2004 Convocation Speech | Albert K. Karnig

September 20, 2004

I'm pleased to greet each of you this morning. This is my eighth convocation, and normally I use this session to welcome you back to campus. But this year has seen some role reversal - and many of you have welcomed me back.

As you may know, this was a bumpy summer. I've had progressively serious colitis for about 12 years. And about commencement-time in June, the colitis became so severe that I lost 30 pounds. Let me assure anyone trying to lose weight: You don't want to use the Karnig weight-loss system!

I was told that I needed surgery. However, because of complications, the operation was postponed four times - until August 27. Since early summer, I've been uplifted by the encouragement, support, caring, expressions of concern, good wishes, thoughts and prayers. In fact, Marilyn and I received phone calls, e-mails, visits and cards from about 800 different people-in addition to so many floral arrangements and plants, books, CDs, teddy bears, shirts, pictures and candy, all the way to wonderfully prepared lasagna and take-out Chinese dinners.

When you're low - and you know I'm really not accustomed to feeling low - the care and concern of others really does buoy the spirit and lift the heart. I thank you very much!

In some ways, this summer was just an extension of the warm and collegial support you've given to Marilyn and to me during our entire time at Cal State . I can't conceive of a more embracing group of faculty, staff and students.

I encourage your comments about the issues I'll raise in today's convocation-whether over e-mail; at the many quarterly open meetings with faculty, staff and students; or simply call me.

As I noted last year, while we can't directly change the larger world, we should be fully in control of the way we work with one another at the university. You may recall the story about the 10-year old boy who was asked about who he'd marry. He said: "Nobody decides before they grow up who they're going to marry. God decides - and you get to find out later who you're stuck with."

He was wrong. We do have a real say in marriage. But we often have no influence at all in the people we get stuck with at work!

So we need to find successful ways of working together. I've distributed, once again, the handout you've seen often before. It emphasizes behaviors, processes and policies that will advance the university and all of us who are here. Please refer to it regularly to see whether you-and I-are doing what we should to nurture and support one another and to create the best work environment possible.

Let me begin this morning by sharing some campus highlights. I want to recognize the nearly 200 employees who worked to protect and restore our campus during the devastating fires last October. They did everything from securing buildings to evacuating residence hall students to cleaning up.

In addition, our Facilities Services Volunteer Fire Response Team was recently honored by Gov. Schwarzenegger with the 2003 State Employee Safety Award. Since firefighters were handling blazes elsewhere, a small crew of CSUSB facilities personnel held their ground and helped assure that damage to campus would be limited. They countered a wall of flames with their hoses, and dampened buildings in advance of the fire. Their soot-covered faces highlighted their commitment to this campus, and we're extremely grateful.

Let me continue with some other highlights. Many of our departments participated in the CSU system-wide customer satisfaction surveys earlier this year, and several placed high in the ratings. I'd like to mention units ranked either No. 1 or No. 2 among the participating campuses:

Facilities Services -- ranked No.1;
Mail Services - ranked No. 1;
Procurement Services - ranked No. 1;
Parking Services - ranked No. 2;
H.R. Recruiting - ranked No. 2.

Congratulations to the members of those departments, as well as others whose commitment to excellence is reflected in the very fact that they collect satisfaction information regarding their performance.

I'd like to take a moment to express special appreciation to our groundskeepers and custodians for helping to make our campus both beautiful and livable. Indeed, our campus has been rated by students as the most beautiful among the CSUs.

I also want to recognize staff in the labs, trades, student services, offices and elsewhere for being the very bedrock on which this campus is built. You provide the services that make academic excellence possible. Thank you!

With regard to individual units, I'd like to applaud the Admissions Office for raising the overall CSUSB student application pools by 20 percent.

And the Career Development Center should be lauded for workshop attendance that increased nearly 50 percent and record participation at the Education Fair.

CSUSB's Office of Services to Students with Disabilities has become the campus home to the Center for Alternative Media, a system-wide database providing educational information to students with disabilities.

Just a few weeks ago, Vice President William Aguilar was elected to serve as the first president of the Southern California Consortium of Hispanic Serving Institutions, composed of area universities and community colleges. The consortium will work to advance funding opportunities as well as collaborate in program development.

