2010 State of the University

by Dianne F. Harrison, Ph.D.
President of California State University, Monterey Bay

August 17, 2010
World Theater

Transcript

I always look forward to this occasion when we reflect back on the previous year's events and accomplishments and prepare once again to answer what I consider to be a call to service and excellence for this university and its students.

To the faculty who have been away from the classroom for a few months, welcome back! I hope your summer was both relaxing and productive -- both personally and professionally.

To the staff and administrators who have been finishing out one academic year while at the same time preparing for the new one, I hope you all found some time for personal R&R this summer as well.

My family and I had an opportunity to do an annual week-long sojourn to the Grand Tetons, where I learned how to fly fish (it was catch-and-release). I bonded once again with a wonderful horse named Spice. Spice is really good to me and I am not a rider. I love Spice. And I learned how and when to use pepper spray for bears. But that's another story that you can ask me and I'll tell you about it sometime...

Today, we all feel a blend of excitment and nervousness as we anticipate the students' arrival and the beginning of another academic year. We realize our tremendous responsibility to teach them, to challenge them, to engage them, to keep them out of harm's way, and to help them graduate.

I have to say that in spite of the still-sluggish economy and the now-familiar, I'm sorry to say, unresolved state budget, I have never been so proud of our entire university or felt more confident of its continued progress.

Let me say that again and underscore: never so proud; never more confident.

Now why is that? I'm here to tell you this afternoon why that is.

As evidenced by the positive feedback we have so far received in our pursuit of WASC reaffirmation of accreditation, Cal State Monterey Bay has turned an important corner from its formative years and is truly maturing as a comprehensive university for the 21st century.

In other words, we've come very far -- and very fast -- since 1994, when CSUMB was officially designated as the 21st campus of the CSU, and 1995, when our first students were enrolled.

This university has stayed very much on the move, and I belive that momentum is strongly linked to our core values, to our vision, the vison of the founding faculty, and to the four major goals of our 10-year Strategic Plan focused on:

• Increasing student success
• Continue to develop as a comprehensive university
• Increasing our institutional capacity
• Hiring and retaining the very best high quality faculty and staff

Last month, about 1,100 freshmen and transfer students and 1,200 parents attended a total of six campus student orientation sessions.

These sessions were better attended, more informative, and I suspect more effective than ever before. I want to commend Student Affairs and Academic Affairs administrators, and staff including the Admissions and Student Activities staff, the great student "O-Team" orientation leaders, and the deans and faculty, Conference and Event Services, Facilities, the University Police Department, and everyone else who helped with these sessions.

As you saw in the video that opened this event, our new freshmen and transfers had some inspiring -- and  sometimes funny -- observations about why they chose Cal State Monterey Bay, what they hope to accomplish here, and what they learned during orientation.

Just as a little side note: I knew free laundry would be a big hit. I knew that. We should have done this a long time ago! Good for us.

I am also saddened when I stop and think about who did not attend this year's orientations. And that would be the over 3,200 students who were qualified for admission but who we had to turn away because of the cap on our enrollment.

But I'm quite moved by the fact that so many incoming students chose our university for very specific reasons - be it their intended major or our location, our size, and increasingly because one of their siblings attended and had a good experience. That's a great thing to hear about.

They and their parents come with high expectations, and they are counting on us to help them achieve their goals -- regardless of the state budget.

I am optimistic and I'm going to have to knock on wood that we won't face furloughs again this year -- Yahoo!! I've come to associate the word furlough with dreaded furlough.

But when it's already August, and the Legislature has not made much progress on the 2010-2011 budget, it seems clear we face another long autumn of uncertainty. Can we say, "Call me in October?" We hope, we hope.

And no matter when the budget is adopted, we all know, you should know and appreciate that money will continue to be tight for years to come. Unfortunately, a scarcity of public dollars has become the new normal.

So while I and others have made repeated trips to Sacramento to meet with our fairly sympathetic local legislators -- and I do pledge to keep you informed throughout the budget process as we know it -- I don't want not dwell on dollars and cents right now.

I hope that comes as a little bit of relief, because there really isn't any news to report. So let's move on.

What I'd rather talk about today are some of our recent accomplishments, the inspiration we draw from our students and our colleagues, and the reasons students come here and stay here -- as well as the outcomes they gain in the process.

Finally, I 'd like you to think about where we are headed together, and why.

I find such ideals as "innovation" "community"  "diversity" to be very valuable touchstones as we go about our business. We are indeed committed to the success of every student, and we are equally committed to providing an accessible, high-quality education to underserved populations.

Just last Thursday, the university welcomed 93 freshmen -- all of them first-generation students -- who participated in the Summer Bridge program as they transition from high school to college.

