Surfing a Big Wave

Soon after becoming Cal State University chancellor in 1991, Barry Munitz deftly solved many problems, from central micro-management to misspending. Munitz fixed so many problems, the conventional wisdom has it, that now that he’s leaving to head the J. Paul Getty Trust his successor will be unable to build an acclaimed legacy. As Robert Atwell, former president of the American Council on Education, put it, “There’s a theory in this business about never following a winner. Whoever follows Barry will have a very tough time.”

In actuality, however, the next leader of Cal State will find no absence of major challenges. While Munitz paved the way for reform by restoring the system’s reputation, the journey down that road has just begun. If Cal State is to meet the demands of Tidal Wave II, the children of baby boomers now heading toward college campuses (see chart), the committee that began meeting two weeks ago to choose his successor will have to pick someone capable of considering and carrying out key structural reforms.

To start, the next chancellor should make each of the system’s 23 campuses more accountable for educational excellence. Currently, all entering Cal State students are given math and English tests. But the system also should require graduation exams, which should be used to measure a school’s performance. Because some Cal State campuses contend with a much larger remedial population than others, campuses should be rated not only on their student scores but on how much the students’ skills improve. Everyone accepts the wisdom of testing lawyers and doctors before allowing them to practice, but given that Cal State trains the majority of the state’s K-12 teachers, tests should also be administered to those who will teach the next generation.

The next chancellor should also create a panel of respected educators to devise a strategy for meeting the demands of Tidal Wave II. In 1960, then-UC Berkeley Chancellor Clark Kerr, concerned that legislators were less interested in planning for Tidal Wave I than in using university funding to bring dollars into their districts, persuaded Sacramento to let him assemble a panel of experts. The panel created the Cal State, UC and community college system that became a national model of educational excellence.

Today, history is repeating itself. Rather than devising a coherent plan or embracing cost-effective ways of meeting rising enrollments (like expanding existing facilities and extending their hours), legislators have lobbied for new campuses like the recently built Cal State Monterey and the proposed Cal State Channel Islands, to be built on 85 recently acquired acres in Camarillo. Both projects are already troubled. Because the Channel Islands property is too large for student needs, Cal State officials are considering using part of it for ventures they have no experience in, like a 1,200-unit retirement community. And because of problems like water requirements that could have been anticipated, Cal State has had to cut its projected full-time enrollment for the Monterey campus from 25,000 to about 6,500.

Cal State remains one of the nation’s better state university systems. But consider the discontent with public schools among urban children and their parents and the flight to private ones. In a few years those kids will be touring college campuses. State and education officials must be careful not to postpone change until students and parents reject the public state college system as they rejected public elementary, middle and high schools, for lack of innovation and competitiveness. The time to make the Cal State campuses relevant to modern educational and economic needs is now.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Tidal Wave II

Students expected to enter California colleges and universities.

In millions

‘05: 2.21 million

Source: California Postsecondary Education Commission