Dr. Aguilar's colleagues in Information Resources and Technology should also be recognized for their efforts to equip 125 smart classrooms.

Illustrative of the broad range of faculty contributions, Professor Bill Green of Political Science monitored yesterday's (Sept. 19) elections in Kazakhstan on behalf of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe .

I want you also to know that I'm proud of each of last year's national accreditations, some quite new and others difficult reaccreditations. These include our Health Center as well as academic programs in business, environmental health science, theater arts, music and social work. Congratulations to the units involved.

Congratulations as well to the many hundreds of faculty and staff for writing grant proposals, Sid Kushner and his Sponsored Programs co-workers, as well as Stan Stanley and CSUSB Foundation personnel, for the development and implementation of grants and contracts. We brought in nearly $18 million in direct grant expenditures last year - more than triple the 1996-1997 level, and the $1.6 million in overhead was over four times the '96-'97 baseline rate.

I also want to recognize Clifford Young, who served until this past spring as director of Government Relations, before he took a leave to be San Bernardino County 's Fifth District supervisor, for his leadership and relationship building in Washington , D.C.

Because we have more overhead funds, we have some additional resources that we can plow back into university initiatives. This past year, I created a Presidential Investment Fund that made $250,000 available for larger projects. The only stipulation is that funds be repaid so the pool will continue to grow, resulting in greater opportunities for everyone. A total of $95,000 was allocated the first year by a committee co-chaired Sid Kushner and Jim Sando.

Next, I want to recognize the three-year old Presidential Academic Excellence Scholarship program, which has grown larger each year. Overall, 25 students accepted our offer for this fall-up from 15 last year - bringing the total close to 50. Each of the students is in the top 1 percent of his or her San Bernardino County high school graduating class. Top students such as these will raise the bar for all of us.

So many of our students excel - with 60 percent of those seeking entry into medical school being successful; our students were also winners of six Edison scholarships and a broad array of other scholarships and fellowships.

Our student athletes and coaches continued their athletic successes. Furthermore, student athletes had an overall GPA of roughly 2.8-higher than that of the undergraduate student body.

The effective launch of the Inland California Television Network was also an important development last year, providing the region's only nightly television news program.

I don't need to tell you that there's a great deal of construction on campus, and there will be for the foreseeable future. But I want to comment on our principal facility developments and their diverse sources of funding:

First, the $26-million Chemical Sciences Building , to be finished by January, is built with state bond funding .
Second, the Palm Desert Campus's $11-million Indian Wells Center for Educational Excellence, which will be completed this November, is being built totally with private funds .
Third, a unique $29-million public-private partnership to build student housing on private land on Northpark Boulevard has added 480 beds. We'll purchase the property, which is already 100 percent occupied, later this fall, and pay for it with student rents .
The $18-million Santos Manuel Student Union project, to be completed November 2005, will be paid for with both student fees and gift funds .
We're also adding a new $13 million Recreation and Fitness Center , to be completed by August 2005. Built with student fees , it will enhance the east side of campus.
There will be roughly $22 million in renovations to the Biology and Physical Sciences buildings, finishing in August 2006, with bond funding from Proposition 55.
On the north side of campus, we'll develop two parking structures, at a cost of $27 million. We'll break ground in 2006, with the cost covered by student and MPP fees .
In October, with direct federal funding , we'll begin construction of a small $600,000 addition to the CSUSB Foundation building to house the Office of Technology Transfer and Commercialization.
When we receive appropriate private funds , we'll also build an observatory on Little Badger Hill and the third Palm Desert facility.
Finally, with bond money , between January 2006 and August 2007, we'll construct a new $50-million College of Education Building.

There's also some wonderful construction taking place across from the university. The Watson Corp. is developing the area to the southwest of campus - with homes from $400,000 to $600,000. The first 31 lots will be completed by next June and another 28 parcels by the end of 2005.

And critical to us, a new street - Campus Drive - will be built from Kendall Avenue to Northpark Boulevard , near Fairview Drive . It's expected that the road will be finished by June 2005. And a shopping center on the southwest corner of University Parkway and Northpark will be opened in January 2006.

