Colleagues:

As I begin my eighth year as your President, we face some of the worst budget reductions I have experienced in my nearly forty years in higher education. We have made a number of changes at Humboldt State University over the last few years and this situation demands many more. We can all be proud of what we do for students and our region at HSU, and I know that by working together and through this crisis, we can continue to serve our students and our region well.

We must reduce our operational budgets to meet unprecedented declines in the CSU system’s general fund revenue. The process of making these decisions is underway and is guided by the Budget Reduction Principles document, which can be found at the budget web site, http://www.humboldt.edu/~budget, along with this memo, previous communications and other budget information.

In addition to sharing information on the web and by email, I have provided the University Executive Committee with regular briefings on the budget crisis and have been communicating closely with the Vice Presidents who, in turn, have been working closely with their respective staffs. Provost Snyder and I also met recently with the leadership of the Academic Senate, the Associated Students, the Staff Council and the University Budget Committee to brief them and listen to their ideas for confronting this situation.

One of the difficulties we face is that information continues to be limited and entangled in the political processes in Sacramento. There are also ongoing negotiations with the bargaining units regarding various scenarios that must be resolved at the system level. The Chancellor and the campus presidents met recently to discuss options. While no details were finalized, discussions will continue with the Board of Trustees at a special meeting on July 7th. During their regularly scheduled July 21st meeting, we hope the Trustees will adopt more specific recommendations to implement budget reductions in the CSU.

Despite the uncertainty, we must move forward soon with a number of difficult decisions because making them as soon as possible will reduce the overall negative effect on students, faculty and staff. While I am very concerned by the decisions that we will have to make, I also believe that they can be made in ways that prepare HSU to recover quickly and emerge more closely aligned with our vision and strategic plan when the economy improves.

Some reduction actions are already underway or completed. These actions and those to come will generally fall into four categories: one-time or emergency reductions; cost savings and efficiencies; enrollment reductions; and service and program reduction or elimination.

Major actions already being taken include:

• Equipment purchases will be deferred except for emergencies and negotiated start-ups for new faculty.
• Only travel deemed essential will be permitted. Funding for travel to professional conferences for presentations will be considered for junior faculty who are advancing toward tenure/promotion. Travel that is essential to student recruitment or fundraising, as well as travel mandated by the Chancellor’s Office, will also be allowed.
• In an effort to reduce enrollments to meet expected new CSU limits, the summer session will be shifted to a self-support operation under Extended Education. The alternative was to close the summer session, as at least one other campus has done, but that would have severely disrupted the plans of students and faculty with very short notice and would have hampered student progress toward their degrees.
• The Provost, Deans, Vice Presidents and their colleagues have already made decisions to reduce their expenditures and will continue to do so as we receive more explicit recommendations from the Trustees and the Chancellor.

This represents an initial round of emergency reductions. The actions taken on a system-wide level will influence further campus reductions. Careful and conservative planning helped us build a sizeable reserve and, where possible and prudent, roll-forward funds will be used to mitigate reductions. The overall CSU reduction is currently estimated at $584 million. That could mean an HSU reduction of $12 – $16 million. One thing is painfully clear: substantial additional campus cuts will have to be made.

I will continue to provide you with timely information about this fiscal emergency. Updates will be posted as available on our budget website.

Please know that I appreciate your good work and your understanding of these painful circumstances. In spite of these damaging reductions, HSU continues to provide a critically important service to our students, our region and California. Together we can survive this crisis and effect those changes that will make Humboldt State University an even better university for the future.

Sincerely,

Rollin C. Richmond
President

A tenured professor in sociology, Devall taught HSU courses outside the confines of his discipline, including wilderness and forest issues and the effects of radioactive wastes.

Inspired by the works of Arne Naess and Gary Snyder, Devall’s first book, Deep Ecology, with George Sessions, introduced the philosophy and practice of deep ecology to the North American audience in 1985.Widely cited as the key reference text for the field, it remains in print. The San Francisco Chronicle called the book “subversive, but it’s the kind of subversion we can use.”

