CSSA Minutes: October 12, 2002

California State University, Chico, Bell Memorial Union, Room 210
CSSA Board of Directors Meeting
October 12, 2002, 9:00 am - Noon

1. CALL TO ORDER 9:20 am., Chair Artemio Pimentel.
   
   
2. ROLL CALL Present: Bakersfield, Chico, Dominguez Hills, Fullerton, Hayward,
   Humboldt, Long Beach, Monterey Bay, Sacramento, San Bernardino,
   San Diego, San Francisco by proxy (Long Beach), San José, San Marcos, Sonoma, Stanislaus.
   
   
3. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA. Motion by San Diego, second Dominguez Hills, to approve the agenda with the change of an additional special presentation by Joe Bishop and Eric Sanders of "Up Til Dawn." PASSED.
   
   
4. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES OF September 2002. Motion by Chico, second Humboldt to approve minutes of the September 2002. PASSED.
   
   
5. SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS
   
   
   1. Allison Jones, Assistant Vice Chancellor, Student Academic Support, CSU Academic Affairs. Mr. Jones came to discuss recent changes in CSU enrollment management policy enacted by the CSU Board of Trustees at its September 2002 meeting. The changes are to the Board of Trustees' policy adopted in March 2000. Due to Tidal Wave II, CSU enrollment has grown by about 50,000 students during the past 6 years and is anticipated to continue to grow by about 130,000 students over this decade. This year the system is serving 22,000 more students than it has been funded to serve. All campuses except for Channel Islands and Humboldt have exceeded their enrollment targets. For the application priority period, the month of August, the campuses were working under the handicap of not knowing what CSU's budget would be, since the State budget had yet to be enacted. Chancellor Reed, who is the most student-oriented chancellor that Mr. Jones has ever worked for, has been meeting with campus presidents on enrollment management, trying to maintain a fine balance between access and quality. Risks for students are that classes will be too full or that there will not be enough classes. An emergency session of the Admissions Advisory Council was convened to plan for Spring 2003, and Chancellor Reed has accepted recommendations that issued from that meeting. The problem is being assessed campus by campus: each campus is looking at how much it is over target and implementing steps to limit students it admits. Impacted campuses may impose supplemental standards on students out of their local service areas. By law, campuses can stop accepting applications on November 30th. By law CSU has to accept the top third of high school students, or, if students are transferring in, it has to accept students who have satisfactorily completed 15 specified courses (the same 15 courses UC requires). The cultural change is that campuses will stop accepting earlier and earlier, although most campuses will accept through March or April or May. The priority is upper division transfers, with the targeted campus profile 40 % lower division students, 60% upper. At a disadvantage increasingly will be freshmen and lower division transfers. Those students who must move out of community colleges have priority. Fall 2003 will be more problematic. There will be an additional 5% increase, but the system is already 2% over-enrolled, and so it can grow only by 3%. Campuses have been instructed to hit their enrollment targets. All campuses must have presidential advisory groups on enrollment. While the issue is one under the purview of faculty, decisions must be acceptable to the whole community, and the president advisory groups will have spots on them for community members. In response to a question from San Diego, Mr. Jones said students will be included in the groups. At San Diego, the ASI would nominate students and the campus president appoint them. With regard to Humboldt under enrollment, a peer review group is meeting at the campus to see what can be done to expand enrollment there. Mr. Jones mentioned the Task Force on Facilitating Graduation report, expected in November, by way of saying that improving graduation rates would help clear space for new students. High school students are being informed of enrollment management measures through counselor conferences, through information printed on applications. 98% of them will still be admitted to their first choice campuses if they submit their applications timely. The message that needs to get out is: get your applications in early. All campuses have outreach departments.
      
      
   2. Up 'til Dawn, Joe Bishop and Eric Sanders. Up 'til Dawn is a student-led, student-run program at colleges and universities nationwide in support of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. The goal is to raise funds for the hospital; the means is letter-writing: students prepare lists of contacts and write letters to them asking for support. The project is capped every year in February by an all night event celebrating students' contributions.
      
      
   3. Dr. Kathy Kaiser, CSU Chico Sociology Department and representative from the Statewide Academic Senate. Enrollment management is a concern of the Statewide Academic Senate. The problem is that the State does not have adequate money to fund growth in education and more and more students are seeking access. Physical capacity is a serious constraint, one that passage of Proposition 47 would ease. On student fees, California Post Secondary Commission (CPEC) just released a document on the principles governing student fee increases. CPEC is not now recommending a student fee increase but the time to comment on the proposed guidelines is now. Final comments must be in to CPEC by December 1st. The Task Force on Facilitating Graduation is a very high profile committee. Students who do not graduate clog the system and defer benefits to themselves of a college education. CSU students are not traditional in their attendance — many more of them than the norm attend part time to accommodate their work schedules. The Task Force will survey each CSU campus to get an accurate picture of where the CSU stands vis-à-vis graduating its students. With regard to students not in good standing, CSU in future will probably say no, you cannot have another bite at the apple. Many campuses did not realize there is a systemwide grade policy. Options to repeat classes will narrow in the future. CSU Chico already denies a student who received a C in a class the option to repeat it. The Academic Senate is also working on dual enrollment: a student signs a contract stating they will transfer to a CSU campus; as a benefit of the agreement the student gains access to the CSU library, etc.
      
