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<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class=ecxMsoNormal align=center><B><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman">STATEMENT BY PAT WASHINGTON, PH.D.</FONT></FONT></B></P>
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<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class=ecxMsoNormal align=center><B><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman">October 20, 2009</FONT></FONT></B></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class=ecxMsoNormal align=center><B><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman">Assemblymember Marty Block</FONT></FONT></B></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class=ecxMsoNormal align=center><B><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman">Assembly Select Committee on K-16 Articulation, Access and Affordability</FONT></FONT></B></P>
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<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class=ecxMsoNormal align=center><B><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman">To Examine SDSU President Stephen Weber’s Recent Change to Admission Policies </FONT></FONT></B></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class=ecxMsoNormal align=center><B><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman">and Its Immediate Impact on Local Student</FONT></FONT></B></P>
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<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify" class=ecxMsoNormal><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify" class=ecxMsoNormal><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman">Assemblymember Block, fellow panelists, parents, students and community members.</FONT></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify" class=ecxMsoNormal><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman">My name is Pat Washington and I here to represent the San Diego NAACP and because I am a concerned member of the local community, residing in the College/Rolando area near San Diego State University.</FONT></P>
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<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify" class=ecxMsoNormal><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman">Although San Diego State University claims that changes to its admissions policy are driven by the state budget crisis, a pattern of actions over the past decade suggests that the newly implemented changes are <B>more likely</B> fueled by campus administrators’ long-standing desire to restrict local student access to SDSU.<SPAN> </SPAN></FONT></FONT></P>
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<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify" class=ecxMsoNormal><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman">Indeed, it would appear that discouraging local student enrollment has been a primary focus of SDSU’s administration ever since President Weber was hired in 1996.<SPAN> </SPAN>For instance, according to SDSU Faculty Senate Minutes of December 7, 1999, President Weber requested, and was granted, impacted campus status for SDSU as early as May 1997—eight months after taking the university’s helm. In the fall of 1999, SDSU used this “impacted campus” designation—<B><U>THEN</U>, <U>AS</U> <U>NOW</U></B>—to radically alter established CSU admission requirements for local students.<SPAN> </SPAN>The devastating consequences of this action for local students are captured in several documents I am providing to Assemblymember Block, including a November 30, 1999 letter (with attached local news articles) from M.E.Ch.A. to the leadership of the California Legislative Latino Caucus and others. </FONT></P>
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<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify" class=ecxMsoNormal><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman">Fortunately, the impaction policy that SDSU implemented in 1999 did not sit well with either the CSU Chancellor or the Board of Trustees.<SPAN> </SPAN>Chancellor Reed mandated SDSU immediately amend its impaction policy, and the Board quickly adopted enrollment management principles to ensure “guaranteed access to a local campus for all eligible local students.”<SPAN> </SPAN></FONT></FONT></P>
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<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify" class=ecxMsoNormal><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman">But SDSU administrators didn’t miss a beat.<SPAN> </SPAN>According to an internal document, SDSU administrators busied themselves developing strategies to go around CSU enrollment principles designed to protect local students.<SPAN> </SPAN>The document, entitled “<B><I>Resisting the Localization of SDSU</I></B>,” provides suggestions on how to <I>“reduce an increasing ‘provincialization’ of the University (or … [to prevent] SDSU becoming a great-big 4-year Community College).”</I><SPAN> </SPAN>In the interest of time, I will not read you all the strategies that SDSU administrators devised for the sole purpose of denying or limiting local student access.<SPAN> </SPAN>However, there are a couple of strategies you may recognize—for instance, <I>“Create a “dual admission” policy … [which] would remove a significant portion of mandated local first-time freshmen.”</I><SPAN> </SPAN>Or one that is currently in play for 2010 admissions: <I>“Raise the academic criteria for admission into individual pre-majors and majors so that we can ‘deny’ more locals access to their desired fields.”</I><SPAN> </SPAN></FONT></FONT></P>
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<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify" class=ecxMsoNormal><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman">This is pretty blatant stuff.<SPAN> </SPAN>It contradicts SDSU’s stated rationale for eliminating the guaranteed local admission policy and suggests that the administration’s claims that “<I>the budget made us do it</I>” are <B><I>BOGUS</I></B>.<SPAN> </SPAN>Even when there have been no budget cuts or impending financial crises, SDSU has been determined to decrease—to restrict in any way possible—local student access to the main campus.<SPAN> </SPAN>SDSU’s own internal documents reveal that the true purpose of many of the strategies we have seen over the past decade—from dual admission in 2002 to the current requirement that students apply to a major or pre-major—is “<B><I>so we can ‘deny’ more locals access…</I>.</B>”<SPAN> </SPAN></FONT></FONT></P>
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<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify" class=ecxMsoNormal><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman">One of the new changes to the admission policy is the requirement that new out of service area admits, including those north of 56, live in campus housing.<SPAN> </SPAN>This requirement is presumably in response to SDSU’s concern that all those dorms are sitting empty because local students don’t need campus housing.<SPAN> </SPAN>But all the hand-wringing about empty dorm rooms running up costs to the university is disingenuous.<SPAN> </SPAN>If having empty dorms is such a problem, why did the university pay $26 million dollars for the Albert Apartments the very same day it dropped the local student guarantee?<SPAN> </SPAN>It’s clear that while SDSU is “rationing” space for the local students in its service area, it is making plenty space available for out of area students.<SPAN> </SPAN></FONT></FONT></P>