The book was designed to advance environmental thinking and action from the reformist impulse to a new ecological philosophy and practice. Devall argued that continuing environmental breakdown should be understood as a crisis of character and of culture, which he believed required a shift in outlook from the “destructive anthropocentric to the eco-centric.”

The philosophy hinged on what Devall termed “Earth wisdom – the dance of unity of plants, animals, humans and the earth.” His subsequent books, Simple in Means and Rich in Ends (1988) and Living Richly in an Age of Limits (1993), laid out how to put the idea into practice. Living Richly was written as a manifesto for America’s middle class of the time.

Devall’s last book, The Ecology of Wisdom, was published late in 2008.

An activist in conservation and environmental causes at both the local and national levels, Devall was a founding member of the North Coast Environmental Center in Arcata and involved in efforts to establish recycling and the protection of local beaches, forests and endangered species. Nationally, he championed protection of the ancient forests of the Pacific Northwest. In 1990, he took part in Redwood Summer–blocking access to northern California forests and lumber production—which led to a national campaign to bear witness to the clear cutting of ancient trees. Funded by the Foundation of Deep Ecology, the national drive led to the Sierra Club’s publication of a pictorial book, Clear Cut: The Tragedy of Industrial Forestry (1995), which Devall edited.

Born in Kansas City, Devall earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Kansas, Lawrence, followed by graduate degrees at the University of Hawaii and the University of Oregon. He taught briefly at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, and spent the rest of his teaching career at Humboldt State. His home in Trinidad became a congregation point for students, faculty and environmentalists participating in environmental campaigns and issues.

CSU Urges Faculty Union to Bring Furlough Option to a Vote

The California State University administration today urged the leadership of the California Faculty Association (CFA) to bring the concept of a two day per month furlough to a vote of its members. CSU has met with the faculty union three times to discuss the furlough option, but CFA has not yet scheduled a vote of its members. There are approximately 23,000 faculty members in the CSU; only dues-paying members of the CFA would be allowed to participate in a vote.

The concept of furloughs was proposed to all of the CSU’s labor unions as a way to address an anticipated $584 million cut, or 13 percent reduction, to CSU’s 2009-10 budget. Collective bargaining agreements between the CSU and its employee unions include provisions covering mandated non-retention and layoffs, but not furloughs. Each bargaining unit, therefore, must agree to negotiate furloughs. Two groups—the California State University Employees Union (CSUEU) representing 16,000 non-academic employees and the Academic Professionals of California (APC) representing 2,400 student service employees—have agreed to discuss furloughs.

“Time is of the essence and we need to prepare for the upcoming fall academic year on all of our campuses,” said CSU Chancellor Charles B. Reed. “We have provided answers to the questions posed by the CFA during our last meeting, and are urging them to present the furlough option to their members for a vote. We need to move forward to address the massive budget cuts that the system is facing before the impacts are magnified.

“The CSU is facing an unprecedented crisis and it will take cooperation and shared sacrifice from all of us to get through this next fiscal year and beyond.” The CFA’s questions and the CSU’s responses can be found here: http://www.calstate.edu/PA/News/2009/documents/cfa-furlough-questions.pdf.

Approximately 80 percent of the CSU’s costs are salary and benefits payments. The CSU is proposing to furlough all of its employees (with the exception of public safety personnel) in all classifications, including management and executives, to help close the anticipated budget deficit. To date, approximately 21,000 of CSU’s overall workforce of 47,000 employees are looking at furloughs.

If adopted by all employees, furloughs would reduce the CSU’s salary expenditures by approximately $275 million. Other cost-saving options are being discussed to address the remaining deficit. The guiding principles Chancellor Reed has been working under are to “serve as many students as possible without sacrificing quality, and to preserve as many jobs as possible.”

CSU has also initiated changes to Title 5 of the California Code of Regulations for management and executive personnel. The modifications would allow the system to alter provisions related to furlough, salary reductions and unpaid holidays. The change was put into place to meet a 45-day requirement should any action be needed at the July 21 CSU Board of Trustees meeting. The Title 5 revision can be found here.