Those students are the embodiment of our ideal of access, and California absolutely needs them to obtain a college degree and lend their new skills and knowledge to the state's workforce. We are helping to make that happen.

Certainly our broad and interdisciplinary majors have strengthened our appeal for new students -- and the way that even traditional named degree programs resonate with prospective students can be seen in the success of our biology, psychology, kinesiology, business, math, and computer science majors, just to name a few.

We are also planning a marine science major, as well as a Spanish major.

After years of anticipation, finally our Master of Social Work program is about to become our ninth master's degree, with an inaugural cohort I believe of approximately 50 students. Thank you. I have to point out that this was made possible by a strong team effort and partnership between our university, the Monterey County Health Department, and regional mental health funding.

Thank you Dean Simmons, and all of the faculty of the College of Professional Studies for all your years of effort.

I am also encouraged by our collaboration with community colleges on the exploration of a possible bachelor of science in nursing degree.

This step forward was enabled by last fall's Academic Senate approval of an Authorization to Plan.

We know financial aid is essential for two-thirds of our students, and that student fees continue to rise -- at least 5 percent so far this year.

But we don't often stop and consider the specific scholarship programs that supplement the very valuable Pell and Cal Grant funds.

I'm referring to what we call our bread-and-butter scholarships, such as the very successful Pay It Forward program, which now serves more than 30 high-needs students thanks to private support obtained by our Executives-in-Residence program, within the University Corporation, as well as students who are assisted through our annual Have a Heart dinner and auction, which this past March had its most successful year ever. Thank you everyone who volunteered and everyone who worked hard for that effort.

I also hope we never take for granted the tremendous asset and importance of our student housing, which is essential to the spirit of community on our campus.

More than 70 percent of students living on campus last year signed up to remain on-campus in our housing this fall. I know it's the free laundry!

I am impressed to watch the popluarity and development of specialized residential learning communities within the residence halls - some are tied to an academic program, such as First-Year Seminar, others are tied to a non-academic theme such as substance-free living. Pilot programs this fall will extend the concept to students in science and math and liberal arts.

While it is gratifying to know that students are increasingly singling CSUMB out as a school of choice, it's absolutely essential that we concentrate on what will make them stay.

In years past, it has been disheartening to see so many of our incoming students move on to another school before they graduate, or simply never graduate at all. But I believe this is another area where our university is turning a corner.

Last December, CSU Monterey Bay and the other CSU campuses submitted what is now called a "Campus Graduation Plan" to improve graduation rates and retention.

Results so far -- and it hasn't been that long -- have been very encouraging:

We increased our 2009-2010 fall-to-spring retention to 92 percent, historically it was at 88 percent. That's a very good move. We have an ambitious goal of retaining 78 percent of last fall's students in the Fall 2010, right now, and many people are working very hard to meet that goal. We'll know how we do in mid-September.

Improved retention is essential to raising our graduation rate, so we expect to see many more of our current students complete their degrees, as we focus on the six-year graduation rate for first-time freshmen. Our goal is 49.3 percent by 2015.

Now, while most of us know that figure actually represents a 14-point increase from our starting position, and it is a huge challenge, I do not think we should be satisfied at all that fewer than half of our freshmen who start will complete their degree here.

We must do better, and we will.

Our efforts are varied and wide-ranging, including early registration, improving advising,  early intervention through the Center for Student Success, the Center for Student Succes, which assists our students at risk of leaving school because of gaps in their academic readiness, poor time management, or a whole host of other factors.

I am only scratching the surface on this effort, but please at this point let me commend everyone involved -- from the Academic Senate, to the Enrollment Management Council, to the Undergraduate Advising Center, obviously the Center for Student Success, and many others -- for your tremendously important work.

Raising our graduation rate will remain a top priority for years to come. Similarly our faculty made commitments to modify our ULRs, or University Learning Requirements, to make them clearer for students and better aligned with the CSU's general education requirements.

The Otter Model, spearheaded by Swarup Wood and other faculty, in May recieved overwhelming approval by the Academic Senate under the leadership of Ilene Feinman. Thank you all for that work.

We are now engaged in planning for implementation of the model, so that students can finally benefit from all of the hard work to improve the curriculum and to make it clearer and easier for them to maneuver.

When it comes to how we serve students and their parents, often what may seem like small irritations can add up to a pretty big frustration. Sometimes even the smallest problem can be the last straw for a student deciding whether or not to stay. It's what happens inside the classroom, outside of the classroom, in the laundry room, everywhere.

