President's Cabinet Minutes, June 5, 2001

PRESIDENT’S CABINET

June 5, 2001
9 a.m.

HIGHLIGHTS

Members present: President Suzuki, Dr. Ambroson, Dr. Barnes, Dr. Berman, Ms. Farris, Mr. Fremont, Ms. Martin, Dr. Ochoa, Dr. Tillman, Dr. Soriano, Mr. Storey, Ms. Thomas, Dr. Turk

Members absent: Dr. Ollenburger, Mr. Carmona, Dr. Ochoa

Guests present: Dr. Roger Morehouse, Dr. Judy Miles

Introduction of New Cabinet Members

President Suzuki welcomed the incoming Chair of the Academic Senate, Dr. Roger Morehouse and the incoming Chair of the University Council of Chairs, Dr. Judy Miles.

Report of the CSU Board of Trustees Meeting

The President reported briefly on the May 15-16 Board of Trustees meeting:

The 2001-2002 budget was cut by the Governor by $3-l/2 billion which will reduce the amount available for compensation increases to two percent. Other state agencies will have to take their salary increases out of their existing budgets. It is possible that another $4 billion may have to be cut from the budget to provide a reserve. (Responding to a question from Don Ambroson concerning the fate of the FMI process given the compensation reduction, the President indicated that the merit pool will probably be funded only if the compensation increase reaches three percent.)
Energy conservation was discussed. Cal State San Bernardino is the only CSU campus that will go on a 4/10 work week for the summer. Another campus president agreed that very little money is saved on this schedule. Although the State of California is predicting heavy rolling blackouts during the summer, Cal Poly Pomona is requesting “essential customer” status from the PUC and Edison which will exempt the campus from the blackouts.

Cal Poly Pomona is exploring the possibility of working with the L.A. County Sanitation Districts to generate twice the amount of energy being produced at this time by methane gas from the Spadra landfill by using more efficient technologies. If we are able to do this, we should create enough energy to provide power not only to Cal Poly Pomona but to Mt. SAC as well.
The Alcohol Policies Committee has submitted a report containing a series of recommendations which the Chancellor wants each of the campuses to implement. The Chancellor’s Office will provide $25,000 which is to be matched by the campuses in order to implement the recommendations. A committee has been formed to oversee the implementation.
There was a power point presentation on CSU Faculty Recruitment and Retirement. The information has been placed on line. The CFA has claimed that retiring tenure-track faculty are not being replaced with tenure-track faculty, resulting in an increase of temporary faculty. However, only about 70% of the tenure track faculty searches have been successful, so we are not filling all of the positions that are available. In addition, the FERP program prohibits us from filling FERP positions until the faculty members retire fully.
The Wang Family Faculty Award for Excellence presentations were made and Aubrey Fine of our College of Education and Integrative Studies received one of the awards – the third year in a row that one of our faculty has been so honored.
There was a presentation of our Women’s Basketball Division II National Championship Team to the Board of Trustees.

CSU Housing Assessment Study Update

Paul Storey reported on the results of the web-based systemwide survey on housing needs. There will be a two-day visit by the consultant firm, Bay Area Economics, on June 6 and 7. They will meet with two new faculty focus groups and discuss the role that housing costs and availability played in the hiring process. The final phase of the assessment will consist of telephone interviews with individuals who did not accept offers of employment, and a market gap analysis to quantify the affordability of various housing options in the commute vicinity of the campus. We hope to receive some systemwide assistance in guaranteeing loans for discounted mortgages, no down payments or PMIs, reduced closing costs as well as top loans for faculty and staff. The Chancellor’s Office is in negotiation with the Citibank group and we hope to hear positive news in this regard.

President Suzuki indicated that we have hired a full-time real estate director who is working to develop a housing assistance program. Housing will be a critical factor for candidates considering positions on the campus and will be very important for the future development of the campus. In that regard, we are in discussions with both Western University of Health Sciences and the Tessiers in Pomona, to develop housing in the Pomona area.

Policy on Wireless Networking

Michael Berman reported that all wireless networking products and services should be designed, procured and installed by Network Services of the Division of Instructional and Information Technology. Departments should submit a telecommunications work order. For departments that already have existing wireless services, Network Services will work with these areas to ensure interoperability.

Update on Janitorial Issue

Pat Farris updated the Cabinet on the janitorial issue, reporting that the campus has had meetings with the contractor, Varsity Contractors, and that Varsity had issued a letter to the campus community. We have determined that the campus is limited legally as to what we may do in terms of amending the contract; however, we are looking into all aspects of the issue. One problem is that there can be no guarantee that the janitors now employed by Varsity could be hired by the campus were we to cancel the contract and hire our own janitors. Chris Thomas indicated that, by contracting out a portion of our custodial services, we were able to save enough money to hire several permanent custodians and to provide benefits for others. She stated, however, that the union’s goal is to not contract out for any services.

Donna Tillman called attention to an article in the L.A. Times which reported that the City of Santa Monica was enforcing a “living wage,” not a minimum wage, for its custodians, and that 70 other cities were doing the same.

PeopleSoft Update

Pat Farris and Michael Berman updated the Cabinet on the PeopleSoft project. The human resources and the financial components will be implemented on July 2. The student component is scheduled to be brought up in the Fall of 2004.

The President indicated that we want this system to be as transparent as possible for the entire university. The change will take time and training, but it will be a huge improvement in the way the campus does business.

One-Minute Items and Announcements

Michael Berman announced that an attempt will be made to video stream Commencement live this year. Information about how to locate it will be provided on PolyCentric. Judy Miles suggested an announcement be made at Commencement that the ceremonies will be video streamed.

Ed Barnes updated the Cabinet on the Temple Avenue/Valley Blvd. issue. Two weeks ago the rail realignment project was approved by the Alameda Corridor East Construction Authority. Design will begin in Fall 2001 with construction expected to begin in the Fall of 2003. The railroad agreed to remove the tracks at Temple and Valley so there will be no future problems.

Pat Farris reported that UBAC had finished its work and the recommendations will be presented to the President soon. Over $2 million in permanent dollars and $1.7 million in lottery monies will be available for allocation, assuming that the CSU doesn’t suffer additional budget cuts in the Governor’s budget.

Next Meeting

The next meeting of the Cabinet will be held on Wednesday, July 18, 2001 at 9 a.m. (changed from 2:30 p.m.) in the President’s Conference Room.

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