ASCSU Plenary May 10-11 reported by Michael Reagan

Usual committee reports and thank yous. There are several task forces working on several issues.

  • Intellectual property, patents, etc.—they hope to have a report by next fall.
  • Drops, withdrawals, incompletes, repeats—are awaiting the completion of a draft of their final report.
  • MBA—are considering the recommendation of a fee increase for state-supported MBA (and similar) programs. The amounts of increase being considered include $3000, $5000, and $7000. They are also considering guidelines for increasing financial aid to needy students in these programs.
  • International planning—is looking at the internationalization and globalization of our curriculum. Right now they are looking at the curricula of the campuses, how internationalization plays out in the RTP process, and the role and extent of foreign language education in the CSU.
  • Textbooks—there are several pending bills dealing with textbook prices. The task force is looking at these bills and related solutions to steeply increasing textbook prices.

CFA: John Travis and Lil Taiz (Thursday 9:20):

Lil is new CFA president. John will continue as liaison to ASCSU. They are happy with settlement of contract, looking for better employee relations with latest CSU reorganization. One of the important objectives for CFA in the coming years is to work on the state’s perception of the value of the CSU and the importance of investing in it. Senate comments included expressions of discomfort with “Charlie watch” activities, disagreements with CFA habitual support of opposition to student fee increases, workload issues still to be addressed, questions about claims that CSU has $1.2 billion in loose money, CCC efforts to carve out specific revenue, andinclusion of unions in Access to Excellence planning.

Chancellor Reed (Thursday 11:30):

Thobaben gave him a certificate, offered apologies for acrimony and personal attacks during contract struggle. Reed reported Senate vote to restore $7 million to CSU budget, still to be dealt with by Assembly. Revise expected May 14, but no changes expected to compensation and enrollment monies. Pressure points include loss of expected Indian casino gaming revenue (Assembly opposed), potential $1 billion plus judgment against the state. CSU emergency preparation is better than all other universities. Damage control is underway in student loan consolidation arena. Glad to have faculty contract, but monies DO come in part from student fees, and CSU does NOT have $1.2 billion left over.

Kaiser: Congrats on outreach efforts as reported to CPEC. Reed: Fortunately African American ministers did not heed faculty pressure to NOT invite Chancellor to their churches.

Caplan: Thank you for support for Hayward, don’t lump all faculty into one bag about personal attacks.

D. Hood: Thanks for support of Senators who argued that there are no shoe boxes of cash in your office.

Wheeler: How will you support ASCSU in better shared governance? Reed: Pleased that Access to Excellence summit was so positive, hope for more support in coming year. Need “tough love” to support graduation rates (tougher drop/add, etc.), need to improve our transfer process between campuses and from CCC. Support for ASCSU is Gary’s job.

M. Hood: What of CCC initiative? Reed: I’m the only person who has spoken out about this Proposition 98 clone. Will try to coordinate with UC President. CCC labor unions funded signature collection.

Hornbeck: Thanks for System responsibility for campus debts.

…

Soni: $1.2 billion “myth” was debunked for LB Senate by VP Admin & Finance. We have increase in minority applications, is there an increase in enrollment? Reed: We have to wait until Fall to see.

Lunch, CSSA report, Faculty Trustee report.

Resolutions: (Waiver passed on all new items – 7-14). Copies of these and other past resolutions can be found at

