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Good morning.
I want to welcome all of you to the start of the fall semester and a new school year.
It’s good to see the Sacramento State community back together after a very busy and challenging
summer.
I hope you enjoyed the break – whether you were away from campus, took the opportunity
to go on vacation, or just rushed home after work to watch the Olympics.
Spending plenty of time with family and friends, and taking time to rest, relax, recharge and
get ready for the coming year is important for all of us.
I also welcome all the alumni, community members and friends of the University who have joined
us today.
To our guests, I want to say that your friendship is critical to this campus, and we truly appreciate
your continued interest, support and enthusiasm.
On that note, I would like to welcome a number of people who are new to the campus.
**** SLIDE: “Campus News”
First, there are six new faculty members who have joined us as critical replacements for
our academic departments.
Last year, the number was five.
I can only hope that in the years ahead, support for the CSU will allow us to return to full
strength.
Other new posts in our colleges include Ted Lascher, who is the interim dean of the College
of Social Sciences and Interdisciplinary Studies – and *** Krickx, who just missed out
by a few months on being announced at last year’s address as the dean of the College
of Continuing Education.
We also have three new associate deans: Kimo Ah Yun, in the College of Arts and Letters,
Seung Bach, in the College of Business Administration, And Dianne Hyson will serve in an interim
capacity in SSIS. Next month, Steve Boilard will join us as
the director of the Center for California Studies.
Steve is a former professor, in addition to spending 14 years in the state Legislative
Analyst’s Office.
Over the years, Sacramento State has participated in the A-C-E Fellows program. This year we
have one coming here, and two going away.
Brian Oppy, a professor of psychology from Chico State, will be with us during the fall
semester.
And Dave Evans from Geology and Jana Noel from Teacher Education will be away on fellowships
– Dave at the University of Nevada Reno, and Jana at St. Mary’s.
The new faces continue with Student Affairs, where a number of recent retirements and departures
created some key vacancies.
Beth Lesen (LEE-sen) is the new Associate Vice President for Student Engagement and
Success.
She replaces the retired Edward Jones.
Anita Kermes (Kerr-MEES) is the new Director of Financial Aid, replacing Craig Yamamoto,
who left for San Diego State and the beautiful weather.
And Ardith Tregenza is the Director of Student Conduct, as Leonard Valdez has also retired.
Over in HR, Veronica Hodge is the Associate Vice President for Employee Services.
In Public Affairs and Advocacy, Jeannie Wong is the Associate Vice President of University
Communications to reflect her expanded role as well as that of the division.
And this will be Police Chief Mark Iwasa’s first fall semester at Sacramento State, after
joining us in January.
These positions interact with many of you, so please be sure to say hello.
You may notice some other changes on campus.
Facilities Services has spent much of the summer refreshing campus areas, both indoors
and out.
The indoor project included about 180 classrooms in 24 buildings, and several other areas,
such as corridors and stairways.
I toured the rooms last week, and the work they have done makes a huge difference.
Here, you can see some examples.
Crews have performed deep cleaning, painted rooms, removed graffiti, refinished floors
and replaced doors and lighting.
The focus was on improving the learning environment for our students.
All told, the project involved more than 100 people, including custodians, IRT technicians,
painters and maintenance professionals.
These improvements were made in a very cost-effective manner, and resulted from a reorganization
that gave select managers distinct zones of responsibility on campus.
Additionally, new landscaping projects are using sustainable materials and plants that
need less water. The goal is to reduce maintenance costs while
enhancing campus beauty.
Ali Izadin, Darren Ockey (OAK-eee), and Mark Leisz (LEEZ) in Facilities deserve a lot of
credit for bringing these projects in on time and under budget.
Another renovation comes to us from the Chemistry Department.
Thanks to Tom Savage and his faculty colleagues, we were able to renovate the Cimera (KY-mera)
lab, a cell and molecular biology suite in Sequoia Hall.
The $800,000 project was funded by a National Science Foundation grant.
University Enterprises, Inc., has also been busy with campus dining renovations.
The University Center Restaurant has been remodeled and rebranded as Epicure Restaurant
at Sacramento State.
This will bring more natural light into the restaurant and modernize its décor.
