Protest against CSU trustee planned

By Megan Bakker
The Collegian

CSU Board of Trustee’s member Bill Hauck is facing accusations of failing the CSU system by the California Faculty Association, which plans to demonstrate outside his Sacramento office today at noon.

“They want to recognize what the CFA believes are failures,” said JP Moncayo, Executive Vice President for Associated Students.

“He’s not properly advocating for the CSUs” said Alice Sunshine, Communications Director for the California Faculty Association. “He has other interests he’s trying to represent,” Sunshine said.

Sunshine said the other interests include supporting pay hikes for executives, including car and housing allowances, while not raising funding for instructional needs. Hauck has also been an advocate for raising student fees.

“He was one of the people that is proposing fee increases over the next four years,” Moncayo said. The increase could be as much as 10 percent. Student fees have already risen 76 percent since 2002, Moncayo said.

“Trustees have to make tough decisions,” said Moncayo, adding this includes balancing state interests with schools’ needs. The governor of California appointed Hauck to the Board of Trustees in 1993, and his term is scheduled to end in 2009. The majority of CSU Board of Trustee members are appointed this way.

Hauck is both a former Vice Chair and former Chair for the Board.

“He has other interests he’s trying to represent,” Sunshine said, “such as cutting state spending.” The California Faculty Association has also described Hauck as a “lobbyist for big business” on their Web site.

Hauck is currently the President of the California Business Roundtable, and Chair of the Board of Directors for the Campaign for College Opportunity. As a member of the Board of Trustees, Hauck has influence over CSU rules, regulations, curricular development, and fiscal management.

“The trustees are not asking for more money, even though the CSU’s need more,” Sunshine said.

The association has also criticized Hauck for supporting the Prop 76 during the 2005 special election.

Sunshine said Prop 76, which did not pass, would have left “the CSU deeply vulnerable to even less funding than it gets now.”

“He has started recently stating he is for more funding,” Sunshine said, adding the change has only happened within the last week. For the demonstration, Sunshine said one of the main goals was to get Hauck to start working with the California Faculty Association.

“We want him to start acting like a trustee,” Sunshine said.

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