Latest news with #MildredGarcía
Yahoo
10-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
California State University on Central Coast scores high in national college survey
A university on California's Central Coast received top marks in a national review of the best colleges in America. Cal State University Monterey Bay (CSUMB) scored 4.5 stars on Money's 2025 Best Colleges in America. In fact, every California State University campus was rated four stars or higher—15 of the universities placed in the top 10% nationwide, and nine earned 5-star ratings. California State University is the nation's largest four-year public university system; its 22 universities serve more than 460,000 students from all socioeconomic backgrounds. 'The tremendous scale at which we are graduating and serving students across the CSU is truly impactful, and indeed unmatched among four-year higher education systems," said CSU Chancellor Mildred García in a press release. Related: These 18 California colleges got five stars in Money's 2025 Best Colleges Report At less than $7,000 per year, CSU's undergraduate tuition is among the lowest in the country, according to CSU officials. More than 80% of students receive some form of financial aid and more than half graduate with no student loan debt. Money rated the country's top 732 colleges using 25 factors in three categories: quality of education, including graduation rates, affordability, which takes into account net price of a degree and student debt, and outcomes such as graduate earnings and economic mobility for low and moderate-income students. Located just a mile from the beach at the former Fort Ord army base, CSUMB was lauded by Money for its "oceanfront views" and gave it high marks for being both accessible and affordable. 'About 80% of first-year students receive scholarships or grants, and a Monterey Bay degree sets them up for success, with the university earning a high score on Third Way's Economic Mobility Index,' the survey reads. Sign up for our alerts to receive the latest updates on important news. 'We are proud to receive 4.5 stars from Money magazine in its survey,' CSUMB President Vanya Quiñones said in a press release. 'This recognition reflects our commitment to providing affordable, accessible education and promoting both social and upward mobility for students from all backgrounds. At Cal State Monterey Bay, students find their place, realize their potential and prepare to make a lasting impact in their communities.' In June, CSUMB was one of only 12 schools to receive a five-star rating in Money's list of Best Education Master's Programs for Your Money. Last year, in its college annual rankings, U.S. News and World Report named CSUMB No. 1 for social mobility among Western regional universities. The California State University on July 9, announced the winners of its first-ever Artificial Intelligence Educational Innovations Challenge. Sixty-three faculty-led projects were selected for their potential to enable transformative teaching methods, foster groundbreaking research and address key concerns about AI adoption within the academic environment, CSU officials stated. CSU faculty submitted more than 400 proposals representing over 750 faculty members systemwide. Each campus will have at least two projects. The Chancellor's Office will award a total of $3 million to fund the winning proposals At CSUMB, ethical AI instruction will be embedded across seven core courses in its secondary teacher education program, which will empower future middle school and high school teachers to foster critical thinking and digital responsibility in their students, college officials said. A full list of projects can be found here. Note to readers: If you appreciate the work we do here at The Californian, please consider subscribing yourself or giving the gift of a subscription to someone you know. This article originally appeared on Salinas Californian: Best colleges in America: Cal State Monterey Bay ranks high on 2025 list
Yahoo
04-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
CSU unveils massive venture to provide free AI skills and training across all 23 campuses
California State University on Tuesday unveiled what is believed to be among the largest and most ambitious efforts in higher education to champion artificial intelligence with an initiative to provide tools and training in the groundbreaking technology across the system's 23 campuses. With generative AI's ability to create new content learned from training data, CSU is working to ensure students in the nation's largest and most diverse public university system have equitable access to the technology. Nearly half of CSU's 450,000 students are low-income and about 30% are the first in their families to attend college. The university has enlisted Gov. Gavin Newsom's office and nearly a dozen leading tech companies — including Microsoft, Meta, Nvidia, OpenAI, Intel, LinkedIn, Amazon Web Services and Alphabet — to join academics on an advisory board to help identify AI skills needed in the California workforce and provide advice on how best to teach them. Industry partners will also provide internships and apprenticeships to give students real-world experience with AI on the job. 'We are proud to announce this innovative, highly collaborative public-private initiative that will position the CSU as a global leader among higher education systems in the impactful, responsible and equitable adoption of artificial intelligence,' CSU Chancellor Mildred García said in a statement. 