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<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify" class=ecxMsoNormal><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman">Part of what is going on here, I believe, is the over-reaching elitism and bloated self-importance that is so well described in Professor Ann Johns’ article, “The SDSU of the Future” (which I have also made available to Assemblymember Block).<SPAN> </SPAN>How else can we account for the undisguised contempt evident in the internal document, “Resisting the Localization of SDSU,” where students from the local community are characterized as <I>“provincial”</I> and disparagingly called <I>“locals”</I> and where their admission to SDSU is seen as downgrading the university to a <I>“great big 4-year Community College”</I>?<SPAN> </SPAN>How else can we explain the Provost’s description of the local guaranteed admission policy as <I>“a major threat to the academic quality of this institution…”</I> (Senate Executive Committee’s Minutes of October 26, 1999), or her characterizing local students as a <I>“problem”</I> and expressing dismay that SDSU may <I>“become swamped with local students”</I> (SDSU Senate Minutes of November 6, 2001). <SPAN> </SPAN>And how else can we account for the crass generalization about—and crude distinction between—in service area and out of service area students that the President makes by stating, <I>“the balance was between maintaining the minimum standards for select students [i.e., local students] … and enrolling ‘the best talent we can get [i.e., out of service area students].’”</I> (“University ‘Forced to Ration’ Education,” Matthew T. Hall, <I>Union Tribune</I>, 10/15/2009)</FONT></P>
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<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify" class=ecxMsoNormal><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman">President Weber, you suggest in your interview with Matthew Hall of the <I>Union Tribune</I> that local students “<I>aren’t worth the taxpayers’ investment because they ‘may never graduate.’”</I> You go on to state, <I>“At some point, I’ve got to place my bet on the student that’s most likely to be able to succeed and graduate.”</I> <SPAN> </SPAN>But just so we are clear, Dr. Weber, our students are human beings, not horses—and your actions in denying them access to local educational opportunities have far graver consequences than placing bets at the race track.<SPAN> </SPAN></FONT></FONT></P>
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<P class=ecxMsoNormal><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman">Thank you, Assemblyman Block for allowing me to participate in this Hearing.<BR clear=all><B>DOCUMENTS SUBMITTED IN SUPPORT OF WASHINGTON STATEMENT </B></FONT></FONT></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class=ecxMsoNormal align=center><B><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman">10/20/09 Hearing of the Assembly Select Committee on K-16</FONT></FONT></B></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class=ecxMsoNormal align=center><B><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman">Articulation, Access and Affordability</FONT></FONT></B></P>
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<LI class=ecxMsoNormal><B><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman">Fact Sheet on SDSU Admissions Policy Change that Harms San Diego Area Students</FONT></FONT></B></LI></OL>
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<LI class=ecxMsoNormal><B><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman">SDSU Chair of Diversity, Equity & Outreach Committee Disputes 2010/2011 Enrollment Management Proposal</FONT></FONT></B></LI></OL>
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<LI class=ecxMsoNormal><B><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman">SDSU Chair of Diversity, Equity & Outreach Committee – Data Point: Changes</FONT></FONT></B></LI></OL>
<P class=ecxMsoNormal><B><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"><SPAN> </SPAN><SPAN> </SPAN>to Enrollment Management Policy & Ratio of Local to Out of Area Students</FONT></FONT></B></P>
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<LI class=ecxMsoNormal><B><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman">November 30, 1999 M.E.Ch.A. Letter to Sen. Richard Polanco, With Attached News Articles Regarding Negative Results of SDSU’s 2009 Impaction Policy</FONT></FONT></B></LI></OL>
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<LI class=ecxMsoNormal><B><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman">Trustees Guarantee Local Access to Students, March 14-15, 2000, BOT Meeting</FONT></FONT></B></LI></OL>
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<LI class=ecxMsoNormal><B><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman">Minutes of SDSU Senate, November 6, 2001: Marlin Calls Local Students a “Problem” and Voices Concerns that SDSU Will Be “Swamped” by Them</FONT></FONT></B></LI></OL>
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<LI class=ecxMsoNormal><B><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman">Internal SDSU Memo: “Resisting the Localization of SDSU”</FONT></FONT></B></LI></OL>
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<LI class=ecxMsoNormal><B><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman">Professor Ann Johns, “The SDSU of the Future,” San Diego Union Tribune (March 24, 2004)</FONT></FONT></B></LI></OL>
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<LI class=ecxMsoNormal><B><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman">Relevant Sections of CSU Trustee Policy: Enrollment Management Principles, Nov. 18-19, 2008</FONT></FONT></B></LI></OL>
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<LI class=ecxMsoNormal><B><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman">Email: “SDSU Buys $26,000,000 Apartments Owned by Wealthy SDSU Alum”</FONT></FONT></B></LI></OL>
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<DIV><FONT lang=0 size=2 face=Arial><BR><BR>Pat Washington, PhD<BR>4537 Alamo Drive<BR>San Diego, CA 92115<BR>(619) 582-5383 </FONT></DIV></DIV></DIV></FONT></DIV></DIV><BR><BR clear=all><BR>-- <BR>The foundation for providing healthcare based on patient needs, for providing complete choice of provider, and saving costs by eliminating the insurance company profits, care denials and unnecessary overhead, is HR 676 – Medicare for All.<BR><BR>And we if we do not win real reform at the federal level, states need the tools to innovate to establish their own Medicare-type single-payer systems.<BR><BR>Please urge your congressmembers to support HR 676 when it is voted on in the House of Representatives, and urge their support for the Kucinich amendment to enable states to establish their own single-payer systems.<BR> <br /><hr />Hotmail: Free, trusted and rich email service. <a href='http://clk.atdmt.com/GBL/go/196390708/direct/01/' target='_new'>Get it now.</a></body>
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