Other projects include the first phase of the River Front Center renovation, an update
for Round Table Pizza, and the launch of a sandwich and salad venue called Good Eats.
All of these upgrades will provide a better dining experience and healthier choices, while
improving energy efficiency, sustainability, and ADA compliance.
In the virtual world of Sacramento State, the home pages for 6 of our 7 colleges have
been redesigned in partnership with IRT and Public Affairs and Advocacy.
This is important for our University’s identity, as the web site is often the first point of
contact for prospective students.
Another project that will improve the visibility of our University is a new strategic plan
for Athletics.
A committee of faculty and staff has been engaged in the planning effort since the Spring,
and a final draft is scheduled for later in the semester.
I have asked Vice President Lori Varlotta of Student Affairs to help with the implementation
of the plan.
I am also proud to report that Sacramento State once again exceeded its goal for private
fundraising.
Students will be helped by a 5 percent pay out from our endowment for the second consecutive
year.
That translates into more than $730,000, most of which will be in the form of scholarships.
We must always remember the difficulties students are facing with the budget cuts, and every
dollar that we raise can make a big difference in their lives.
Now, onto the budget…
I want to take a moment right now to thank the faculty, staff and students who serve
on the University Budget Advisory Committee.
Their prudent fiscal guidance has been invaluable as we continue to face budgetary difficulties.
I think we all wish that they weren’t getting so much experience in dealing with drastic
cuts in support.
But we can be very thankful that the committee members take on this solemn responsibility
with the utmost professionalism and dedication.
Once again their task was enormous, because we are dealing with more than our fair share
of budget uncertainty.
The specter of another mid-year reduction has returned, and we have become all too accustomed
to the term: “trigger” cut. This year, the trigger cut is $250 million
for the California State University system.
The trigger will be pulled if Gov. Jerry Brown’s tax initiative fails to pass in November.
In that event, state funding for the CSU system will be down
39 percent since 2007-08.
The initiative is now known as Proposition 30 – and the CSU Board of Trustees has endorsed
the measure as our best possible outcome for the fiscal year.
For our campus, all of this means that we had to prepare for more than $11 million in
baseline reductions, in case the initiative does not pass.
Additionally, we are using reserves to cover another $9 million of the resulting campus
deficit.
Our cautious budget approach and careful planning are again helping us to survive.
We are holding some funding in reserve and postponing some larger projects to allow us
to weather the trigger cut if Proposition 30 fails.
If Prop. 30 passes, we hope to be able to reallocate some of those funds midyear.
The continuing budget difficulties have really put us under the microscope, especially in
terms of graduation rates and student success.
Nothing in the last few years has been easy, but I am proud to say that Sacramento State
is making tremendous progress in these areas.
The College of Education is on track to complete its reorganization by August 2013.
Dean Vanessa Sheared has worked extensively with faculty and staff on this comprehensive
effort, with the goal of better meeting the needs of students, streamlining services,
and enhancing teaching and learning.
The most apparent change is in the organization itself.
The College is moving from six departments to four specialty areas.
In support of new students, Sacramento State’s implementation of the Early Start program
has gone exceedingly well.
Early Start is a CSU-mandated program that requires a preparatory class for all first-time
freshmen who need remediation.
The initiative’s success on our campus took a lot of work, and there were four staff members
who stood out in particular.
They are: Nancy Nelson,Cindy Martinez,Dena Lemus (LEE-muss), and Emelina Logan.
Services for Students with Disabilities also continues to promote retention and graduation
through its S-S-S program.
Eighty-six percent of the students in the program graduated within six years of entering
the project, and the retention rate was more than 88 percent.
As further evidence of our overall success, Sacramento State’s interim report to the
WASC reaccreditation commission was well-received.
The report dealt with educational effectiveness and the progress we have made with assessment
and data on retention and graduation rates.
As a result of this positive reception, our reaccreditation remains reaffirmed through
2018.
I know the WASC process involves a lot of work by a lot of people on campus.
This accomplishment is something we can all be proud of.
Our achievements in this area are part of our commitment to examining how we deliver
education at every level.
If that sounds familiar, that is because I raised this issue in January at my Spring
Address.