  1. Graduate Education Development in the CSU: responds to the paper prepared by the CSU Academic Council. It
  2. notes that the foundations of the paper lay in prior work in which ASCSU was integrally involved,
  3. recognizes that further study is needed on the issue, and
  4. recommends that a joint Provosts/ASCSU task force be formed to provide further guidance on graduate education.
  5. Passed unanimously.
  6. Support of Changes to Policy in Curriculum and Instruction for California’s Public Schools: A statement of opposition to the imposition of federal strategies, methods and programs was dropped. The resolution now focuses on the principles and practices that are felt optimal for the preparation of highly qualified teachers and allows them to be successful in the classroom. Passed unanimously.
  7. High Quality Ed. D. Programs in Educational Leadership: both general and specific recommendations to support offering of the independent Ed.D. Passed without dissent.
  8. Establish a CSU Doctorate in Education Advisory Committee:calls for the establishment of a permanent policy committee which will ensure appropriate faculty and partner (CCC and K-12) consultation; postponed until first item on Friday; new draft clarified; passed unanimously.
  9. Support for AB 178 (Coto): High Schools: Curriculum and Enrollment: College Readiness and Equity Program: Withdrawn due to concerns over changes in the bill.
  10. CSU Budget Goals and Priorities for Academic Year 2008-09:added Resolved 4 calling on CSU and BOT to enlist ASCSU, CFA, etc. in lobbying effort; passed unanimously.
  11. Support for Torlakson SB44:which deals with teacher development. Passed unanimously.
  12. Information Availability on Textbook Costs:Passed unanimously.
  13. CSU-to-CSU Lower-Division Transfer: Using LDTP-based TCSU numbers to further facilitate transfer: title amended to spell out meanings of the alphabet soup [Goldwhite], postponed until Friday in hopes of a rewrite; rewrite passed unanimously.
  14. Sustainability in the CSU:amended to avoid implication that all students would have to study climate neutrality and sustainability (“available to” replaced “for” in second Resolved), to change “climate neutrality and sustainability” to “sustainability” throughout, and to soften the Resolved clause about research, etc.; passed.
  15. Providing Equal Access to Programs and Services for Individuals with Disabilities: amended to put Resolveds in the subjunctive, to address the several “campuses” rather than “universities;” passed unanimously.
  16. In Support of SB 160 (Cedillo): The California Dream Act: amended to replace “undocumented aliens” with “persons without lawful immigration status,” to add “Student financial aid: eligibility” to the title; passed.
  17. In Support of AB 302 (De La Torre): Increase in Cal Grant “B” Entitlement Awards:amended to clarify title, move description of bill to rationale; passed.
  18. Funding Faculty Compensation: withdrawn.

Executive vice Chancellor Reichard (Thursday 4:00):

Praised campus actions to facilitate graduation. Suggested that our standards are higher than any other university’s, so a replacement term for “remediation” may be needed. LDTP is working, and need for resources is being recognized by both Chancellor and CCC heads. Ed. D. programs on six campuses are on track for approval by Fall, seventh may also make the deadline, and four are on track for Fall 2008 startup. Audiology joint programs are struggling to hold costs down, Northridge/UCLA on hold; legislature still doesn’t recognize higher cost of B.S. in Nursing, let alone cost of doctorates in nursing.

Comments from senators included questions about “professional fees” and possible two tier faculty salary structure, possible hidden agendas in the Access to Excellence process, and need for up-front consultation as not experienced in the CLA experiment.

Ralph Wolff, WASC (Friday 9:10):

Department of Education is pushing WASC to document learning outcomes and levels of performance, especially pass rates for professional licensing exams, and to refuse or withdraw accreditation of institutions that come up short. WASC is trying to encourage faculty participation in the accreditation process and would invite suggestions on how to increase that participation. He views his recent meeting with ICAS as the first step in this process.

WASC is very committed to outcomes assessment as a part of the review process.

There are ongoing negotiations with the federal government over the amount of centralized control of the accreditation process and the amount of regional and campus discretion.

There is great interest at the federal level in accountability measures.

WASC is going through its own review process, very similar to the process that campuses go through.

Writing and critical thinking are a major focus for WASC in all campus reviews.

O’Brien: With National University class meeting in a fast food joint and relying on CSU Stanislaus library, what about institutional quality? 30-40% of WASC institutions are in that category, they have invested in on-line library resources, do meet full time faculty requirements.

Kegley: Elaborate on standards for transfer of credit. This is an example of the commodification of education; WASC views regional accreditation as valuable, Dept. of Ed. views course work paid for by federal financial aid as not to be denied solely on the basis of sending institutions.

…

Overall, the presentation made it appallingly clear that our work is severely challenged by a political agenda.

Adjourned Friday 10:40

Reorganization meeting Friday 11:00

Chair candidates: Kaiser, Pasternak, Tarjan; Pasternak elected.

Vice-chair candidates: Tarjan, VanSelst, Kellner, Yee, Kaiser, Montanari, Hornbeck, Wheeler; Tarjan elected.

Secretary candidates: Wheeler, Van Selst; Van Selst elected.

Member-at-large candidates: Kellner, Caplan, Wheeler, Yee, Barrett, Hornbeck, Kaiser; Yee elected.

Member-at-large candidates:Wheeler, Hornbeck, Kellner, Kaiser, Caplan, Barrett, Montanari; Kellner elected.

ASCSU Plenary May 10-11Michael ReaganPage 1 of 4