Newsroom – California State University, Northridge

Cal State Northridge Leads Dialogue on Funding the Future of the CSU

(NORTHRIDGE, Calif., Mar. 20th, 2012) ―

As the California State University system continues to grapple with devastating budget cuts, California State University, Northridge is taking a leadership role and initiating a dialogue aimed at discovering potential solutions via a two-day symposium, “Funding the Future of the CSU.”

The event, scheduled for April 2–3 in the University Student Union’s Northridge Center, will unite faculty, legislators, community leaders and others interested in supporting California’s struggling public higher education system.

“We accept the premise that the state is floundering,” said cinema and television arts faculty and event committee chair Michael Hoggan. “The event is about trying to answer a couple questions related to a proper funding model. We’re trying to take a leadership role in the discussion.”

To do this, Hoggan has invited researchers, business leaders, policymakers and educators to take part in the event. Together, they will work to envision an innovative new model that will carry the state through next 50 years.

The symposium is part of an initiative launched last year by the Committee on the Future of Higher Education. The committee held a one-day conference in April 2011.

The two-day event will feature a keynote address on April 2 by John Aubrey Douglass, a senior research fellow on public policy and higher education with UC Berkeley’s Center for Studies in Higher Education. Assemblyman Bob Blumenfield (D-Van Nuys) will served as the keynote speaker during dinner on Monday. California State University, Long Beach President F. King Alexander will address attendees on April 3.

The event will include three workshops that will examine the following questions: “How do we align mission and funding?” “Where does the money come from?” and “What is the policy for spending money?”

The group plans to produce a white paper highlighting recommendations to the legislature.

“We need to influence certain people to make better decisions or offer them an alternative to what we’re doing right now,” Hoggan said. “The white paper should steer us in that direction.”

CSUN Faculty Senate President Steven Stepanek ’73 (Math), MS ’80 (Computer Science), said invitations were sent to CSU campus provosts and academic senate chairs requesting that they work together to assemble a delegation of four to six people from each of their home campuses. It’s estimated that close to half of the campuses will attend. Many of the campuses not attending have cited budgetary challenges as the reason.

“This event will be a serious start to the conversation to look at the funding model for the CSU and the goals of the CSU, perhaps becoming a model for other state university systems facing the grave impacts of the defunding of public higher education on a national level,” Stepanek said.

For more about the Committee on the Future of Higher Education and the CSU: The Next 50 Years initiative, visit www.csun.edu/csufuture.

 

 

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