CSU Student Code to get first update in 20 years; staff to get first raise in three

By Laban Pelz
The Collegian

The California State University Student Code of Conduct is set to get its first upgrade in 20 years, Chancellor Charles B. Reed said Thursday.

“It will address some new topics, like computer misuse and hazing,” Reed said in a conference call with reporters from six CSU campuses.

Reed said the Code will also continue to deal with things like dishonesty and destruction of property, and will increase its jurisdiction over students’ off-campus behavior.

Reed would not say if or how the Code of Conduct might conflict with other laws, and would offer no example of when the Code has been used successfully on any CSU campus where other legal avenues had failed.

The CSU system Thursday also finalized its raise for faculty and staff. The 3.5 percent general increase is for members of the bargaining unit, the California State University Employees Union, and will be retroactive to July 1, 2005, a release said.

“It’s what we were hoping for, but there’s still a lot of contract to bargain for,” said Fresno State geology professor Robert Merrill, who is the California Faculty Association’s chapter president for the school.

Merrill said the pay increase is only for this year, and faculty and staff must continue to bargain for a continuation of the raise. He also said other parts of the contract remain unsettled, like merit pay.

“In the UC system, professors get their work looked at by other professors from schools across the country,” Merrill said. “But in the CSU, the peer review is on-campus and internal.”

Merrill said this system has led to manipulation by the administration and he wants to see this issue addressed along with that of the salary.

Merrill said the CSU is slow to respond to grievances.

This will be the first raise in three years for CSU faculty and staff.

Reed Thursday also addressed the impact Hurricane Katrina has had on the CSU system, and how campuses and students have helped.

He said the system has so far taken in 400 students from the Gulf Coast, and will continue to enroll students in campuses that run on the quarter system, since semester schools are now too deep into their terms.

Reed said some campuses have offered free housing to Gulf Coast students, and the system has waived out-of-state fees.

With regards to Hurricane Rita and its potential effects on students in Texas, Reed said “I would imagine we would do the same.”

Reed also spoke of the impact the CSU system has on the state and how campuses can get students to graduate sooner.

Reed said CSU graduates make up half of all employees in the largest corporations in California, and 70 percent of all public workers in the state. He said campuses can get students through the system more quickly by encouraging them to select majors sooner, by improving the advising process and by preparing students more while they are still in high school and junior college.

He advocated what he called the “Perfect 60,” where a student would earn exactly 60 units while enrolled in a junior college, and earn the rest at a CSU campus.

Reed also touted the CSU’s new energy policy, which he said is the most far-reaching of all university systems.

He said the goal is for all campuses to cut energy consumption by 15 percent and to find ways to produce their own energy. One way to cut consumption, Reed said, is to build any new classrooms so sunlight can flood into them, making the use of lights less necessary.

Conservation group Greenpeace, which along with CSU students helped introduce the policy more than two years ago, called the new energy policy the strongest and most comprehensive policy on clean energy in the country.

“It’s a fantastic thing, after several years of work,” Greenpeace media officer Jane Kochersperger said. “It’s a model for moving things forward.”

Josh Lynch, who is with Greenpeace and said he was at the beginning of the drive for the policy, said it will go into effect only with an executive order by Chancellor Reed, but said campuses can begin following the standards now.

“It’s just an example of how a university in the midst of a budget crisis can take positive steps,” Lynch said.

Elizabeth Leffall contributed to this report.

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