A furlough is a mandated period of time off without pay. Furloughs differ from salary reductions and pay cuts in that they are temporary and do not affect employment status, health benefit eligibility or pay rate for retirement benefits. Employees are not required to work on furlough days.

Gina Tuzzi “El Dorado (1989)”, 2009 acrylic on paper 30 in. x 22 in.

“The alumni participating in this show have all developed to a point where they are working at a professional level as artists,” states First Street Gallery Director Jack Bentley. “All nine participants have developed as unique artists who clearly demonstrate their facility with their media while engaging with a variety of themes. Crucial to their success, however, are the less tangible qualities they all share—a dedication and commitment to making art as a way of life and a deep engagement with their work on poetic and intellectual levels.”

Some of the artists participating in the exhibition have gone on to further studies at other institutions, earning their MFA degree, the highest degree attainable in the fine arts.

Participating artists are: Erica Botkin – photography, Allison Harrington – jewelry, Alyse LaVerne – painting, Joshua Martinez – photography, Justin Mitman – ceramic sculpture, Gina Tuzzi – drawing and painting, Christopher West – mixed media works, Erin Whitman – painting; and a special memorial section dedicated to the late Nancy Finch-Halliday.

Christopher West “Form Like Voltron” 2009 cut paper 36 in. x 34 in.Christopher West “Form Like Voltron” 2009 cut paper 36 in. x 34 in.

Art is one of the highest enrolled majors at the HSU campus. HSU’s Art Department offers classes with 25 full and part-time instructors, multiple, well equipped studio facilities and several campus showcases that enable undergraduates to enjoy an early experience of presenting their works to the public. Additionally, students enrolled in the Art Department’s Museum and Gallery Practices Program gain practical, hands-on experience as they design, coordinate and curate exhibits at First Street Gallery.

There will be a public reception for the alumni artists on Friday, July 3, from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. First Street Gallery will be closed on Saturday, July 4, during the Eureka Arts Alive program. HSU First Street Gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday from noon to 5:00 p.m. The gallery is located at 422 First Street in Eureka and admission is free to all. School groups are encouraged to call ahead to arrange tours For more information call 707-826-3424 or visit our website at http://www.humboldt.edu/~first

State May Have to Issue IOU’s; CSU Employees Will Receive Paychecks

State Controller John Chiang has announced that he will have to issue registered warrants or “IOUs” as early as July 2 if the legislature and governor cannot find a solution to close the $24.3 billion state budget gap. CSU employees, however, will be paid as they normally are and will not receive IOUs. Chiang said the state will have a $2.8 billion cash shortage at the start of the fiscal year July 1 which could grow to $6.5 billion in September in the absence of a balanced budget. More information: http://www.sco.ca.gov/.

System Leaders Meet to Discuss Budget Options

CSU Chancellor Charles B. Reed and the 23 campus presidents met this week to discuss options to manage a proposed $584 million budget deficit. While no details were finalized, discussions will continue with the Board of Trustees at a special meeting July 7. The trustees will then use their regularly scheduled July 21 meeting to adopt an action plan that will be implemented systemwide and at the campuses.

The findings suggest that without major management changes, commercial fishing could meet the same fate as Santa Clara County’s extinct truck produce and processing industry and Sonoma County’s withered apple sector.

Commercial salmon fishing, which has suffered recently from limited seasons and outright closures, is far from alone in the industry’s plight, according to statewide data analyzed by Humboldt State Economics Professor Steve Hackett, his research associate, Doreen Hansen, HSU undergraduate researchers and the Maryland consulting firm King and Associates. Although Dungeness crab fishing is strong on a cyclical basis, money-losing operations include such fisheries as harpoon/spear, hook and line, near shore and ground fish trap, sea urchin and southern California trawl.

Persistent revenue losses have shrunk the industry dramatically. Department of Fish and Game sales of commercial fishing licenses of all types sank 31% from 2000 to 2008, dropping from 26,049 to 18,052, according to Terry Tillman, a senior biologist and fisheries economist at the department.

Correspondingly, Hackett said, “The number of vessels in the industry has shrunk substantially across the whole state, the average age of commercial fishermen is getting older and a lot fewer people are engaged in commercial fishing. All this results in a struggle for funding to maintain the harbor and port infrastructure the industry is dependent on.”

