VIDEO: President Gonzalez’s fall address

Sacramento State President Alexander Gonzalez discussed issues such as the budget and Sac State’s achievements in past months, in his annual fall address Thursday.

Gonzalez said the university is in a relatively better position then before, but also recognized the challenges to overcome.

“However, when I say we are in relatively better shape, I don’t want to paint too rosy a picture? I don’t have to say that these are trying economic times,” Gonzalez said. “While difficult, we will meet our goals and still provide the best educational experience we can for our students.”

Other than the budget crisis, Gonzalez’s 30-minute address dwelt mainly on what has been achieved over the past several months.

Cecil Canton, professor of criminal justice and associate vice president for the California Faculty Association, said the president should have focused more on the real issues.

“I think it’s wonderful to be upbeat, but there are real attacks on higher education in the nation and in the state,” Canton said. “There are fewer professors working at Sac State, and students are paying more for fewer services.”

Members of the CFA wore black armbands to the address.

“The black represents the demise of public education,” said Kevin Wehr, sociology professor and director of CFA’s Sac State chapter. “This is the death of public education and is a somber event.”

Anthony Sheppard, Faculty Senate chair and recreation, parks and tourism administration professor, said the president covered what the campus needed to hear in his address.

“But it is also worth noting that there are also a separate meeting on the budget and series of communications from the administration regarding the furlough issue, so it wasn’t all that we were hearing,” Sheppard said in an e-mail.

Given the fee increases, faculty and staff furloughs and across-the-board budget cuts that are being implemented to balance the budget, Associated Students, Inc., President Roberto Torres said his main concern is how the effects will take place on campus and how they will affect the students’ quality of education.

“It’s not acceptable that students are paying more for less,” Torres said.

Sheppard said he’s worried about the morale of the faculty and staff members.

“Faculty have lost raises of approximately 20 percent over a three-year contract, have seen colleagues lose jobs, will lose 9.23 percent of their pay through the furlough program and still want to provide the best education that we can given the diminishing resources,” he said. “And the staff situation on campus is equally bad.”

Gonzalez said students’ graduation rates will probably be affected, considering the 40,000 students who will not be admitted to the CSU system next school year. It is unknown what extent graduation rates will be affected,.

On the campus level, this trickles down to 3,000 students who will not be admitted next school year.

“We’re doing everything we can already,” Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez said despite the budget crisis, there have been a lot of achievements on campus that “we can feel good about.”

The financial aid team, Gonzalez said, is just short of $46 million in disbursements.

“That represents a 30 percent increase during these very challenging times,” he said.

This year’s enrollment is also right on target, he said. “Because we closed spring admissions, our strategy is to over enroll slightly in the fall in order to achieve our annualized enrollment target.”

Classroom upgrades, construction and technological advancements are still under way.

Sac State was recently reaccredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges.

In addition, government grants and stimulus funds have been awarded to Sac State this year, specifically, to the College of Natural Sciences & Mathematics, College of Education and College of Continuing Education.

To further assure the campus community of the high quality of education, Gonzalez commended incoming freshmen and graduating seniors’ performance in last year’s Collegiate Learning Assessment Program, a standardized test to evaluate college students’ cognitive growth. He also praised faculty members for their scholarly and creative works that have brought attention to the university.

“There was a spirit of collaboration that was very strong,” said Chrystal Barranti, professor of social work, when asked about her reaction to the president’s address. Barranti said she’s mostly concerned with the impact on students’ education.

“I can assure that ASI and the California State Student Association are making sure that we find ways to stabilize fee increases and making sure that we’re getting the education we’re paying for,” Torres said.

Gonzalez ended his address by encouraging the campus community to focus on positive communication, collaboration and transparency.

“Yes, we have some challenges ahead of us, but I think we also have the energy and commitment to face them together,” he said.

Kristine Guerra can be reached at [email protected].