'The comprehensive strategy will elevate our students' educational experience across all fields of study, empower our faculty's teaching and research, and help provide the highly educated workforce that will drive California's future AI-driven economy.' Read more: Cal State University system shifts focus to careers, not just degrees Ed Clark, CSU's chief information office, said the effort started last year, after tech leaders told Newsom's office they could not find enough Californians or Americans overall equipped with the AI skills demanded by companies. Although 30 of the world's top 50 AI firms are based in California, they were hiring internationally for more than half of the related workforce, Clark said. CSU leaders said they were also growing concerned by a new "digital divide" among its campuses, with some racing forward to offer AI tools and training to students and others without the resources to do so. "We cannot afford to leave some of our institutions behind during this time of dramatic change," Nathan Evans, deputy vice chancellor for academic and student affairs, told the Board of Trustees during a briefing on the initiative last week. Cal State Channel Islands, one of the system's smaller campuses with about 5,000 students, could not afford the $500,000 annual price tag for campuswide access to AI tools, said Jill Leafstedt, dean for extended university and digital learning. Some faculty were using it to enrich their teaching, including an environmental sciences professor who developed a bot named Marlowe that uses humor and a pirate's voice to help students learn to write scientifically. But others "barely dabbled" in the technology, she said. The new CSU initiative will even the playing field for all, she said. "The smaller campuses don't have the buying power and resources for this, so this is really a matter of equity and getting this in the hands of all students regardless of the campus they go to," she said. CSU has developed a systemwide "AI Commons Hub" that provides free access to such tools as ChatGPT 4.0, a chatbot that can answer questions, assist with writing, help brainstorm, provide coding help and perform other tasks using human-like conversations. The university licensed the technology from OpenAI for all CSU students, faculty and staff. Trainings include lessons on how to construct an effective prompt and ethical use of the technology. Other resources are offered by partners, including Microsoft's Copilot, which can help summarize information and automate tasks such as writing emails, creating presentations and analyzing spreadsheets in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and other company products. Read more: No college degree? No worries. Newsom unveils plan for well-paying jobs without one The hub will provide professional development for faculty, including training on how to create lesson plans that both encourage the use of the technology in safe and responsible ways and "AI-proof" assignments so students don't simply turn to ChatGPT do all of the work. Some faculty have reported widespread cheating that they tie to AI. Others are concerned about bias — one study found, for instance, that when AI screened job applications, it disproportionately rejected women because the dataset used to train it included more men as successful employees. But in a resolution last year, the Academic Senate commended Garcia's office for providing funding and professional development to explore AI skills for teaching and learning and encouraged more of it. "AI can be used for good and bad," Clark said, adding that the advisory board will help address faculty and community concerns about bias, academic integrity, intellectual property and privacy. Clark said he encourages students to use AI in his courses at Cal State Fullerton but requires that they note how they used it in their assignments. "They can't take responsibility for something that was generated by an AI," he said. "We're not going to tolerate academic dishonesty." But AI can help students learn, spark creativity and gain confidence, educators say. In his information systems course at Fullerton, Clark said, many students who used AI to create a business plan for a coffee shop produced stellar projects — all of them different, demonstrating independent thinking. AI might have spurred ideas on creative designs, for instance, or "talked" through flaws of the proposed plan, but the oral presentations required students to demonstrate their mastery of concepts learned in class, Clark said. "It's a very interactive tool that serves, in many ways, as a tutor along with the class materials," he said. He said resistance toward AI today is similar to bans against using calculators during exams years ago because educators believed students should know how to do the math manually. Today, calculators are allowed even during SAT math tests — and AI skills should be widely embraced in part because employers are demanding them, CSU officials say. According to LinkedIn, a platform that provides employment forecasts, along with professional networking and career development, hiring for AI jobs has grown 30% faster than overall hiring in the last year and 300% over the last eight years. CSU, which graduates 125,000 students each year, with alumni accounting for 10% of the California workforce, is determined to prepare them for the new job opportunities. "Right now, AI is transforming every field, from academia to the workforce," Clark said. "We need to ensure that our students graduate with the knowledge of how to use these tools." Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
04-02-2025
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
CSU unveils massive venture to provide free AI skills and training across all 23 campuses
