By Cal State University Chancellor Timothy P. White is on the fast track to improving degree completion rates in the CSU.
White delivered his first State of the CSU address at a Board of Trustees meeting Jan. 29, where he said he plans to invest an additional $50 million toward his goal of graduating one million more students in the next ten years.
The chancellor said the $50 million may come from a combinations of funding sources, including a portion from the $142.2 million that Gov. Jerry Brown proposed for 2014-15. He also said the funds could come from a student tuition and public and private contributions.
White said the $50 million will be used to improve “seven key areas.” The intended areas include hiring more tenure-track faulty, the bottleneck initiative and college preparedness.
White said it would require roughly a 40 percent increase from current degree completion rates to accomplish the goal of graduating one million more students by 2025.
“Our top priority must be … to improve the educational experience and degree attainment for all students and to enable students to earn a high quality degree in a shorter amount of time,” White said.
Other key areas of focus include increasing high-impact practices such as internships and study abroad programs, as well as enhancing advising services.
We think White’s plan for the CSU is ambitious but attainable. The areas of improvement he defined in his address will directly impact overall student success.
For example, enhanced advising services could help students map out a four-year graduation plan with a more personalized experience.
One of the biggest issues many Cal State Long Beach students face are the abundance of bottleneck course. Bottleneck courses are classes that are in high demand because they satisty general education reuqirements, yet the availability of such classes falls short.
Even as a full time student, it’s impossible to graduate in four years when these classes are full and waitlists are closed off.
Although we may not see the direct repercussions of White’s ten-year plan, it will surely benefit future scholars that will comprise California’s workforce and contribute to a healthier economy in the long run. For this reason, among others, we applaud White for setting such ambitious goals.
We do, however, have a few concerns about how the $50 million will be distributed among 23 campuses.
Additionally, we would like to know how much will be distributed to each of the seven key areas. White said 10 to 20 percent would likely be allocated towards hiring more tenure-track faculty.
We may be asking these questions prematurely, but we would still like to see more information. Without a time-frame or specifics about where the additional funds will come from, its hard to be too optimistic just yet.
We’re all for the CSU reducing the six-year graduation rates to four-year ones but we would like to be updated with the details of his plan as they develop, mainly the distribution of funds.
At the end of the day, we are glad to see the chancellor is fighting to make the largest university system in the country even more efficient than it already is.
