I am not a health nut… I enjoy butter, cane sugar, prefer cream in my coffee and I enjoy cooking yummy things designed to bring a smile. However, on occasion, I use a few already prepared products as a short cut and I was astonished to discover that high fructose corn syrup was an ingredient in my Rice Krispies! When did all of this happen? The fact is… I like to avoid ‘high fructose corn syrup’ and I will leave it to the scientists to explain why.
It doesn’t take a genius to realize that if two rats given equal calories and the only difference is that the rat getting ‘high fructose corn syrup’ becomes obese… well, maybe that is what is really happening to us!
It’s becoming harder and harder to shop in the grocery store… time for ordinary folks to learn that cooking requires more than a microwave… unless you like those larger sizes.
I think it is only right to expect transparency from our public institutions. The fact that so many appear to be fighting disclosure only causes me to wonder what they don’t want us to see. At the forefront of concerns appears to be the many and varied ‘foundations’ associated with the California State University system that seem to have very little external control and virtually no public disclosure of their activities.
Here are two relevant articles that question how well our administrators are using the funds derived from the backs of students, parents, faculty and staff :
At a time of state budget cuts, student tuition hikes, canceled classes, faculty hiring freezes and layoffs, CSU’s lobbyists have been paid to defeat bills designed to shed more light on CSU executive salaries and perks as well as public records. In 2006, The Chronicle reported that millions of dollars in extra compensation was quietly handed out to campus presidents and other top executives as they left their posts.
Trent Hager, chief of staff for Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, D-La Cañada Flintridge (Los Angeles County), said CSU paid the two lobbying firms in 2007 to derail his boss’ bill aimed at full disclosure of CSU salaries. “They got it sidetracked and killed,” he said.
But nearly $400,000 of those funds were paid to the two lobbying firms during months of the year when the firms performed no services for the CSU system regarding administrative or legislative actions, state records show.
A shocking betrayal of the public trust was revealed today by The Santa Rosa Press Democrat in an investigative report about the Sonoma State University Academic Foundation using donated funds to provide huge personal loans to cronies of foundation board members, some of which may never be recovered.
And what about Cal Poly?
Although the ‘giant black hole’ known as the Cal Poly Foundation has no observable event horizon, it is only one of four foundations on campus:
Associated Students, Incorporated of California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo
California Polytechnic State University Foundation
Cal Poly Corporation
Cal Poly Housing Corporation
The question I have is a simple one: should public institutions be lobbying to PREVENT full disclosure of how they do business? Should scarce educational resources in the hundreds of thousands and in the millions pass through the system to benefit a few without full disclosure?
I have written about this before but it is worth repeating. Few if any movies that have won an Oscar or have rave reviews by esteemed movie critics are worthy of the ticket price.
Why is this always the case?
Each critic views potential movies through a filter of their own set of social and political values that seldom are in sync with the needs and wants of the viewing public. Looking back, who can remember the commercial flops so propped up by critics like ‘the English Patient” or “Brokeback Mountain”? As I remember it, even the first “Star Wars” was panned by movie critics Siskel & Ebert … They were so often wrong ,they became my bench mark of what NOT to see.
The obvious truth is simple. People want to be entertained ….and in troubling times, lighthearted, amusing films that produce admiration, a smile and a good belly laugh are wanted the most. You can witness this yourself at the box office as folks vote with their feet and their scarce cash.
So, as ‘Transformers’ sets new box office heights while universally panned by the critics… I have to ask, ” do these critics just have a job-for-life, because they need new blood and a different perspective.” So as a tribute to having a little fun, here’s a tongue-in-cheek look at the making of Transformers:
Okay, the financial problems of the California State University system, in particular, look all too easy to address. As someone who has taught many places over many years, I feel it is safe to say that the CSU — Cal Poly in particular — has lost its way and forgotten it’s basic mission and pursued a program of questionable expansion that has put the universities at the brink of disaster.
If you take a look deeper, one can only wonder how the CSU administration’s most recent actions are consistent with their mission? Here are a couple of obvious conflicts:
1) ARE ALL JOBS EQUALLY RELEVANT IN TODAY’S ECONOMIC REALITIES?
Each of the three functional units (faculty, staff and administration) of a university are being treated as being equally central to the university mission but each area contributes differentially and some functions are clearly more central to the core objectives than others.