But I am very happy to report progress on several fronts:

In one example, in order to get financial aid and other refunds to students as quickly as possible, the staffs of Administration and Finance and Enrollment Services, including Financial Aid, collaborated to implement "eREFUNDS" this past spring.

This system provides direct deposit of refunds to students' bank accounts, avoiding delays in manual processing, checks being sent to the wrong addresses, and transit time in snail mail. It seems like a simple thing but it wasn't. But we have finally done it, so thank you.

Another example of improved service is the new availability of the library's online services via smart phones so students can access services at virtually anytime, anyplace.

Similarly, the departments of IT and Strategic Communications cooperated on launch of a new Content Management System that has already proven itself in a the form of a much more user-friendly online Catalog.

These are great improvements, and I am assured by Chief Information Officer Chip Lenno and others that work continues to improve business systems in housing, admissions, and financial aid. All of those things really do make a difference for students so thank you Chip and others working on those.

Many other steps have been taken to improve our retention and graduation rates -- more than I can mention here. But I would like to highlight a couple more of them:

One huge arena is the steadily improving quality of life for students outside the classroom that is overseen the Division of Student Affairs, who this last year introduced "Otter Late Night Presents," a series of alcohol-free programs that take place after 10 p.m. on selected Friday and Saturday nights.

Rising interest in student government was indicated by the fact that nearly 25 percent of students voted in the Associated Students election this past spring, which is an all-time record thanks to online voting being available for the first time. I believe they elected some of our most outstanding students to leadership positions. Again thanks to those of you who are here for your service on behalf of our students.

These student leaders have been working since last spring and through the summer on their plans for improving campus life for students, including establishment of a Multicultural Student Center (with space in the Otter Student Center), programming for the Black Box Cabaret, and sustanability efforts to name just a few initiatives.

On another matter, safety is an important consideration for students, and I am very encouraged that nearly 40 percent of our students last year were already signed up to receive Otter Alert text messages in case of an emergency. That's a huge gain over previous years. We want 100 percent and we will still work on it, but that is a huge gain compared to where we were.

I know we got a head start on signups when a power outage hit during one of the orientation sessions in July. In fact, I was welcoming the group and the power went out. But the students and parents in the room saw that the alert went out within 11 minutes and understood what it was and how it works and how helpful they are and virtually every one of them signed up.

I assume everyone in this room is signed up as well! If you have not signed up, please do so.

Our facilities staff has added new sidewalks and, thank you, lighting on Inter-Garrison Road. They've installed 232 security cameras to assist university police as they respond to emerging incidents. In fact with the cameras installed so far there have been fewer false fire alarms, there have been quicker resolution of incidents that were caught on tape, and other benefits. Students  really appreciate this.

Of equal importance, we made strides in the ongoing demolition of vacant buildings this past year by removing 32 structures on the northwest campus in May and one very unattractive whatever it was...structure? warehouse? by the Child Care Center. If you remember the green thing, it's gone. And we have plenty to go -- 150 or so.

We remain inspired by our students' belief in us, by their success, and we are rightfully proud of the ways we are serving them better. We will be resolute in our commitment to continuous improvement.

I hope you find motivation in the marvel of seeing young people (and sometimes not so young) come to us, often with no definite passion in mind, and leave equipped with new knowledge, a sense of their place in society, a sound ethical grounding and the will to make a positive impact on the world.

Just to use a couple of examples of our recent graduates' success, I can't help but point to our celebrated TAT alums, Rodrigo Ojeda-Beck and Robert Machoian. Rod and Graham's work was chosen to be shown at last winter's Sundance Film Festival out of 1,500 entries.

Then, this summer we learned that they had been both named to a list of "25 New Faces" in Filmmaker Magazine as, quote, "individuals who will be shaping the independent film world of the future." Very impressive.

We also have been thrilled by the accomplishments of graduates from our UROC program -- the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Center, which pairs our most promising students with faculty mentors and opens the doors to amazing research work and solid professional experiences that, in turn, open other doors for them.

In May, we highlighted some of these graduates in newspaper ads so people around the area could see students like Adàn Romero, from the College of Science Media Arts and Technology, who this fall will begin pursuing his Ph.D. in biological engineering at MIT -- on a full scholarship.

Adàn is just the one of many outstanding students in both the UROC and McNair Scholars programs, and the LSAMP. All of these programs have benefited from the committed leadership of many faculty, many staff, and many deans. Please accept our appreciation for your efforts on such an amazing program.

Here is another point to think about: As inspiring as we find these students and their successes, so do our friends in surrounding communities, in the state and in the nation. They are impressed with success -- whether it's Sundance, the MIT Ph.D. Program, or working full-time at the Boys and Girls Club or as a new accountant at the prestigious accounting firm of Hayashi & Wayland. Every single department in all of our every one of out academic colleges can point to student success.

