California State University,
Northridge
From the President's Desk

April 9, 1998

CETI Forums - Hold the Date!

The California State University is continuing its negotiations with GTE, Hughes, Microsoft, and Fujitsu to form a partnership that will enable the CSU to build and sustain our technology infrastructure. Current plans anticipate that the negotiations will be completed in time for the May meeting of the CSU Board of Trustees, and that the campuses will have information about the proposal by the middle of April.

I consulted Faculty President Lynne Cook for advice on how to make certain that our campus has the time to review and discuss the proposal, and transmit our views back to the Chancellor. We consulted the chairs of the Faculty Senate standing committees and agreed to the following tentative plan. The Faculty Senate will sponsor two campus forums as follows:

Monday, April 20, 1998, 1:00 to 2:30 p.m. Speech and Drama Campus Theatre

and

Tuesday, April 21, 1998, 9:30 to 11:00 a.m. Speech and Drama Campus Theatre

At the meeting, Dr. Susan Curzon, Vice Provost for Information and Technology Resources, who is serving as the campus SIP representative, and Dr. Mark Crase, Director, Technology Support Group, will present the highlights of the proposal. In addition, as soon as information about the final document is available, each of the Faculty Senate standing committees will review the major sections of the CETI proposal so that they can share their views about the proposal with us at the forums. I will also be there to answer questions and to hear campus concerns.

The CETI documents can be accessed directly at http://ceti.calstate.edu or through Vice Provost Curzon's Web page, which contains additional CETI information at http://www.csun.edu/susan.curzon/. If you are accessing the documents, please be aware that they are constantly under revision. If you are not able to attend the campus forums, we invite you to review the documents and send your comments to Susan Curzon at susan.curzon@csun.edu.

We hope that this plan for reviewing and discussing the documents will mitigate the legitimate concerns that the timeline for finalizing the agreement and soliciting campus comment will be very compressed. So we ask you to save the dates on your calendar and expect notification about the receipt of documents from the Chancellor's Office as soon as we receive more information.

I want to thank Dr. Cook, the Senate Committee chairs, Dr. Curzon, and Dr. Crase for their willingness to go to unusual lengths to make sure that everyone on campus can be informed about this important decision. Should you have any questions or suggestions in the meantime, please don't hesitate to contact Dr. Curzon, Dr. Cook or me. Thank you for your understanding and patience.

CSUN 40th Anniversary!

This fall, we celebrate the 40th anniversary of California State University, Northridge. This will be a festive time for the campus and I hope all departments will participate in the celebration by sponsoring activities during the year.

In addition to a calendar of events and activities that will showcase the work of faculty, students and staff, we will initiate a University Founder's Day, which will become a permanent annual celebration at the campus. I have appointed a 40th Anniversary Celebration Steering Committee that will be co-chaired by Vice President of University Relations Bill Outhouse and Professor Emeritus Don Cameron to coordinate our 40th anniversary and Founder's Day activities. The Steering Committee will include the chairs of the five subcommittees listed below and two representatives from the University Foundation:

The membership of the subcommittees is currently being established and the campus community will be advised about the Steering Committee's plans as they develop.

If you have ideas about how we should celebrate our first 40 years, please send your suggestions to Bill Outhouse, c/o University Relations, or you may e-mail him at bouthouse@exec.csun.edu.

Good News from Purchasing

The CSU recently reached a cooperative purchasing agreement with the University of California system to pool selected purchases for all of the campuses. The agreement enables us to get maximum discounts from vendors.

The first such opportunities are "Master Agreements" with Fisher Scientific, for laboratory products, supplies, and chemicals, and Steelcase Furniture. The Fisher contract provides an average discount of 50% from the list price, while Steelcase averages 72% off the list price!

The Purchasing Department is hosting a campus-wide discussion of these new programs on April 28, 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon, in the Thousand Oaks Room of the University Student Union. Representatives from each company will discuss their products, explain the price discounts and answer questions. Faculty and staff who wish to attend the presentation should inform the Executive Assistant of your respective Vice President or Mr. Bill Cooper in Purchasing so that adequate materials can be provided to all who attend.

Kudos, and much appreciation to Mr. Cooper and his staff for their creative initiative to help our funds go farther!

Proposition 187

In a recent decision, U.S. District Judge Mariana Pfaelzer struck down the remaining provisions of Proposition 187. This follows Judge Pfaelzer's previous decision of last November when she had declared much of the meature unconstitutional. The provisions that remained after her November 1997 ruling sought to deny benefits to immigrants in the state's college and university systems. In this latest decision, even those provisions were declared unconstitutional on the grounds that only the federal government may regulate immigration.

You may recall that Proposition 187, which was passed overwhelmingly by state voters in 1994, sought to deny undocumented aliens access to education, health care and social services. A preliminary injunction issued as a result of five separate lawsuits filed against the measure (later consolidated into one), prevented it from ever being implemented. Governor Pete Wilson has indicated his intention to appeal Judge Pfaelzer's decision to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Many members of the Cal State Northridge community had expressed intense interest in this legislation; we will continue to follow and report to you on any related developments.

Blenda J. Wilson
President

To see a copy of the press release regarding the Intercollegiate Athletics Task Force click here.

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President Blenda J. Wilson