A Past Decade and Uncertain Future
Reflecting on the past 10 years as President of your University, I am reminded of the saying, 鈥渢ime flies when you鈥檙e having fun.鈥� Certainly, the past decade has been fun and rewarding, but has also included hard work, challenges, sweat, tears and jubilation. I am extremely proud of CI鈥檚 accomplishments of the past decade as well as individual successes of our faculty, staff and students.
My most rewarding highlight is realized every year on commencement day when as a University community we witness hundreds of men and women who cross a stage to loud cheers from families and friends in celebration of graduates鈥� academic achievements. College graduates are key to California鈥檚 future and economic recovery as they become tomorrow鈥檚 workforce and leaders for our region, state and nation.
As you will read in the pages that follow, CI continues on a path of excellence and this is attributable directly to the hard work of our faculty and staff. Students themselves realize that they must continue to advance their academic experience if they are to succeed in accomplishing their goals and dreams.
However, fiscal realities continue to threaten our ability to ensure the quality experience students will need to compete in tomorrow鈥檚 world. The 海角社区 was told in March to expect a minimum $500 million budget reduction with a potential for further cuts, severely impacting current students and those wishing to enroll at the 海角社区. The Senate and Assembly recently proposed a budget to close the remaining $9.6 billion gap without the extensions of temporary tax increases proposed by Governor Brown. As this issue goes to press the budget that included a significant reduction of state support was vetoed by the Governor. While tuition fee increases could offset part of the initial reduction, millions of dollars of additional cuts would be devastating to CI鈥檚 academic and student programs.聽
We are optimistic that our state鈥檚 leaders and Governor Brown will make education a priority in their budget decisions. For this budget cycle and those in the future it is important that our voices be heard in support of higher education. After all it is the investment in our students now which will lead to a stronger and thriving California tomorrow.
Sincerely yours,
Richard R. Rush
President