently lower than they’d pay as tuition in their own states. This membership will make it easier to recruit talented students who would attend elsewhere.

And because of shifting student needs and costs, as well as improved technology, I’m supportive of Academic Affairs’ efforts to provide programs via distributed education.

This will be the third year of the accessible technology initiative, which seeks to meet the needs of students whose disabilities make technology access difficult. The initiative includes assuring that Web sites are accessible, as are technology items purchased for more than $15,000.

Another priority will be participation in the voluntary system of accountability, which is part of an effort by the two major national public university associations to be accountable to the public with data on recruitment, retention and graduation rates, as well as other relevant information.

Since the Convocation video will highlight a variety of last year’s accomplishments, I’ll discuss only a few group achievements that have broad implications for the university. In those descriptions and later, I’ll comment further on this year’s goals.

However, I want to personally applaud the faculty, staff, and students featured in the video. And I’d like three faculty members to stand: The outstanding faculty member of last year, Yuchin Chien; the Golden Apple winner for excellence in teaching, Bill Green; and the CSU system Wang Award winner for the sciences and engineering, Stuart Sumida. Each is an extremely high achiever and an exceptionally fine colleague.

Among the year’s recognitions is the Princeton Review ranking of CSUSB, for the fifth straight year, as a leading institution of higher education. We were ranked as among the best 15 percent of American colleges, and we received the “Best in the West” ranking and inclusion among the leading 120 institutions in the 13 western states

The Princeton Review’s rankings were drawn from institutional data, site visits, interviews with high school advisors, and student responses to an 80-item survey. In addition, I was pleased that the university was included once again in the U.S. News and World Report.

There’s a great deal of other evidence concerning university development. Let me mention just one – our Presidential Academic Excellence Scholarship program, called PAES, which is offered to students who graduate in the top 1 percent of their San Bernardino County high school classes. The program began with a scant 6 students accepting in 2002, then grew to 15 the following year, and then higher and higher. This fall, 46 accepted the scholarship. That’s nearly 20 percent of all the top 1 percent of graduates in the county, – making us the leading destination for these extraordinary students.

Once here, they continue to excel. In all, there will be 137 PAES scholarship students on campus this fall. Others have already graduated – often in fewer than four years – and only 16 left without a degree. Most of the 16 transferred to other universities for programs we didn’t offer – and just two were suspended or on academic probation when they left. For the region we serve, CSUSB has become a place of choice.

Among the most striking outcomes this past year was the American Association of Museum’s accreditation of our Fullerton Art Museum. Of the more than 17,000 museums in the nation, only 4 percent are accredited, and there’s only one other accredited art museum in the entire Inland Empire. Our appreciation goes to Eva Kirsch and her staff for superb work.

In another meaningful recognition, thanks to Tony Coulson and his colleagues, The university won accreditation as a “National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance” – an award given by the Department of Homeland Security and the National Security Agency. We’re one of only four California schools with this national designation.

In a set of remarkable recognitions, our staff received three of the six CSU System quality-improvement awards this past year. Our facilities services department won The Team of the Year Award. Our human resources staff won the innovation award. And the Distinguished Service Award was presented to Vice President David De Mauro for his long-term contributions to quality improvement in the CSU system.

And get this, of the 10 departments in the Division of Administration and
Finance that were assessed in system-wide quality improvement surveys, nine of the ten ranked either number one or number two among participating CSU campuses. Units ranking number one included facilities, mail services, shipping and receiving, human resources and procurement. Our student health center was also rated number one.

And as an indicator of the impact of CSU alumni in the region, Redlands Assemblyman Bill Emerson’s Woman of the Year was CSUSB alumna Ellen Weiser. And Rialto Assemblywoman Amina Carter’s Woman of the Year was CSUSB alumna Lois Carson. Both Lois and Ellen are highly active advocates of CSUSB and serve on numerous university boards.

Since our state budget is tight, other sources of funding are pivotal. We rely greatly on philanthropy, for example, to attract and sustain excellent students and to assist in the development of programs.

For those reasons, the CSU Board of Trustees has asked each campus to secure, through fundraising, the equivalent of at least 10 percent of its state appropriation. CSUSB received $107 million in state appropriations, so about $11 million was our 10 percent goal. This was a banner year in which we secured over $49 million, tripling that of the highest prior year.

Of this total, $7 million was in software, which isn’t counted by the CSU, so the amount that we’ll report is a bit over $41 million. Of this formidable number, $21 million or about half, was a deferred gift from a donor who chooses not to be identified. And $12 million was in a deferred gift from the family of CSUSB’s first president and his wife, John and Antrene Pfau.

Other large donations include two Osher Foundation gifts, each for $1 million. In addition, the Palm Desert Campus raised nearly $1 million in final funding for its new health sciences building; and with those donations, completed a campaign to build the low desert campus. Including superb fundraising recently by Dean Fred Jandt, more than $35 million has been raised for campus facilities.