Due to Vice President David DeMauro's persistence, we now have traffic counts that demonstrate, as we had long argued, that the heaviest traffic at the entrance to the I-215 intersection with University Parkway is from the University side. A plan has been submitted to Caltrans to reconfigure the left-turn lanes onto the southbound I-215. We expect approval soon, with changes implemented by early 2005. We appreciate the strong support from city officials James Funk and Fred Wilson.

Now let's turn to budget and enrollment issues. Coming into this year, we knew there were fiscal problems on the horizon. So, as in prior years, we took steps to help assure that we wouldn't be short. In fact, we're in relatively good shape because we started to set funds aside in 2001 a full three years ago. The result is that while we've left some openings vacant, we've never had to lay off any permanent employees.

As I've said before, I fully expect each of us to work harder and better until we get through these lean fiscal times. But for you to be firmly loyal to this university during a difficult period, it's vital to understand that the loyalty is reciprocal. Please know that this administration surely intends to seek to protect your jobs.

You have a copy of the budget principles we adopted in 2002 These principles continue to be of great value and underscore our strategy to:

Spread the cuts over several years;
Be conservative with state funds;
Be entrepreneurial in creating additional University revenue;
Be protective of our employees' jobs; and first and foremost
Assure authentic access for our students, offering the courses students need to graduate in a timely manner.

Last year, we took a $3.3 million budget reduction, and this year another $6.7 million has been cut. Over two years, then, we've lost $10 million; that's nearly 11 percent of our general fund appropriation from the legislature and almost 8 percent overall when we count student fees.

Fortunately, our Full-Time-Equivalent-Student target was reduced originally by 5 percent - about 700 FTEs - to 13,147. Our FTE goal then climbed later, with new funding, to 13,393 - all in the academic year.

In fact, we're not free-falling into a budget chasm only because of the small rise in this year's enrollment target and the increase in student fees. Overall, this year's student fees will approach $44 million. Without fee increases and without enrollment growth, our already significant budget gap would have ballooned to over $11 million.

However, while students are paying more, we're fortunate that CSU fees remain by far the lowest among our comparator institutions nationwide. And this campus has more than $100 million in financial aid available for those in need.

In any case, we needed to cut 5 percent - $6.7 million - from last year's budget. Academic Affairs had to be the most protected, because the academic side must generate the enrollments that trigger the rest of our funding.

To address the cuts, Academic Affairs had its budget reduced by 4.6 percent; all other units were cut 7.4 percent, or more than half again as much as academic units. In addition, we used some of our central reserve ($500,000) as an offset. Nonetheless, we still have more than $1 million in reserve.

Ever since Thucydides wrote the History of the Peloponnesian Wars, well over 2,000 years ago, we've understood that pressure often causes disarray, panic, and both selfish and parochial decision making.

It's also clear that pressure and crises help to reveal underlying character. And I can say without question that I've been deeply impressed with the responsiveness, spirit and concern for the university and students demonstrated at each budget step by faculty, staff members, administrators and students themselves.

In fact, on most occasions, the Budget Council - with broad representation from the faculty, staff, student body and administration - has been conservative in protecting against shortfalls. They've often been even more conservative than I am. They've withstood the pressures of major budget cuts, and they've been wonderful role models. I hope each of us will have the same high standards of doing whatever is necessary to get through this bleak budget period.

I want to note one element of the budget plan that changed sharply late in the year. I had intended to be the " first-in" with PeopleSoft Human Resources and Financial software - in HR because we had none, and in finance because changes in Sacramento made it essential for us to adopt new software. I also intended to be " last-in" when it came to the Student Information System. Our goal was entry during the last possible year, 2006-2007, because our current SIS is still satisfactory and, in addition, because the new PeopleSoft SIS would be the most expensive and complex to introduce.

However, during the summer, we were approached by the Chancellor's Office with a request that we migrate to the student model in '05-'06 because of limits with hardware/software support that would be available for the 11 remaining campuses. The Chancellor's Office offered us incentives to move in '05-'06, including a low-interest loan with repayment over eight years. Moreover, I received assurance that if faced with budget cuts in any year, we will be allowed to defer payments until budgets rise again.