      
   4. Dr. Walt Schafer, CSU Chico Sociology Department. Dr. Schafer spoke on alcohol abuse awareness. 1400 college students die each year in alcohol-related accidents; 25% have academic issues related to alcohol; and one-third of all students meet the criteria for alcohol abuse. Prevention strategies undertaken at Chico include dissemination of information; proactive preventative education, like the 1st year "survivor" series; problem identification and referral programs; a social norming campaign; alcohol-free alternatives; and an environmental management program. The social norming campaign seeks to correct over-perceptions of student drinking in order to prevent students living up to those perceptions. The effect of these strategies is a modest improvement — 3-5% declines in various measures of how much students drink.
      
      
6. SPECIAL OFFICER REPORTS
   
   
   1. Cindi Newbold, Alumni Council Liaison. As the Alumni Council does not meet again until January, Cindi has nothing to report.
      
      
   2. Dave Riesenfeld, Environmental Affairs – The Green Initiative can be adapted to the CSU. Dave thanks Chico for meals with real dishes and utensils that don't end up as trash.
      
      
   3. Caitlin Gill, Financial Aid. Caitlin attended a California Student Aid Commission task force meeting and will shortly submit a written report. The task force will meet twice monthly and will use the Grants Advisory Committee as a resource. It is considering 2 basic categories: large entitlement grants and small competitive ones. GPAs are a problem because of the different ways in which they are computed.
      
      
   4. Carrie Drouin, Lobby Corps. Carrie distributed Lobby Corps clinic registration forms. The clinic will be held at the Capitol, not Sacramento State. She has updated the Lobby Corps listserve. Carrie has worked with Laura on campus events and has also helped troubleshoot voter registration issues.
      
      
   5. Eric Guerra, Technology. Artemio reported for Eric, who was not present. Eric attended an August 13th meeting, the topic of which was long distance learning.
      
      
7. STUDENT TRUSTEES REPORTS
   
   
   1. Erene Thomas was not present to report.
   2. Alex Lopez was not present to report.
      
      
8. OFFICER OF THE CHANCELLOR LIAISONS' REPORTS
   
   
   1. Artemio Pimentel, Chair. Artemio submitted a written report. In addition, he commented on his efforts to get the CSU system to offer students the choice to register through CSU paperwork and stated he will bring a resolution to Fresno. He attended the Lt. Governor's summit on higher education, where not a single student sat on any of the panels. He met with David Hawkins of California Faculty Association and hopes CSSA can establish a relationship with the unions. He has an upcoming lunch scheduled with CFA president, Dr. Susan Meisenhelder.
      
      
   2. Marivic Tolentino, Internal Vice Chair. Marivic thanks Hayward, Humboldt and San Francisco for submitting changes. This was a tedious project. She commented on dues: status is unknown at this point for about 10 campuses. The Finance Charter she drafted will provide fiscal oversight. She asked that campuses pay their conference fees on time. She noted that SDSU will host a Leadership Institute November 15-17.
      
      
   3. José Solache, External Vice Chair. It has been a busy and productive few weeks. Systemwide committee nominees are in place. José is happy that CSSA will make changes to make the procedure fit better with systemwide committee meeting schedules and needs. He plans to be in the office every Wednesday morning to work on CSSA matters. He is working on a CSSA PR campaign.
      
      
   4. Danny Vivian, Chair, University Affairs Committee. Danny thanked Carlos Illingworth, Jr. and Jocelyn Brown for giving up last Sunday to come to Long Beach to work on the policy agenda.
      
      
9. EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR REPORT
   Susana Gonzalez. Susana is still putting together the puzzle of actual vs. projected expenses for last year, pursuant to the Board's request for that information. She has had meetings this past month with staff and with Artemio, Marivic and José. Dues-paying campuses will get banners and tablecloths with CSSA logo for events and promotions.
   
   
10. CLOSING REMARKS
    Ann Marie Butler, Ad Hoc Committee on CHESS VIII, asked for recommendations on workshops and speakers students would like to see at CHESS.

Adjournment 11:48 am.