At that time, it was very apparent that we were evaluating programs and implementing
changes at all levels, from individual faculty and staff members, to departments and divisions,
and to the Faculty Senate.
This level of introspection and self-assessment has not been easy, but being ahead of the
curve will only help us in the years ahead.
The saying goes that you can either make change happen, watch change happen, or have change
happen to you – but no matter which road you take, change is going to happen.
I hope we all agree that Sacramento State needs – and deserves – to be leading the
way.
We have demonstrated time and again that we can be the very best when we break the mold
– when we redefine the possible.
Initiatives like our Veterans Success Center, our Graduation Initiative, our Facebook page,
and The Well are all known throughout California, and in many cases, across the nation.
The College of Business Administration’s A-A-C-S-B accreditation was reaffirmed, thus
maintaining its spot in the top 5 percent of business schools worldwide.
Sacramento State is also blazing successful new trails in two areas that are very appropriate
and important to the future of our campus.
The first is health care. This semester, the first students will begin
under our new Doctor of Physical Therapy Program.
Our ability to offer a DPT is crucial to the health and well-being of people in the region,
as the doctorate will be required for accreditation in 2015.
We are planning new teaching, lab and research space in Folsom Hall for the program, and
construction should begin this semester.
When you consider that our School of Nursing is already there, we are growing closer and
closer to the day when Folsom Hall becomes synonymous with advanced health care education
in California.
Along with the exciting new DPT, I want to recognize one of our most cherished programs.
The Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology is celebrating 60 years on campus, and at
an event in November, we will be honoring the department’s life-changing contributions
to patients and professionals since 1952.
Our health care story does not end there.
We are becoming well-known for our mental health services on campus.
Vice President Varlotta is the principal investigator on federal and state grants aimed at enhancing
our comprehensive suicide prevention efforts and to support mental health services.
The Student Health Center will receive a county grant, as well.
The Center has also merged all health care services, including counseling, into one program.
Those of us who have shuttled back and forth to multiple providers in different locations
can appreciate how much of an improvement this can be.
Our Health Center can provide seamless care – and we are the only CSU campus to use
a single electronic medical record for patients.
Congratulations to Joy Stewart-James and everyone else at the Student Health Center.
Suicide prevention is one of the most important issues we can focus on, and I was very pleased
to learn that cross divisional training workshops lasting two-days have taken place across our
campus.
Another emerging strength is our work to extend Sacramento State’s reach internationally.
Right now, about 250 students are living on campus and taking courses in the College of
Continuing Education’s English Language Institute.
The goal is to help them matriculate to an American university, and hopefully Sacramento
State.
We have also implemented a policy that will admit a limited number of undergraduate students
from other countries to the University, with the condition that they complete ELI training.
This will make the process of coming to Sacramento State easier for those students who are otherwise
qualified, but who lack English skills.
The partnerships we have signed with numerous overseas universities will support this effort
as well as allow our students to study abroad.
Faculty and staff throughout Sacramento State deserve a lot of credit for these and our
many other successes.
That said, the changes are only beginning.
WASC, which I mentioned earlier, is no exception.
A re-design is under way for WASC, and the effects will likely be far-reaching.
Everything is on the table, including: Learning expectations for all degree levels,
How we define credit hours, And emerging federal regulations in the wake
of increasing online education.
On that last point, the move toward online delivery of programs is gaining more and more
momentum. The reality is that students process information
much differently than they did even a few years ago.
Three-quarters of our students say that the use of cutting-edge technologies is important
to them.
At Sacramento State, Academic Affairs is offering its second
e-Academy this fall.
The project helps professors convert courses from traditional teaching to online and hybrid
formats.
The interest in this type of assistance is increasing, as more and more faculty members
seek to use technology to enhance teaching.
In fact, IRT is working diligently to assess technological trends and needs on campus.
The division has created a web site to share this data.
We will publish the URL for this site in the Monday Briefing.
We have also had discussions about how we can best implement the Cal State Online initiative
coming from the Chancellor’s Office.
It has been a major topic with the vice presidents, and I also met with the college deans on the
issue.
I expect these serious and thorough discussions to continue, as we work to identify the best
ways to undertake this initiative and provide the most benefits to students and faculty
– especially during this era of declining resources.
