CSUSF Students Demand Removal Of CSU Pres White At Commemoration of SF State Strike

On October 12, 2019. students at an event to commemorate the San Francisco State strike in 1968 protested and demanded that the CSU president Timothy White be removed for opposing the Ethnic Studies program in the public schools. White had hidden $1.5 billion of funds while increasing fees and costs for the students. He also opposed a bill to bring the Ethnic Studies program to public schools.
He announced his retirement on October 22, 2019.

Additional media:

CSU Trustees California State University Failed to Fully Disclose Its $1.5 Billion Surplus, and It Has Not Adequately Invested in Alternatives to Costly Parking Facilities
June 2019
http://www.bsa.ca.gov/pdfs/reports/2018-127.pdf

CSU eliminates remedial classes in push to improve graduation rates
https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article165342632.html

CSU trustees approve pay raises for executives with six-figure salaries
https://www.sfchronicle.com/news/article/CSU-trustees-approve-pay-raises-for-executives-13102274.php

SF State '68 Strike Lessons For Today On The 50th Anniversary Panel 4
https://youtu.be/Tb_B8IW2Tbc

Danny Glover On The 50th Anniversary Of '68 SF State Strike
https://youtu.be/tqX6ZopDKKM

“On Strike, shut it down!” November 1968 through March 1969 On The 50th Anniversary Of SF State Strike Panel 3
https://youtu.be/zvaD58CBcpg

SF State 1968 Strike: The BSU & TWLF organization’s push for educational access
https://youtu.be/fZwjPL44pJ4

Building The BSU & Progressive student movement at SFSU: Foundations of civil rights & global liberation activism-1st Panel
https://youtu.be/v-Hgp9pWMSc

Then & Now On The 50th Anniversary Of The SF State Strike
https://youtu.be/GnNh0WlvTrk

The '68 SF State Strike, Labor & The Lessons For Today On The 50th Anniversary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0D32m3lw2_4&t=1623s

Labor And The 1968 San Francisco State Strike
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsL1bACg50M&t=136s

The Lessons Of The 68’ SF State Strike And Relevance Today, 50 Years After The Strike
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34zWfeoSfhg&t=1212s

"The Turning Point" The San Francisco State '68 Strike
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qd6-P3kHRBY&t=7s

The Worker Student Alliance SDS and PL: A Reading In SF
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMEy3BQ4Ehk&t=48s

SF State 1968 Strikers Read From Their Works On 50th Anniversary Of Strike
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTOPQgbPSIo&t=198s

Production of Labor Video Project
http://www.laborvideo.org

CSU secretly stashed away $1.5 billion surplus, auditor says

Nanette Asimov June 20, 2019 Updated: June 20, 2019 7:33 p.m.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/news/article/CSU-stashed-away-1-5B-surplus-without-telling-14025568.php

CSU Fullerton graduate student Ashley Sarkodie (left) and S.F. State students Alejandra Mendez-Ruiz, and Jordan Zabek fill out cards during a protest against tuition increases in March 2017.Photo: Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle

California State University Chancellor Timothy White rebutted the audit findings and defended the university’s financial disclosure practices.Photo: Scott Varley / Torrance Daily Breeze 2014

Students work through equations on the white board during a business calculus class at San Francisco State University, part of the CSU system.Photo: Amy Osborne / Special to The Chronicle
The California State University system amassed a surplus of more than $1.5 billion over 10 years, hiding it from students and the public even as the trustees doubled tuition to nearly $6,000 and collected rising amounts of state funding, the state’s independent auditor said Thursday.

The university “did not disclose the surplus to students when consulting with them about raising tuition costs,” or in financial disclosures to the Legislature, Auditor Elaine Howle said in the report, which covered 2008 to 2018. She noted that by withholding the news of the hefty surplus — most of which came from student tuition — CSU undermined the state law that requires public universities to discuss tuition plans with students before raising prices.

“Had CSU informed the legislators of its surplus when presenting its budget requests, the legislators could have directed CSU to use a portion of its own money rather than requesting additional funding from the state,” Howle wrote, adding that an example of how CSU could use the money would be “offering additional courses to help students graduate more quickly.”