It's certainly true of students in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, who have partnered with Asian Cultural Encounter to videotape oral histories for the Chinatown Renewal Project -- and business students from the College of Professional Studies, who served as consultants at our Small Business Development Centers in Gonzales or Soledad to advise new and growing small businesses.

There are countless other examples of how well our students represent us and and the university. Our alumni and friends will support success.

We're  also seeking to become a recognized leader in the area of environmental sustainability, owing in part to conferences that we've hosted such as Focus the Region. (Thank you, Dan Fernandez and other members of our Campus Climate Commitment Committee and others who have worked so hard on that endeavor and many others.)

Some of you may have noticed a new facility on campus.

On July 1, our new solar generating facility off of Seventh Avenue began producing 16 percent of our electricity requirements. That's enough to reduce our carbon emissions by 713 tons a year.

This project seriously moves forward our sustainability efforts beyond recycling and conservation which are very important, and into technologies that support long-term growth while minimizing environmental impact.

Also, as part of our emphasis on transportation alternatives, we are about to get a new MST bus line. Sort of a bus line. You have to hear the best part. Line 25, which you'll be able to recognize because of its motorized trolleys, will connect downtown Salinas, our campus, and locations in Marina starting in September. And I hope each and every one of you will ride on the Otter Trolleys.

Funding needed to provide the new "Otter Trolley" bus line came from the Transportation Agency of Monterey County, or TAMC, which recognized the importance of serving students, faculty and staff who come to and from Salinas.

MST service will also be free on campus to all student and employees.

I want to say that TAMC's and MST's partnerships with the unviersity are symbolic of the progress we've made over 15 years in gaining the trust and confidence of community partners, particularly those who govern transportation and development and so on.

That certainly has been true in our very effective partnership for a while with the Monterey County Business Council to plan the Institute for Innovation and Economic Development.

Coming up, the institute will host a "green standards" conference so that others can learn best practices when it comes to hosting green events. I think that conference is a beautiful blend of the way the our university is serving our community and the environment.

KAZU radio is yet another success story for Cal State Monterey Bay.

In spite of the down economy, and under the capable leadership of Doug McKnight, KAZU just completed a record year for membership and underwriting and is now fully self-supporting. Yes.

Just so you know, KAZU has one of the largest audiences in the entire market, public or private, and is an excellent example of the service and leadership we provide beyond our campus boundaries. The station also employs a minimum, I think, of six student interns and hosts the popular Salon Series for friends of KAZU. Friends is defined donating $500 or more, so if you want to participate in the Salons, there is your opportunity.

Our success in athletics, in and out of the classroom, is another way for community supporters to connect with us as a university. The women's basketball, softball, and men's and women's golf teams certainly brought us positive attention this past year.

I also want to point out that, as important as an conference or tournament win is, for 09-10, the overall GPA for our student athletes was 3.05, with a 70 percent graduation rate. These are good students.

We intend to build on these successes, to increase our athletic scholarship opportunities, and enhance our facilities  all through private support.

Recognizing the community excitement we generate through our all of our students and all of  programs, we will continue to leverage those strengths in order to increase private investment in the university. That's what we need.

Thanks to our principal investigators and talented staffs in Grants & Contracts, the University Corporation, as well as University Advancement, our new research and public grant awards last fiscal year totaled $18.2 million. Again, a record year thanks to the PIs, thanks to everyone for helping support those resources.

Now we simply must do more to reach out to individuals and institutions who have the capacity to advance our cause. And when I say we need, I'm talking about myself, my VPs, our staff in University Advancement, everyone.

You and I know we are making an enormous educational impact on thousands of lives that we're fueling the state's economy with annual spending of $155 million and our economic impact of $269 million.

But we need more private partners, and our new philanthropic foundation is one additional means of establishing powerful individual donor relationships.

I am conscious of our time so I'm going to try to finish the highlights. And the important awards presentations are still ahead, so I can't possibly touch on all of our impressive recent accomplishments. So what I decided is that I am going to be posting online, along with my remarks, a listing of all the campus achievements that were submitted to me by every division and each college. I hope you will let us know if we omitted anything and I hope you will please take time to review it. You will be impressed and proud.

I want to share one other experience before I talk about this coming year, an experience I had this summer. In June, I was invited to address the Leadership Foundation, a United Kingdom organization of university educators and administrators (similar to American Council of Education in the U.S.), at their annual meeting in London.

I was on a panel presentation with USCS Chancellor George Blumenthal and President Chui from Santa Monica Community College. The topic that we were to address was "Innovating from a Crisis." After all, who better to address dealing with crises than three higher education representatives from California? It was perfect.

