2008 Woodie Awards
SSU Problems Have Local Origins
Noel Byrne
Issue date: 3/18/08 Section: News
Dr. Noel Byrne is a professor in the Sociology Department. He specializes in subjects such as, the sociology of time and moral orders, social psychology, the sociology of organizations and urban sociology. Byrne is also a member of the Academic Senate. He sits on the Senate Budget Committee and the Ad Hoc Committee.
SSU President Ruben Armiñana has claimed in various forums that the issues at SSU that led to the resounding SSU faculty vote of no confidence in his leadership are the result of inadequate budgets provided by the State of California and by policies imposed by the California State University (CSU) Trustees. However, this claim does not explain the actual circumstances at SSU that led the faculty to assert that they have no confidence in President Armiñana's leadership. Reasons for this conclusion include the following considerations.
1) The California state budget and the CSU Trustees did not mandate that President Armiñana take actions that led the Western Association of School and Colleges (WASC) to impose on SSU striking criticisms of SSU's failure to meet foundational accredidation standards. The WASC evaluation team offered deeply disturbing assessments in its June 6, 2004 letter to President Armiñana.
a. In noting that fulfillment of accreditation standards 2 and 4 "is foundational to the reaccreditation process," the WASC letter to President Armiñana stated that, "It is not evident at this point that the University is able to demonstrate that it meets these standards, nor is it sufficiently committed and organized to do so." This is a strikingly heavy criticism in the twelfth year of President Armiñana's stewardship of SSU.
b. The letter continued, "The team did not find evidence that fiscal and physical resources were clearly aligned with purposes … or that organizational planning in the whole supports effective decision-making…."
2) The California state budget and the CSU Trustees did not mandate that SSU increase its Full Time Equivalent Students (FTES) without providing a proportional increase in the Full Time Equivalent Faculty (FTEF) required to sustain the quality of learning and instruction appropriate to that increase.
SSU President Ruben Armiñana has claimed in various forums that the issues at SSU that led to the resounding SSU faculty vote of no confidence in his leadership are the result of inadequate budgets provided by the State of California and by policies imposed by the California State University (CSU) Trustees. However, this claim does not explain the actual circumstances at SSU that led the faculty to assert that they have no confidence in President Armiñana's leadership. Reasons for this conclusion include the following considerations.
1) The California state budget and the CSU Trustees did not mandate that President Armiñana take actions that led the Western Association of School and Colleges (WASC) to impose on SSU striking criticisms of SSU's failure to meet foundational accredidation standards. The WASC evaluation team offered deeply disturbing assessments in its June 6, 2004 letter to President Armiñana.
a. In noting that fulfillment of accreditation standards 2 and 4 "is foundational to the reaccreditation process," the WASC letter to President Armiñana stated that, "It is not evident at this point that the University is able to demonstrate that it meets these standards, nor is it sufficiently committed and organized to do so." This is a strikingly heavy criticism in the twelfth year of President Armiñana's stewardship of SSU.
b. The letter continued, "The team did not find evidence that fiscal and physical resources were clearly aligned with purposes … or that organizational planning in the whole supports effective decision-making…."
2) The California state budget and the CSU Trustees did not mandate that SSU increase its Full Time Equivalent Students (FTES) without providing a proportional increase in the Full Time Equivalent Faculty (FTEF) required to sustain the quality of learning and instruction appropriate to that increase.
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