CSU Chancellor Timothy White rebutted the audit findings and defended the university’s financial disclosure practices. He said the $1.5 billion is a legitimate part of CSU reserves used to pay short-term expenses, such as debt service and campus maintenance, and for economic uncertainty.

“I fundamentally disagree with the assertion in the audit report that this is a surplus and that it’s discretionary money,” White told The Chronicle. “It is not a surplus. We cannot use it for ongoing costs.”


The findings are similar to those in a 2017 audit involving the University of California’s Office of the President, in which Howle revealed that President Janet Napolitano had socked away $175 million for use on her preferred UC projects while failing to disclose the funds to the regents as they demanded more money from the state. Those audit findings led to state hearings, changes in state law and, ultimately, a public apology from Napolitano for her role in interfering with the auditor’s work.

The audit of CSU — with 23 campuses and about 480,000 students — focuses on a vastly greater sum of money, but different circumstances.

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In UC’s case, the president’s office collected money from its 10 campuses as a tax to operate the UC system. The audit found the president’s office siphoned off money for private projects — from addressing student hunger and restoring wetlands, to hosting extravagant parties for retiring regents.

In CSU’s case, the $1.5 billion — largely student tuition — is part of $4 billion held in an investment account that CSU calls its reserve funds. But the auditor says the $1.5 billion is discretionary money that CSU could use for instructional purposes, and that despite submitting numerous financial documents to the state, CSU “did not provide the detail necessary for the Legislature to easily understand” that this portion of the reserves was actually surplus funding.

CSU issued a statement declaring the university “transparent in its financial operations” and said that detailed information about its money “is readily available for review by Californians and our state’s lawmakers.” White said he always has been up-front with students about CSU finances.

On Thursday, the president of the Cal State Student Association disagreed.

“It is disappointing and concerning that the CSU did not disclose their reserve amounts during their required consultation with students regarding tuition increases,” the president, Mia Kagianas, a business major who just graduated from Sacramento State, said in a statement. “Students deserve accessible information on the institution’s budget in decision-making processes that directly impact their lives.”

Kagianas called alarming a separate audit finding released Thursday, that the price of student parking soared at four CSU campuses even as parking remained hard to find.

Howle’s audit found that the four campuses audited by her team — Sacramento, San Diego, Fullerton and Channel Islands — raised student parking fees from 24% to 64% during the 10 years studied, and now charge annual fees from $336 (San Diego), to $472 (Fullerton). The campuses also failed to develop alternative transportation options, such as shuttles and carpools, or to facilitate cycling, the audit found.

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White acknowledged that at the campuses, “there is no doubt that people are frustrated by parking problems” because student enrollment has risen faster than the number of parking spots.

Students pay for “more of a hunting license than a parking license,” he joked, adding that prices have risen because it costs more to maintain the facilities. At the same time, he said, the campuses “should do better in disclosing their alternative transportation” options before proposing new garages.

Leaders of the California State University Employees Union, which represents thousands of support staff across the system, proposed the audit last year to Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva, D-Fullerton (Orange County).

The employees, who were in contract negotiations with CSU, “were concerned about the cost of parking” and the progress of their labor dispute, said Quirk-Silva, who served on the Higher Education Committee and requested the audit.

“I’m surprised” at the size of the discretionary funds, she said Thursday. “That’s $1.5 billion that could have been used to not raise tuition in 2017-18, and for additional student support.”

CSU raised tuition that year by $270, to $5,742, excluding mandatory fees that boost the price above $7,000.

State funding for CSU grew by about 60% from 2013 to 2018 — from about $2 billion to $3.2 billion — even as CSU’s surplus nearly doubled in size, the audit found.

“For years, CSU has claimed poverty, and now we find they’ve been holding $1.5 billion,” said Neil Jacklin, the union’s president. “This is just the latest example of CSU leadership irresponsibly managing public funds.”

In the CSU statement, White said he is concerned that the audit findings would mislead the public.

“The report’s incorrect claim that CSU failed to fully inform its stakeholders about fund balances overlooks dozens of presentations of publicly available reports that included information about these funds,” White said, adding that calling the $1.5 billion a “discretionary surplus” mischaracterizes how CSU is able to use the money.

Nanette Asimov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: nasimov [at] sfchronicle.com Twitter: @NanetteAsimov