We agreed to introduce PeopleSoft SIS early because of the low interest notes, the deferral of payments if we have budget cuts, and IRT's belief that we could save a few hundred thousand dollars and it would be beneficial to introduce all three systems together . I have great confidence that our IRT colleagues will once again successfully introduce a new system.

As you probably know, we have a new long-term compact with the governor, and it should serve as a base for next year's budget. Just as the compact served as a floor this year, and efforts by others raised the allocation to the CSU, I hope that scenario will play out again next year.

At this point, the Chancellor's Office believes there will be sufficient revenue to fund next year's compact, which contains funding for an added 10,000 CSU FTES in 2005-2006 - with CSUSB's share about 360 if funds are allocated in a proportional manner. While we have many needs, I believe the highest and most pressing now is for salary increases. Otherwise, retention and recruitment, as well as fairness and quality, will be at risk.

Now let's talk a bit about our listserves. There's a nice story about a young girl drawing a picture of Jonah being swallowed by a whale. Her teacher saw the picture and noted that while a whale is large, its throat is too small to swallow a man. The girl said that was fine, but the whale had swallowed Jonah, and that she'd ask Jonah how the whale swallowed him when she got to heaven. The teacher answered, "What if Jonah went to hell," and the girl said to the teacher, "Then you can ask Jonah."

We're one of the few universities with a listserve like Forum, and it sometimes reads like a battle between the forces of heaven and hell.

Let me start by saying that I'm delighted that the university can furnish several listserves for internal communication. The first, Bulletin Board, appears to work quite well - with such participation and goods sold that if the university took a broker's fee, we'd solve our budget deficit pretty quickly!

Campus, the second listserve, has value in promoting campus events.

The third listserve, Flash, is used relatively sparingly, and only in emergency circumstances.

The final listserve, Forum, has also brought various advantages. Unfortunately, over this past year, some - surely not all - of the discussion on Forum has become agonizingly personalized. More importantly, many faculty and staff have removed themselves from the Forum listserve, and several have told me that they don't participate because they're intimidated.

Given all of this, as well as the enormous benefits of Forum for discussions that are as wide-ranging as the war in Iraq to the uses of space on campus, I'm asking that all Forum participants seek to create an environment in which others will feel comfortable, with the focus on teaching and learning - as befits a university. The classroom serves as a good model. When students don't understand or if they disagree, we don't - or shouldn't - isolate, disparage or intimidate them. We try to behave in civil and uplifting ways to promote learning. Once again, my concern is less for those who now participate and more for those who find Forum's currents too chilly to wade in. I greatly appreciate everyone's assistance.

If you disagree with me, there will be ample time at both faculty and staff open meetings to state your views.

I want to turn to the university's agenda for the coming year, by division, and then outline the key priorities of the President's Office.

First, the Division of Academic Affairs: Let's begin with the WASC review. I'd say the report was as good as I've ever seen. The review was quite complimentary, provided for a full 10-year re-accreditation, and offered only four major recommendations, including the adoption of an ombudsperson and the development of more aggressive budget approaches to fund the University Strategic Plan. I'll treat these two items when I broach priorities for the President's Office.

The other two recommendations of the review were to implement a more fully developed new faculty mentoring system in academic departments and to improve the level of student advising. Academic Affairs will pursue these recommendations. In fact, four of our five colleges have already instituted mandatory advising at least annually.

The leading priority for Academic Affairs is to offer a sufficient battery of classes to assure authentic access for students and to allow the university to meet its enrollment - and therefore its funding - goals.

Moreover, academic units will work with special emphasis this year on improving graduation rates, creating road maps for students to navigate requirements, working closely with community colleges and other CSUs to develop community college transfer programs for the top 25 majors, and on formulating systematic ways to better recruit graduate students.

In addition, the provost will have as a high priority working closely with the deans and advancement personnel on fundraising.