California State University on Tuesday unveiled what is believed to be among the largest and most ambitious efforts in higher education to champion artificial intelligence with an initiative to provide tools and training in the groundbreaking technology across the system's 23 campuses. With generative AI's ability to create new content learned from training data, CSU is working to ensure students in the nation's largest and most diverse public university system have equitable access to the technology. Nearly half of CSU's 450,000 students are low-income and about 30% are the first in their families to attend college. The university has enlisted Gov. Gavin Newsom's office and nearly a dozen leading tech companies — including Microsoft, Meta, Nvidia, OpenAI, Intel, LinkedIn, Amazon Web Services and Alphabet — to join academics on an advisory board to help identify AI skills needed in the California workforce and provide advice on how best to teach them. Industry partners will also provide internships and apprenticeships to give students real-world experience with AI on the job. 'We are proud to announce this innovative, highly collaborative public-private initiative that will position the CSU as a global leader among higher education systems in the impactful, responsible and equitable adoption of artificial intelligence,' CSU Chancellor Mildred García said in a statement. 'The comprehensive strategy will elevate our students' educational experience across all fields of study, empower our faculty's teaching and research, and help provide the highly educated workforce that will drive California's future AI-driven economy.' Ed Clark, CSU's chief information office, said the effort started last year, after tech leaders told Newsom's office they could not find enough Californians or Americans overall equipped with the AI skills demanded by companies. Although 30 of the world's top 50 AI firms are based in California, they were hiring internationally for more than half of the related workforce, Clark said. CSU leaders said they were also growing concerned by a new 'digital divide' among its campuses, with some racing forward to offer AI tools and training to students and others without the resources to do so. 'We cannot afford to leave some of our institutions behind during this time of dramatic change,' Nathan Evans, deputy vice chancellor for academic and student affairs, told the Board of Trustees during a briefing on the initiative last week. Cal State Channel Islands, one of the system's smaller campuses with about 5,000 students, could not afford the $500,000 annual price tag for campuswide access to AI tools, said Jill Leafstedt, dean for extended university and digital learning. Some faculty were using it to enrich their teaching, including an environmental sciences professor who developed a bot named Marlowe that uses humor and a pirate's voice to help students learn to write scientifically. But others 'barely dabbled' in the technology, she said. The new CSU initiative will even the playing field for all, she said. 'The smaller campuses don't have the buying power and resources for this, so this is really a matter of equity and getting this in the hands of all students regardless of the campus they go to,' she said. CSU has developed a systemwide 'AI Commons Hub' that provides free access to such tools as ChatGPT 4.0, a chatbot that can answer questions, assist with writing, help brainstorm, provide coding help and perform other tasks using human-like conversations. The university licensed the technology from OpenAI for all CSU students, faculty and staff. Trainings include lessons on how to construct an effective prompt and ethical use of the technology. Other resources are offered by partners, including Microsoft's Copilot, which can help summarize information and automate tasks such as writing emails, creating presentations and analyzing spreadsheets in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and other company products. The hub will provide professional development for faculty, including training on how to create lesson plans that both encourage the use of the technology in safe and responsible ways and 'AI-proof' assignments so students don't simply turn to ChatGPT do all of the work. Some faculty have reported widespread cheating that they tie to AI. Others are concerned about bias — one study found, for instance, that when AI screened job applications, it disproportionately rejected women because the dataset used to train it included more men as successful employees. But in a resolution last year, the Academic Senate commended Garcia's office for providing funding and professional development to explore AI skills for teaching and learning and encouraged more of it. 'AI can be used for good and bad,' Clark said, adding that the advisory board will help address faculty and community concerns about bias, academic integrity, intellectual property and privacy. Clark said he encourages students to use AI in his courses at Cal State Fullerton but requires that they note how they used it in their assignments. 'They can't take responsibility for something that was generated by an AI,' he said. 'We're not going to tolerate academic dishonesty.' But AI can help students learn, spark creativity and gain confidence, educators say. In his information systems course at Fullerton, Clark said, many students who used AI to create a business plan for a coffee shop produced stellar projects — all of them different, demonstrating independent thinking. AI might have spurred ideas on creative designs, for instance, or 'talked' through flaws of the proposed plan but the oral presentations required students to demonstrate their mastery of concepts learned in class, Clark said. 'It's a very interactive tool that serves, in many ways as a tutor along with the class materials,' he said. He said resistance toward AI today is similar to bans against using calculators during exams years ago because educators believed students should know how to do the math manually. Today, calculators are allowed even during SAT math tests — and AI skills should be widely embraced in part because employers are demanding them, CSU officials say. According to LinkedIn, a platform that provides employment forecasts, along with professional networking and career development, hiring for AI jobs has grown 30% faster than overall hiring in the last year and 300% over the last eight years. CSU, which graduates 125,000 students each year, with alumni accounting for 10% of the California workforce, is determined to prepare them for the new job opportunities. 'Right now, AI is transforming every field, from academia to the workforce,' Clark said. 'We need to ensure that our students graduate with the knowledge of how to use these tools.'