In another major effort, the College of Education’s “Tools for Education” building campaign has raised more than $3 million, thanks substantially to the support of Jim and Judy Watson and a distinguished committee.

Last year, I asked our fundraising personnel to focus on Presidential Academic Excellence Scholarship funding, and we’ll continue this year. I’ve also asked that they design a campaign to raise funds for the next scheduled major construction project – A 60,000 square-foot expansion of the Performing Arts Building. We’ll also seek the last portion of funding for the proposed teaching observatory on Badger Hill.

Another arena of faculty and staff achievement is success in securing external grants and contracts, in which objectives range from original data collection and scholarship, to student services, to program development, to regional partnerships, and much more.

When they come with overhead dollars, grants also furnish flexible assets that can be employed to further enhance research, student support, teaching, and other campus goals.

One meaningful shift is a new overhead rate – changed from 45 percent of salaries and wages to a rate equal to 43 percent of a much larger range of expenditures. This change is apt to generate up to $500,000 in added overhead funds this year.

One quite valuable grant is a $4 million National Institutes of Health Award which has supported research on social-class and ethnic health disparities, as well as developing a larger cadre of health professionals to treat those in underserved areas. Sybil Carrere and Bryan Haddock are among the scholars leading this major effort.

Other grants with wide university significance include a $2.4 million Hispanic Serving Institution award to improve student achievement by offering enhanced academic aid, career training, and expanded opportunities for internships, including links to our alums, Thanks go to Diane Podolske, Carol Dixon and Pam Langford.

And after a four-year hiatus, we now have two Upward Bound programs to assist low-income and first generation high school students preparing to attend and succeed in college. Associate Vice President Bob McGowan coordinated the effort to obtain the $2 million grant.

To advance grant and contract activity, Provost Lou Fernandez and I jointly funded the position of associate provost for research. I want to thank Jeff Thompson, who’s in that role, as well as Sid Kushner and his sponsored projects office, for their assistance to faculty and staff interested in grants activity.

Despite being 12th among the 23 CSU campuses in size, CSUSB annually receives more grant funding than all but four CSU campuses – San Diego, San Jose, Fresno and Long Beach – all much larger and with major engineering and technology programs. Congratulations to all involved in our grant successes.

We’ve nearly doubled CSUSB’S square footage over the past eight or nine years. This past year was especially active. We completed over $120 million capital projects, including renovations to both the Biology and Physical Sciences buildings, a perimeter road, and our first two parking structures, which added 1,500 parking spaces. You should give them a try.

Faculty and staff recently occupied both the long-awaited 130,000 square-foot College of Education Building and the Palm Desert Campus’s 24,000-square-foot Health Sciences facility.

Next year, we’ll spend $8 million to double the size of the student health center; invest $1.5 million in a nursing addition; and devote nearly $12 million to reduce campus barriers to access. I also look forward to exploring the availability of grant and partnership funds for a tram service across campus and to apartments near the university.

For the past three years, we’ve held discussions with developers of land behind campus who wish to build housing there. Thanks to Vice President De Mauro and Carrie Reich, our attorney, the developers gifted us four acres that may be employed for up to 60 units of faculty and staff housing, as well as 235 acres to be used as a nature preserve.

CSUSB has won many past building awards, and last year the Palm Desert Campus Indian Wells Center for Academic Excellence was recognized as one of Southern California’s top projects by the “Real Estate and Construction Review.” In addition, we’re optimistic that the new Palm Desert Health Sciences Building will qualify for a Leed Gold Award, since it’s one of only 75 in the United States designed with similar attention to environmental components. And our new education building will likely meet the criteria for a Leed Silver Award.

CSUSB also won an “Outstanding Facility” award from the National Intramural Recreational Sports Association, one of only five given nationwide. Many of you evidently enjoy the building, as well – with nearly 500 faculty and staff who are born-again, aspiring Olympian athletes using the facility regularly. Paying half the membership cost is a good way for the university to support wellness.

New building design is only one facet of our efforts to conserve energy. Two months ago, we were given a Best Practice Award by the UC-CSU Community College Sustainability Conference.

Moreover, as part of a larger array of goals, 11 energy projects were completed last year, which, in turn, collectively reduce electrical consumption by over 5 million kilowatt hours, decrease nearly 2,000 tons of CO2 emissions, and avoid roughly $1 million of annual utility bills. And the well dug last year covers fully one-half of our irrigation needs.

Solar is now responsible for 7 percent of the university’s energy. With the addition of one megawatt here and 300 kilowatts at PDC, on roof tops and possibly above surface parking, solar energy will soon be the source of 20 percent of our power. We’re also discussing with Edison possibly becoming a fuel cell center, which would further reduce our carbon footprint and result in indirect cost savings.