Strong competition is in play as well. The commercial sector duels for catch with private sport fishermen, intensely so in southern California. Meanwhile, competition for fishing grounds is heightened by marine protection initiatives and the likelihood California will deploy wave energy conversion systems at sea to gain alternative electrical output.

“What you have is a constellation of policy challenges besetting commercial fishing,” Hackett emphasized, noting a corrosive feedback effect. “When it’s so hard to fish commercially and you don’t have enough fishermen, then the fish processors begin to fall by the wayside. And without them, you can’t have a commercial fishing industry. It’s very similar to what happened with truck produce and processing in Santa Clara County, which was completely eliminated by urbanization. Same thing with apple processing in Sebastopol and Sonoma County: the industry shrinks, you lose the processors and then eventually the rest of the industry goes away.”

Tillman said the new economic analysis could be a crucial underpinning for bold management actions to restore the industry’s health. “In some instances, bold action may even be for [state and federal] management to let the industry operate with more flexibility, as an unfettered or unencumbered business enterprise,” he said in an interview. “Of course, there have to be biological constraints that the department, as a custodian of a public resource, needs to keep tabs on. But as long as we have acceptable fishing practices and sustainable levels of fish, there may be room to allow the fishing fleet to operate more profitably.”

Many other states and countries have taken that direction under fisheries quota programs, he said, but California has not been in the forefront.

The analysis and companion files are titled “The Economic Structure of California’s Commercial Fisheries,” available at http://www.dfg.ca.gov/marine/economicstructure.asp

Geography Professor Stephen Cunha / Humboldt State University

In accepting the recommendation, the President said, “Professor Cunha is a natural choice. While he is an internationally known and respected scholar with a fascinating background, he is also a teacher with a real passion for his discipline. Humboldt State students recognize his commitment, and his classes here are much in demand.”

The Advisory Board for Research and Creative Projects, appointed by the Academic Senate, called Cunha “an internationally known expert on the geography of Central Asia and a national leader of K-12 geographic education.”

“The real honor,” Cunha said, “is to be included among Humboldt State’s finest teacher-scholars. Their collective erudition in science, art, humanities and social science defines and supports our educational mission. The field work, writing and professional meeting presentations kick my work with students up a notch. Scholarship is the score, teaching and student advising are the performance.”

Cunha added, “I’ve always felt lucky to turn a youthful passion into a lifelong career, and to work with motivated HSU students who share that interest.”

As for the Outstanding Scholar Award itself, Cunha said, “My cartographer wife Mary deserves at least 51 percent of it.”

Prior to joining HSU in 1996 Cunha served 10 seasons as a park ranger in Yosemite and Alaska and four years examining the potential for a national park and biosphere reserve in the Pamir Mountains of Tajikistan in Central Asia. They are famed as Marco Polo’s “Roof of the World.”

A graduate of UC Berkeley and UC Davis, Cunha is the director of the California Geographic Alliance. Under his leadership, the organization has involved more than 75,000 of the state’s teachers in various instructional activities in a concerted drive to offer more effective geography education. He and his alliance partners have secured more than $3 million in grants in the last 10 years to advance geographic literacy and education in the state. In 2007, the alliance and its partners won a $1 million start-up endowment from the David & Lucille Packard Foundation and the National Geographic Society to allow the alliance’s efforts to continue in perpetuity.

Cunha himself has received many major grants for his scholarship, including funds from the Bechtel Foundation, the California Department of Education, the University of California and the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund.

Since the inception of the National Geography Bee in 1989, Cunha has worked closely with the National Geographic Society to expand the contest, and California now has the largest bee in the nation. More than 100,000 of the state’s fourth through eighth graders compete each year, led by Cunha as state coordinator. He assists schools, presides over the state final each spring and, with HSU’s Mary Hackett, maintains the state office in Arcata. This July the National Geographic World Geography Championships takes place in Mexico City. The three-day competition involves student winners from 21 countries.