The Division of Administration and Finance's agenda includes:

Completion of that awesome list of major capital projects - and doing it both on time and on budget.
Conducting emergency preparedness training for faculty and staff, including tabletop exercises, employee training and evacuation drills.
Completing purchase of the Northpark Boulevard student housing project and analyzing future uses of potential commercial property.
Working with the city, Caltrans, and developers to mitigate off-campus traffic congestion, including the new Campus Drive , access to the 215, and a possible local shuttle system. And
Taking steps to separate vehicular and pedestrian traffic on campus.
Shifting to the Advancement Division, the goals include:
Raising $8.7 million, or 10 percent of the General Fund budget. To meet this goal, the division proposes to focus on scholarships, the Palm Desert Campus capital campaign, College of Business and Public Administration fundraising, the College of Education Building, the Literacy Center, and the observatory campaign.
To help meet these goals, key fundraiser positions will be filled at the Palm Desert Campus and in the College of Business and Public Administration.
The division will develop a 40th anniversary plan focused on alumni and other University supporters.
To rapidly disseminate information, Public Affairs will launch a university news Web site, which will provide up-to-date reports on CSUSB programs, events, people and priorities. And
Intercollegiate Athletics will aim to bring the average GPA of student-athletes to 3.0.

IRT's principal priorities:

A shift to "Voice-Over-IP" telephone technology. Our phone system is outdated, and with the new convergence of technology (voice, video and data), this is seen as a wise time to invest in new technology rather than upgrading a dated voice system. The project, to be completed by spring, will require broad campus cooperation.
The second large and quite complex priority deals with the Common Management System (CMS). Planning will be undertaken this year for the new PeopleSoft SIS, and the overall project should be completed in two and a half years.
In addition, IRT also will have a busy year enhancing the campus's wireless capacity, chasing each of the new facilities with telecommunication and video infrastructure and further enhancing our network security.
The Division of Student Affairs priorities will focus on:
Providing leadership and coordination to meet our enrollment goals.
Concentrating on various facets of our enrollment, for example, the Palm Desert Campus, in-state and regional recruitment, out-of-state and international students, as well as diversity.
Creating marketing plans and other approaches to achieve 100 percent residence hall occupancy. And
Responding to recommendations to be made by a task force that reviewed student concerns about services provided to students with disabilities.

In the President's Office,

We'll recruit a vice president for advancement.
Based on recommendations of the WASC review and of the University Diversity Committee, we'll recruit an ombudsperson.
We've had a three-part Strategic Plan since 1998. This year, we'll report on the extent to which the plan's components have been met or unmet. That report will circulate widely, both on- and off-campus.
I'll appoint a Strategic Planning Task Force to recommend the contents of a new five-year plan.
Until we have budget increases, I'll defer consideration of WASC's recommendation that we use more aggressive approaches to fund the University plan.
Finally, I'll work to help assure the success of several ongoing initiatives, including meeting our fundraising goals, implementing federal distance education grants, promoting ICTN and securing grant funds to create a federally-recognized University Transportation Center .

I'll also pursue with special energy two of my roles as president:

To help get the resources needed to reach our goals through various entrepreneurial activities, whether in fundraising, in partnerships, in special appropriations or state revenue. And,
As always, to serve as the university's advocate, seeking to improve our reputation and everyone's understanding of our development, whether in the community, region or nation, because our reputation ultimately defines our other opportunities.

I want to conclude with some remarks about what we do. I should be clear that I believe higher education is the single most powerful engine of social change, of justice and of progress.

Bachelor's degree recipients earn over $1 million more over a lifetime than high school graduates, contribute significantly to the tax base and are more apt to be employed.

Those graduates are also more likely to be independent, better developed culturally, more prone to understand the world and its complexities, and more inclined to participate in society.

Our role, then, is vital. I'm impressed with all that CSUSB has achieved and how it continues to grow stronger and more meaningful each year. We provide opportunities for the future; and given our student composition, we also wear the face of the future.

Let me end where I began this morning. I'm very proud to serve as your president. And I'm very grateful for each of your contributions. This is an exceptional institution that is getting better yearly, even in difficult financial times - and, as opposed to many other universities, our best days still lie in the future.

Let's have a great year!