We’ll add wireless meters to better identify where we’re energy deficient. In addition, since CSU East Bay’s server consolidation saved $150,000 in energy and related costs, we’ll look at consolidating servers that currently sprawl across campus.

Last year, I noted that we’d explore contracting out for some services. There are profound challenges in running small, often complex, costly operations, such as the bookstore and food services.

National firms simply have mass purchasing power, economies of scale, and other advantages of specialization. When the CSUSB Foundation experienced very large, financially-draining deficits, and had the unanimous recommendation of committees composed of students, faculty, staff and administrators, it chose to utilize the services of Sodexo for food and Follett for the bookstore.

Because of aggressive negotiating by foundation general manager Debbie Burns and her staff, all employee jobs were protected in the shift, and we expect to better control costs and expand services.

It’s clear that Follett got off to a quite bumpy start. We’ll continue to monitor the processes, services and the like to make certain we’ve made good decisions.

I have no higher priority than recruiting two strong, collegial, knowledgeable, and effective vice presidents. Provost Lou Fernandez and Vice President David De Mauro have been as effective in their roles as any in the nation. But as good as they are individually, CSUSB has benefited enormously because they’re even better working as a team, as they have for over a decade.

Dean Milton Clark chairs the provost search, which we hope to bring to closure by late January or early February. And Vice President William Aguilar leads the committee effort to replace V.P. De Mauro. We hope to conclude that search by the end of this calendar year.

Another very high priority is completion this fall of a new university strategic plan. As Will Rogers famously said, “Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” Provost Fernandez and Associate Provost Jenny Zorn will co-chair the effort.

The process should move smoothly, because we can draw, first, on the existing strategic plan; Second, on a plan that was started in the fall of 2005 but not taken through the process; and Third, on the system’s recent “Access to Excellence Plan.”

We don’t need new planning to know that some areas require attention. Because our goal isn’t merely to recruit, but to graduate students, we need to focus on retention.

Many of our students come to CSUSB with challenges, especially what I call the Triple 70s: 70 percent enter taking remedial courses in math, English, or both; 70 percent are first generation, in that they do not have a college graduate in their immediate families; and 70 percent need financial aid to attend college.

We can’t sensibly have the 90 percent graduation rate that we have with PAES scholars, but we still need to find ways to improve. The two-day mandatory orientation introduced this past summer should have a favorable impact on student understanding of academic expectations and, ultimately, on retention and graduation. Re-doubling our efforts to implement the 22 strategies of the CSU Student Success Initiative will also help.

In addition, this past month, a consultant reviewed our approaches and interviewed students, faculty and staff. Among her recommendations is a required freshmen course focused on skills and adjustment to university expectations.

Given their success across the nation, I’ll ask the faculty senate to consider adopting such a class, either as a gateway course, a freshman seminar, or both.

The planning exercise will also permit us to identify strategies that we might drop. I learned recently that the Dakota Indians have an expression that “if you’re riding a dead horse, GET OFF.” Sounds simple. But instead, we often keep whipping our dead horses until we see them move, or we sweet talk or prod them. We even tie them together to see if that helps. Let’s just get off if they’re dead!

On a different topic, last year I asked V.P. Freund to work with others to implement a security and announcement system that could respond to the type of violence that occurred at Virginia Tech and elsewhere. In response, three notification systems have been developed to provide time-sensitive information in a matter of minutes.

First, a new public address system with 26 loudspeakers will cover much of the outdoor campus. Second, new equipment will activate speaker phones in offices and classrooms to make emergency announcements. The third system sends text and voice messages to cell phones, as well as home and office phones. It will also provide e-mail messages.

You’ll need to update your contact information through the MyCoyote Web site. You’ll get details soon about choosing how you want to be contacted in an emergency.

I also asked that we install cameras for students’ resident and other parking lots just as we have in the parking buildings. Six cameras, directed at surface parking lots, will be installed in the next few weeks.

Moreover, as many of you know, we created a committee to help identify when the need exists to prevent violence. The behavior intervention team, composed of faculty and staff, meets to share information and coordinate responses when there is believed to be serious potential for violence.

We also established a quite easy to remember number when you need to call campus police. It’s 537-7777, or simply 77777 if you’re on campus.

You know, ultimately, regardless of what else we accomplish or fail to achieve objectively, the way we treat and act with one another remains of central importance. Concepts like decency, teamwork, and collegiality are vital to the university’s success and to yours.

You work well together as colleagues. I don’t mean there aren’t conflicts or pettiness. After all, we’re human. It’s just that compared with every other institution with which I’m familiar, you’ve been there for one another and for our students – despite needing to do more with seemingly ever less. So thank you!

And I hope you know that you have my own very deep appreciation for the consistently strong support that you’ve given me while I’ve had the honor to serve as CSUSB president. Thank you!