Yahoo
30-01-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
CSU, reeling from budget cuts to classes and faculty, decry more proposed state reductions
Leaders of California State University voiced alarm Wednesday that proposed state funding cuts would be "catastrophic" and cripple the nation's largest four-year public higher education system's ability to serve as a powerful engine of progress for low-income and underserved students. Under Gov. Gavin Newsom's proposed 2025-26 budget, CSU faces a $375 million funding cut — a 7.95% reduction, the equivalent of 20% of its entire full-time faculty — university officials told the Board of Trustees. The shortfall would leave no new funds for student support, mental health, basic needs, employee pay, infrastructure and other needs, they said. "Cuts have consequences, and with a proposed cut of this magnitude those consequences will be stark, painful, heartbreaking," CSU Chancellor Mildred García told the board. The CSU's 23 campuses enroll more than 450,00 students — and graduate 125,000 each year, with alumni accounting for 10% of the California workforce. Nine of 10 CSU students are Californians who generally mirror the state's demographic makeup, with nearly half Latino, 20% white, 15.7% Asian and 4% Black students. About 46% are low-income and nearly 30% are the first in their families to attend college, leading to several rankings as national leaders in helping students move up the social and economic ladder. But the proposed cuts could jeopardize that mission, García and others said during a finance committee meeting in Long Beach. "You can't have us be the economic engine of the state and destroy the system at the same time with these budget cuts," Trustee Jack McGrory said. Read more: CSU to shift the endgame for student success: A good job and a four-year degree H.D. Palmer, state Department of Finance spokesman, said in an email to The Times that the 7.95% proposed reduction is being applied to all state agencies, not only the public university systems. "Neither CSU nor UC are being singled out, and are being treated consistently with the rest of the state and with a half-year of advance notice (the current budget was signed last June 29th)," he said in the email. "Further, there's significant discretion in how these reductions are applied across the system, and can take into account the financial condition and/or student enrollment of a campus when determining how to schedule this reduction." The proposed cuts would exacerbate reductions that some campuses have already made in the last few years. Systemwide, 73 degree programs were suspended and 63 degree programs were discontinued by the trustees last year; course sections were reduced. Among 23 campuses, 17 cut positions while six increased them, for a net loss of 823 jobs between 2023 and 2024. Eight campuses with ongoing, declining enrollment trends — including San Francisco, Sonoma and Humboldt — accounted for nearly half the cuts. Even campuses with growing enrollment are facing budget deficits. Cal State Long Beach is projecting a $15-million budget deficit because additional tuition revenue from more students won't fully cover the state's proposed cut and higher mandatory costs for health care, insurance and utilities. The campus is not anticipating layoffs but implemented a hiring freeze last fall and has asked division leaders for specific plans on how to mitigate the deficit, President Jane Close Conoley told faculty and staff in a memo this month. Cal State L.A. is struggling with a $32.4 million deficit this year brought on by state cuts, unfunded employee pay increases and inflation — and the proposed cut for 2025-26 could widen that gap by another $19.7 million, President Berenecea Johnson Eanes told the campus community in a memo last fall. "Combined, these are more than 20% of our budget. A 20% budget cut is not survivable without significant changes and a lot of tough decisions," she wrote. So far, Cal State L.A. has not eliminated any degree programs, but course offerings have been reduced. In the political science department, for instance, upper-division electives have been reduced from 22 in spring 2022 to 13 in spring 2025; sections for the required Introduction to American Government class are down from 14 to nine during that same period. The use of lecturers has declined by as much as 70%. Three lecturers lost all classes and four others were reduced to part-time work this year. The result, faculty say, is that students are having a harder time getting needed classes, taking a lower course load and delaying their graduation. Cuts are more dire at other campuses. Sonoma State University announced last week it would eliminate its entire athletic program — disbanding 11 teams with as many as 235 student athletes. The campus will also axe 23 degree programs, including physics, economics, philosophy, geology, theater, dance, modern languages and women and gender studies. Among 302 students enrolled in those programs, 132 with more than 60 units will need to finish their programs with online classes elsewhere or transfer to other institutions, President Emily F. Cutrer told trustees Wednesday. The university's actions drew a flood of protest from students, faculty, coaches and alumni who spoke out in public comments at the meeting Tuesday. Many criticized Cutrer for announcing the cuts in an email, without adequate consultation with the community. Cutrer said her leadership team is trying to support those who are "grieving" but see the changes as a necessary "reset" for Sonoma State, whose enrollment has plunged from a peak of 9,100 students in 2015 to 5,800 today. The decrease, she said, was triggered by such factors as the pandemic, the 2017 wildfires in Sonoma and Napa and the declining