In my remarks, I suggested that as the state budget fiasco worsened in the past couple of years, we at Cal State Monterey Bay took the opportunity to work toward the common good of our campus and our students.

We did not freeze and we did not become entrenched in "woe is me" thinking, nor did we let the dreaded furlough days stall our efforts.

Instead, we continued in the forward progress, and we will continue this progress into the future.

"How did you do this?" I was asked.

Well, in addition to providing many examples of initiatives here on campus, fiscal conservatism, and new developments, I pointed out where we worked smarter -- but most importantly I credited the tremendous drive, creativity, and commitment of everyone in this room and across our campus, including our students for how we managed to get through, and that's true.

Just FYI, as an aside, I'd like to recommend something that was on my summer reading list. If you are having difficulty adjusting to our "new normal", I highly recommend the book, "Change or Die", by Alan Deutschman. It's really good for both personal and professional situations.  I had the chance to listen to the author talk about it and its got a provacative title but it is very useful.

We must all see and seize the opportunities before us, both directly ahead and further out on the horizon, only in that way will we emerge as an exemplary university and an educational beacon -- not only in our region but across the state and nation. This is what I am trying to do here with your support.

That is what I tried to do at the end of May, when I made two changes in our senior leadership.

I named Kevin Saunders the Interim Vice President for Administration and Finance, with combined leadership for both the University Corporation and the Division of Administration and Finance following a best-practices model of having these various business entities under one umbrella leadership.

I also announced Dr. Ronnie Higgs as the new Vice President for Student Affairs, with continuing responsibilities as Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs. Again, using best-practice models which closely align Student Affairs and Academic Affairs.

These leadership changes will allow our university to better serve its many constituencies, including current and prospective students as well as the taxpayers of California.

At a retreat in late June, the Senior Leadership Team emerged with what we belive is a clear agenda of themes and areas that demand particular attention in the coming fiscal year.

Each one relates to some aspect of our Strategic Plan, and I hope that these priorities will help guide important work this fall across all of our university divisions to determine strategic objectives over a three-year horizon. Wr'e really trying to plan.

First, Senior Leaders agreed that we must continue to improve our retention and graduation rates through the efforts I mentioned (and of course all of our WASC work). We emphasized that everyone on campus "owns" this challenge and responsibility.

Second, we must all work together to steadily enhance the quality of what we do and strengthen the reputation of the university.

I'm going to be calling on many of you for your help and participation in this effort.

We have spent a lot of time and effort over the years doing necessary repair work in our practices and processes. Now it is time to turn the corner and set our sites on Quality Enhancement efforts and aggressive dissemination of our achievements to prospective students, alumni, donors, friends and trustees -- and we need to do this in local, state, and national and international venues.

Such efforts will help build and solidify our academic and university reputation and the quality and excellence upon which it is built.

Third, as we continue to develop as a comprehensive university, we must be responsive to the needs of both the state of California and our communities.

This resolve will also include supporting our internal communities through such steps as enhanced professional development for faculty and staff, rewarding academic quality, and rewarding improved service levels from support units.

I have also established and will provide some funding from discretionary private donations to each of the deans for a "President's Seed Fund."

This will enable each college to try some new initiatives or build capacity in areas where funding is not available -- or frankly, whatever the deans and colleges decide will best further the academic interests of the university and our students, faculty, and/or staff.

We are also planning additional professional development opportunities for our middle management staff in a partnership with two other CSU campuses - Fresno and Bakersfield. I think that program looks very exciting.

In speaking of our staff, I want to emphasize -- as you've seen today -- that we continue to hire new employees to fill essential positions, and we have not had any layoffs. That is the intention as we move forward.

Finally, fourth, we must continue to focus on the safety, security, and the beauty of our campus to provide the very best possible educational setting for our students, employees, and visitors.

Through these shared priorities, and in the individual work all of you do, we are poised to truly move on to the next level of excellence in every area of campus.

We will increase our efforts to inform our communities, our state, nation, and beyond about who we are and what we represent in the form of high standards, quality and overall excellence in higher education.

We will not be stymied by state budgets and we won't be satisfied to simply ride out the storm. I think that together we will continue to innovate and be leaders in our disciplines and services and leaders in higher education.

I want to invite you, encourage you, support you, bribe you to please wear your Otter gear, pins and buttons, and put the tags on your license frames. Whenever you can, show your pride in this great university. This year I thinnk I've seem more and more students wearing CSUMB gear, which is great.

Thank you very much -- and thank you for what you do for Cal State Monterey Bay and for our students.

Have a wonderful year!