Chronicle XIII: SSU 2009 Applause Awards
We applaud President Ruben Arminana for his recent verbal support for classroom
instruction. It's about time.
The CSU recently received a second round of Federal stimulus money to the tune of
$77M, of which $600,000 will make its way to SSU for Spring semester. The Chancellor
and all CSU Presidents met to discuss how this new money should be used. President
Arminana championed its use to increase class offerings. According to Provost Ochoa,
“President Ruben Arminana was the first representative to come forward and present his
opinion on the allocation…. ‘he’s the one who took the lead in making this request’ … as
well as introducing the idea of funding instruction” (STAR:10-27-09).
A lot of classes could be taught with $600,000; last Spring was saved by a smaller
amount. With the Fall semester winding down, the Spring schedule is still nebulous and
the actual distribution of these Federal funds remains undisclosed. We hope that the CFO
will not invoke his Marginal Cost Formula (MCF) to disperse the funds, which he has
done in the past with dollars coming to campus. If he does, a mere 38% will go to fund
teaching. The MCF is used to fund or cut items across campus, with increasingly more
General Fund money going to Administration & Finance at the expense of the Academic
program, as shown by the following table:
ITEM
Executive Office
Instructional Program
Enrollment & Student
Services
Admin & Finance
COST 1999
2.79%
70.60%
11.58%
COST 2009
3.36%
58.15%
10.84%
DIFFERENCE
+0.57
-12.45
-0.74
15.03%
27.65%
+12.62
The MCF only applies to General Fund money. And the CSUs are only partially State
funded, the remaining operating money must come from fund raising, entrepreneurial
activities, and investments. These funds, for the most part, do not go to classes.
We agree with President Arminana. Campus-wide budget cuts, furloughs, and hiring
freezes have been used to balance the budget for this academic year, with the only
employees losing their jobs being lecturers. All of the recent “gift” from the Federal
government should be used to fund classes in the Spring and reinstate the lecturers.
Despite all the drama last year, the campus ended with a surplus of over $1.6M. Although
we can’t go back and use that money to teach classes, we can be sure that the same
mistake doesn’t happen again.
We applaud CFO Laurence Furukawa-Schlereth for his commitment to honesty,
transparency, and collaborative decision-making. Has he kept it? You be the judge.
In defense of the Carinalli loans, the CFO and Development director authored an opinion
piece “Carinalli Loans were Legal and Ethical” published in the Press Democrat (PD) on
July 17, 2009. Here they state “Loans were secured by first deeds of trust. ” According to
a SSU spokesperson, executives learned by July 9 that the $232,500 loan was not secured
(PD: 11-07-09). So the CFO knew a deed was not secured when he righteously
proclaimed otherwise. The President echoed the CFO in his 8-04-09 email to the campus
where he insists (three times) that the loans were "real estate backed" when he obviously
knew that one was not. Also, in July, the on-line minutes for all Foundation meetings
prior to 2002 disappeared from the A&F webpage. Transparency? Coincidence?
The CFO’s July opinion piece also stated “scholarships were not negatively impacted.”
Note his use of the past tense, as scholarships this year are based on endowment earnings
from two years prior. The CFO has yet to comment on the impact of the Carinalli debacle
and stock market losses on future scholarships and is actively seeking other sources of
funding.
The PD has dogged him on this, sending reporters to open board meetings. In August,
Mr. Furukawa-Schlereth stated: “it would be my personal commitment to share
information [on the Foundation loans]” (PD: 8-20-09). Now many months later, the
suggested date for the Foundation Town Hall is December 17, 2009 during finals week,
when most faculty and students will be either taking finals, grading them, or not on
campus, and the rest of the local audience will be involved in their holiday planning.
The July opinion piece closed by stating that the CFO and Development take the
responsibility to maintain the trust of the community “very seriously and continue to
provide integrity, honesty and transparency in our business practices.” The CFO’s
department’s webpage lists among its Core Values “honest and fair.” Nevertheless,
despite promises, there have been no Town Hall meetings since WASC left campus,
minutes from important board meetings are not posted online, the Academic Senate is
ignored, and the campus is in the dark about the future. Meanwhile, the administration is
using time bought by employee furloughs (read pay cuts) to “prioritize” the academic
program.
Finally, we applaud SSU’s commitment to Sustainable Landscapes and a Green
footprint.
Just days before the WASC team’s arrival, SSU began a major landscaping project
around the Green Music Center (GMC). Evidently the project began without warning to
those teaching there and others on campus. Rumors have the costs in eight figures.
Installing sprinkler systems in the midst of drought and severe budget crisis ignores
sustainability issues on every front. Where did the money come from? Where is the
business plan for the GMC Hospitality Center whose costs continue to increase as its
opening moves closer? What is the status of costs and fund-raising for the GMC? When
might it be finished? Where is its business plan?
The profits from campus businesses catering to students do not go to education. Sonoma
State Enterprises (SSE) donated $1.5M to the GMC Hospitality Center in FY 07-08,
when that money was desperately needed to support teaching. Debt service for
Hospitality Center construction, to be paid by SSE and Housing, totals $185,000 a year
for the next 30 years. The School of Extended Education, saddled with payment on the
interest for a GMC-related bond, has been unable to meet its fiscal obligations to
academic departments and schools.
Even with a large subsidy from SSU, the GMC itself will need ca. 270,000 patrons per
year, according to the CFO, to cover facilities costs alone. This equals nearly 200 sold out
performances annually. For comparison, Santa Rosa’s Wells Fargo Center, a larger
facility, did not even reach half of the GMC goal in 07-08, a year in which their ticket
sales increased 16%. How will the anticipated yearly deficits generated by a completed
and operating GMC impact instruction?
Sustainability involves maximizing resources for the long term—not just water and
energy, but finances as well. SSU has squandered its resources for the next 8 generations
of students on a music building that stands monstrously silent, incomplete, and
unsustainable.
The ability of SSU executives to combine prevarication and self-righteousness is truly
astonishing. We stand behind suggestions made in Chronicle XII. SSU sold WASC a bill
of goods with an expiration date of 1pm October 9, 2009—the moment the team left
campus.