A prolific author, Cunha writes for diverse audiences—children, young adults, the general public and scholars—in textbooks, journals, encyclopedia entries, government reports and book chapters. Often they are illustrated with photographs from his frequent world travels. This year he is a contributor to the five-volume Encyclopedia of Asia.

Both of his National Geographic books, Our 50 States and The Official National Geographic Bee Study Guide, reached Amazon Children’s best seller list. He has co-authored social studies and science textbooks for grades two through high school, and consulted on more than 75 National Geographic Society books, maps and magazine articles.

Cunha was one of five 2007 recipients of the $20,000 California State University Wang Family Excellence Award, which recognizes outstanding faculty and administrators. That same year, he won the Hilda Taba Award from the California Council for Social Studies for outstanding and enduring contributions to social science education in the state. In 2001, he was selected for the Distinguished Teaching Award of the National Council for Geographic Education.

In an effort to address a projected $584 million budget deficit for 2009-10, the California State University Employee Union (CSUEU), that represents more than 16,000 non-academic employees, has voted to enter talks with CSU on the concept of two day per month furloughs. This option is under consideration rather than the contractually mandated non-retention and layoff language contained in CSUEU’s labor agreement with the CSU. In addition, the Academic Professionals of California, that represents approximately 2,400 student services employees, has also voted to begin the same process.

Combined with changes initiated this month to Title 5 that would allow CSU flexibility to furlough management employees, a total of approximately 21,000 of CSU’s overall workforce of 47,000 employees are committed to looking at furloughs as a way to address the budget deficit.

CSU has been meeting with the system’s labor unions that represent the vast majority of its workforce to discuss the furlough option and expects to finalize the details of an action plan in the near future. Approximately 80 percent of CSU’s budget goes toward employee salary and benefits, and the CSU is proposing to furlough all of its employees (with the exception of public safety personnel) in all classifications, including management and executives, to help close the anticipated budget deficit.

Although the state budget has not been finalized, the Governor’s budget proposal would mean a $584 million cut to the CSU’s general fund support for 2009-10. This represents a 13 percent reduction from 2007-08 in state support of the CSU. The furloughs, if accepted by all employees, would save approximately $275 million, and other cost-saving options are under discussion to address the remaining budget deficit. CSU Chancellor Charles B. Reed has indicated that the guiding principles of any action plan would be to “serve as many students as possible without sacrificing quality, and to preserve as many jobs as possible.”

CSU has also initiated changes to Title 5 of the California Code of Regulations for management and executive personnel. The modifications would allow the system to alter provisions related to furlough, salary reductions and unpaid holidays. This change was put into place in order to meet a 45-day requirement should any action be needed at the July 21 CSU Board of Trustees meeting. The Title 5 revision can be found at the Cal State web site.

A furlough is a mandated period of time off without pay. Furloughs differ from salary reductions and pay cuts in that they are temporary and do not affect employment status, or health benefit eligibility or pay rate for retirement benefits. Also, employees are not required to work on furlough days.

The pipe was severed around 8:45 a.m. and personnel from the Arcata Fire Department, the University Police Department, PG&E;and HSU’s Plant Operations immediately responded by closing the area to pedestrian traffic.

There were reports of natural gas odors being smelled around campus, but officials said there was no cause for concern as the odors posed no threat.

L.K. Wood Boulevard was partially closed to northbound traffic and was reopened within an hour of its closure.

Original drawings, photographs, paintings, digital work or any two-dimensional art will be considered. It should reflect KHSU, its golden anniversary or its contributions to the region and individuals.

Four categories will be judged to select finalists: Youth artists under 13 years of age on September 1, 2009; adult artists, those over 13, on September 1, 2009; professional artists, i.e., those who have derived income from their art and digital artists of any age or expertise.

Deadline for submissions is September 30, 2009.

Finalists will be chosen by a group of judges selected by the station. Finalist art in all categories will be displayed between October 2009 and March 2010 at various venues and voted on by the public. Winners will receive prizes and their art will be featured in posters, calendars, shirts, tote bags and other KHSU memorabilia.

Contest rules and entry forms are at http://www.khsu.org or dial the KHSU offices at 707-826-8407.