January 31, 1995
In 2010, at SF State: classroom space is becoming scarce, academic programs are expanding and technology has replaced professors.
Faculty and staff met at a three-day annual campus retreat in Napa last week. Among the seminars at the retreat was one dealing with the direction of the Commission for University Strategic Planning, a committee that will address SF State's goals.
The idea for the committee was born toward the end of last summer, but debate by academic senators over how to assign members delayed its formation until now.
To get on CUSP, each college at SF State, the library and student representatives will nominate three people. From those nominated, the Senate Executive Committee and the president's cabinet will select one from each group, Vice President Marilyn Boxer said. The make-up of CUSP will be announced this week.
CUSP members will be in charge of a task force that will be assigned to an area on campus, such as the library, to gather information and make recommendations for its future.
Asked if CUSP has an agenda, President Robert A. Corrigan said, "There is not a grand master plan in somebody's head."
Because there is no definitive plan about the goals of CUSP, Dean Gail Whitaker said participants should dream big and have high expectations for what CUSP could do.
College of Creative Arts Dean Keith Morrison said, "Nothing makes people more cynical if there is going to be no change. Make sure these goals are attainable."
Corrigan said he is committed to CUSP and will act on its recommendations. "I am not going to put my time and energy into an empty exercise just to keep the troops happy," Corrigan said.
Improving the quality of education has to be a central goal of CUSP, Philosophy Professor Don Provence said.
Historically, SF State's long-range planning has produced minimal results. Now, with Corrigans's commitment to the project and a loosening of the California State University regulations, administrators said that will change.
Some faculty members were concerned that their departments may be targeted for downsizing.
"It looks like the resources for education are not going to be adequate to the number of people who want an education," Provence said. "That means some hard choices will have to be made."
Secondary Education Professor Mark Phillips said, "We should not start with the type of thinking that threatens any department. Let's start with the thinking of how all of us can work together in more creative ways."
Provence said SF State could accept only the top students, or focus on the students who need the most help. A CUSP task force might be assigned to address this issue. Because of the rising number of students projected to attend SF State, the admissions department could be more selective with whom it accepts.
Participants at the retreat feared that students who need remedial classes will be marginalized while accepting better-educated students.
"Community colleges are designed for remedial classes," Finance Professor Julian Wade said.
Currently, the only way qualified students are rejected is if they miss the application deadline or their major is full, Boxer said.
"If we did get into that situation (overcrowding), the only mechanism we have at present that works is to declare programs impacted," Boxer said. "Frankly, I don't think that will happen, I think there will be a larger system wide approach to enrollment." Throughout the retreat, seminars provided open discussion on how to begin planning for the future and possible futures SF State will have do deal with.
In one of the seminars, librarian Ann Shadwick, using a 1992 Global Business Network report, provided a description of three possible future scenarios, projected from current trends.
One future included professors being replaced with computer terminals or interactive televisions that would have a top professor teaching thousands of students across the country.
Finally, she said teachers would have to explain the importance of their subjects to the public. In this scenario, subjects such as liberal arts might be eliminated in favor of more technical classes such as engineering.
But faculty members weren't impressed with the scenarios.
Interim University Librarian Eric Soloman said, "I've heard it before: the death of math, the death of education, It's all nonsense. Nothing is going to die."
"We are a working class university," he said. "We must clarify what out mission is."
Instructional Technologies Professor Eugene Michaels said these scenarios mean little because CUSP will be a slave to outside forces such as the state budget.
Counselor Rick Gutierrez said the vision of the university has become blurred.
Long-range planning strategy should take the form of research and development, said Marketing Professor Subodh Bhat.
Bhat said CUSP should find out what the students want and provide that service. "We are in the business of serving students," said Bhat. "We would not be here if there were no students."
If the faculty doesn't give the student what he or she wants, the student will leave, Bhat said.
Provence said, "We have been told that the customer is right, but I would doubt to tell you that the customer is always right when it comes to education."
Regardless of the future direction of the school, Ed Apodaca, vice president for enrollment services, reminded participants not to leave anyone out in the planning process.
"It's really the clerical staff that receives the applications that talk to and deal with students on a day-to-day basis that influences who comes (to SF State), and often we never talk to them. (Clerical staffers) don't even know what the mission is," Apodaca said. "They're the ones who get things done."
Because so many different variables shape the future, having an identity as an institution should be the most important goal of CUSP, Solomon said.
"When you have a sense of values, when you have an internal sense of what you really believe in, then the unexpected or the unknown doesn't represent a major problem because you have a core belief that you turn to," Solomon said. The first meeting of CUSP will be Feb. 9.