I think we are all aware that we are being forced to work harder during a time when access,
quality and affordability are all under assault simultaneously.
And there is even more change looming on the horizon.
Presidential elections inevitably lead to change, no matter who wins.
The economy is dominating the campaign rhetoric, and public higher education is being swept
up in that, with student loans and graduation rates taking center stage.
At the state level, the fate of Prop. 30, and the CSU’s response to the outcome of
the vote, has the potential to set the tone for future CSU and Sac State students.
The Board of Trustees has been forced to consider all options if the measure does not pass.
Enrollment reductions, last-minute tuition increases, and cuts to salary and benefit
expenses are under discussion.
All of these options could seriously jeopardize access, affordability and quality.
At the same time, California will be electing legislators in November under newly drawn
districts – so in many ways, all bets are off in terms of what we can expect the State
Capitol to look like come January.
And to top it off, the Board of Trustees is searching for a new Chancellor.
Now before you ask, I don’t have any insight on who it will be.
That may be more difficult to predict than Olympic gymnastics.
But the one thing we can be sure of is that the CSU is in for a change, no matter who
is picked.
My message here is that it is up to us to be ready to handle whatever the future may
hold.
I see this as a watershed year for Sacramento State.
I truly believe that the future of Sacramento State, and of public higher education, will
be defined by the work that we do to preserve quality, access and affordability.
Thanks to you, we are in a better position for this important fight.
We have been doing a good job of providing value to the community we serve.
At an event last spring, more than 50 community leaders came to campus for a presentation
on Sacramento State’s economic impact.
The data really opened their eyes.
Between our alumni and our campus operations, we generate about $8 billion in economic activity
for the California economy.
And that is only part of the story, because even a small sampling of achievements from
our campus illustrates just how essential and innovative we are.
For instance, the College of Arts and Letters partnered with the Crocker Art Museum for
U-Nite in the Spring.
The spectacular event featured the work of more than 30 Sacramento State faculty members,
and more than 1,700 people got a first-hand look at the talents we have here on campus.
Kudos to Dean Edward Inch and everyone from Arts and Letters.
Another example of community impact is the recently launched Center for Entrepreneurship.
The center already has four business tenants who are receiving advice and assistance from
our faculty and students.
Pia Wong and Deidre Sessoms (SESS-ums) from Teacher Education received a grant from the
Bechtel Foundation to strengthen math and science teaching in the Sac City Unified School
District.
Tim Fong of Ethnic Studies earned a U.S. Department of Education grant for the first year of a
five-year project to enhance student success and service learning among Asian Americans
and Pacific Islanders.
Vera Margoniner (MAR-go-nee-ner) in Physics has received funding from Google for two pilot
projects.
One is aimed at increasing the number of physics teachers, and the other promotes the use of
technology to improve teaching and student learning in science and math.
Warren Smith in Electrical and Electronic Engineering is securing a licensing agreement
that will allow his most recent breakthrough to be produced and marketed.
His innovation is a biomedical device that tracks the movement of children who have cerebral
palsy, and it was developed in conjunction with Shriners Hospitals for Children.
The device documents data such as how often the youngsters fall, which can help reduce
injuries.
I could go on all day with examples, but the point is that what we do here directly benefits
those who need it most.
And we have to continue to promote ourselves and our work.
The Public Affairs and Advocacy reorganization is complete, and one of the unit’s charges
is to be a full-service resource for campus communications.
I have seen many student, faculty and staff accomplishments publicized, on TV and in print.
We need to see more. Much more.
So when you have good news, call Public Affairs.
The office has also launched its “Made at Sac State” campaign, which highlights prominent
graduates with video, social media, and advertising.
The next few months are crucial for public higher education in California.
How we deal with the changes and challenges ahead will go a long way toward determining
our success as a model regional institution.
We need to work together to further demonstrate our value to the community …
to the students who need us as they pursue their dreams …
and to the people of California who will decide our fate in November.
We have to demonstrate that we are willing to continue to put in the work necessary to
honestly address student success.
And we must keep looking forward.
Our students and the people we serve depend on us.
Thank you for the work you do for our University and for our students.
Have
a great semester….
Thank
you
very much.