Observation:
A) Clearly, although every individual employee values their own job, not all jobs have an equal contribution to the university mission. To meet the budget, some jobs can be combined while others could be eliminated as a luxury of a previous era.
B) Currently, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo has taken the approach by reducing the number of instructors as their quick and easy solution. However, this has caused some obviously unforeseen consequences resulting in the closing of classes, reduction in courses and delaying graduation. One Dean was quoted by a student as saying in desperation that they would sign anything (substitutions, et cetera) in order to get a student to graduation. Although this is admirable on one level, is this the was we should be doing business?
C) One work group has grown unchecked for almost three decades … and just since the 1980’s alone, Cal Poly’s administration has grown exponentially and one wonders what effect — if any — this dramatic increase in warm bodies has had on meeting the educational mission. There are titles and positions that didn’t exist just 20 years ago ( provosts, vice provosts, vice presidents, etc.) I can’t help but wonder if returning to the 1980 staffing levels would mitigate the entire budget deficit all by itself?
2) SHARE THE PAIN?
An across the board approach to cost savings is the strategy being employed by the CSU and Cal Poly in budget cuts. Before we look at this question, I have to ask: who is more needed than a professor in meeting the educational mission?
Observation:
In an other worlds, when costs seem out of bounds, the solution most often presented successfully is ‘consolidation’ first, elimination second. Here are a few ideas:
A) Couldn’t the administrative offices of a university run more than one university?
B) Shouldn’t university executives be writing their own emails and letters as happens in the rest of the university? Aren’t floors of secretaries a relic from a bygone era?
C) Shouldn’t University Executive perks (company cars, car allowances, expense reports, special health care benefits and junkets) be eliminated first?
D) Why shouldn’t every administrator ( many hold Ph.D.’s) be assigned one class to keep in touch with what is going on within the university setting? I have made this suggestion many times before. We need to get more value from the assets we already have and if we can’t, then they should go.
E) As an aside, many university presidents have been rightfully accused of pretending to be royalty… this sets a bad example… one wonders why any university president should have university employees over to his home to do any home improvement projects? Most would also question the educational purpose of a wine cellar, the President’s car allowance, and what many might call extravagant living. Here’s a small peek.
“ Carly Baker, the president’s wife, championed construction of a modern and pricey kitchen for the stadium boxes, including the president’s suite, so that his private chef can prepare gourmet meals during a portion of the six annual home games. Cost of the extreme kitchen? Between $300,000 and $400,000…”
As you can see, meeting the educational mission and making sensible cost reductions are not conceptually difficult… it’s not rocket science and — by the way — reductions starts at the top.
From what I am told, David Conn is a reasonable and personable fellow, just the person to give what some are calling Cal Poly’s “Committee of Inquisition” a happy face. I even had people tell me NOT to find any pictures of David Conn in a clown suit on the internet, because he was a such ‘nice guy.’ However, it has been my observation that much of the problems, dare I say ‘evil’, in the world has been supported, initiated and perpetuated by so-called ‘good people’ who believe they were just doing their job and ‘following orders.’ Psychologist Stanley Milgram might agree.
For some reason, Cal Poly’s administration believes there are not enough organizations and systems to handle the various complaints on campus and decreed that a new select committee would be set up and apparently given broad powers and a curious mandate. In addition, the committee would exist without the customary review by the faculty and staff unions or the faculty academic senate… in essence, it would be accountable to no one. Apparently, it would be ‘outside the law.’ It doesn’t take a genius to realize how easily this committee could be used — backed by ‘anonymous’ or non existent accusations — to punish with impunity.
In an attempt to reassure and assuage his colleagues, the affable David Conn was quoted in the recent past Academic Senate Executive meeting as saying,”
“If accusations are made, the way we handled it is more important. It is not the intention for this to become a witch-hunt unless there is an appropriate base.”
The term ‘witch hunt’ is disturbingly powerful as is the phrase “unless there is an appropriate base.”
One of the student member of the committee jokingly referred to as the ‘Inquisitorial Squad” clearly called for action against faculty not viewed as ‘politically correct:”
With Cal Poly’s history in federal court and in fairness to students and faculty, I would urge Cal Poly’s Administration from continuing on this path as it will no doubt lead to unnecessary grief to those guilty of nothing more than a difference in opinion.
Cal Poly needs not be on the wrong side of history once again.