numbers of the traditional college-age population known in higher education as the "demographic cliff." "We strongly believe that the changes we are making are needed," Cutrer said, adding that they would bring greater fiscal stability and meet the changing demand of students for particular careers. Read more: UC, CSU and community colleges set to get big funding boost — with big expectations Some trustees also criticized the state for deferring $252 million in funding for enrollment increases and other goals set out in a five-year compact among Newsom, CSU and the University of California. The compact guaranteed an annual 5% increase in base funding in exchange for progress in increasing graduation rates, eliminating achievement gaps and enrolling more California residents. The state is expecting the university systems to continue progress on those goals even though it is deferring the funding for it. Palmer reiterated that the state is not eliminating the funding but is proposing to defer it. But some CSU officials expressed concern that continued projected state budget deficits, along with enormous costs to address the Palisades and Eaton fires, could potentially jeopardize the funding. Palmer also confirmed that "consistent with the compact agreements, we expect that the state's university systems will continue to prioritize enrollment growth and equitable outcomes for students." He said he could not make any "definitive statement" on what budget changes, if any, may be made in the governor's revised budget proposal to be released in May. For now, CSU leaders said they plan a full-scale advocacy campaign to ramp up public pressure against the cuts. "It's a political campaign, and we've got to be aggressive acting like it is, said Trustee Douglas Faigin, who has served on the board for 12 years. "This is the biggest crisis that I've experienced since I've been on the board." Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
30-01-2025
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
CSU, reeling from budget cuts to classes and faculty, decry more proposed state reductions
Leaders of California State University voiced alarm Wednesday that proposed state funding cuts would be 'catastrophic' and cripple the nation's largest four-year public higher education system's ability to serve as a powerful engine of progress for low-income and underserved students. Under Gov. Gavin Newsom's proposed 2025-26 budget, CSU faces a $375 million funding cut — a 7.95% reduction, the equivalent of 20% of its entire full-time faculty — university officials told the Board of Trustees. The shortfall would leave no new funds for student support, mental health, basic needs, employee pay, infrastructure and other needs, they said. 'Cuts have consequences, and with a proposed cut of this magnitude those consequences will be stark, painful, heartbreaking,' CSU Chancellor Mildred García told the board. The CSU's 23 campuses enroll more than 450,00 students — and graduate 125,000 each year, with alumni accounting for 10% of the California workforce. Nine of 10 CSU students are Californians who generally mirror the state's demographic makeup, with nearly half Latino, 20% white, 15.7% Asian and 4% Black students. About 46% are low-income and nearly 30% are the first in their families to attend college, leading to several rankings as national leaders in helping students move up the social and economic ladder. But the proposed cuts could jeopardize that mission, García and others said during a finance committee meeting in Long Beach. 'You can't have us be the economic engine of the state and destroy the system at the same time with these budget cuts,' Trustee Jack McGrory said. H.D. Palmer, state Department of Finance spokesman, said in an email to The Times that the 7.95% proposed reduction is being applied to all state agencies, not only the public university systems. 'Neither CSU nor UC are being singled out, and are being treated consistently with the rest of the state and with a half-year of advance notice (the current budget was signed last June 29th),' he said in the email. 'Further, there's significant discretion in how these reductions are applied across the system, and can take into account the financial condition and/or student enrollment of a campus when determining how to schedule this reduction.' The proposed cuts would exacerbate reductions that some campuses have already made in the last few years. Systemwide, 73 degree programs were suspended and 63 degree programs were discontinued by the trustees last year; course sections were reduced. Among 23 campuses, 17 cut positions while six increased them, for a net loss of 823 jobs between 2023 and 2024. Eight campuses with ongoing, declining enrollment trends — including San Francisco, Sonoma and Humboldt — accounted for nearly half the cuts. Even campuses with growing enrollment are facing budget deficits. Cal State Long Beach is projecting a $15-million budget deficit because additional tuition revenue from more students won't fully cover the state's proposed cut and higher mandatory costs for health care, insurance and utilities. The campus is not anticipating layoffs but implemented a hiring freeze last fall and has asked division leaders for specific plans on how to mitigate the deficit, President Jane Close Conoley told faculty and staff in a memo this month. Cal State L.A. is struggling with a $32.4 million deficit this year brought on by state cuts, unfunded employee pay increases and inflation — and the proposed cut for 2025-26 could widen that gap by another $19.7 million, President Berenecea Johnson Eanes told the campus community in a memo last fall. 'Combined, these are more than 20% of our budget. A 20% budget cut is not survivable without significant changes and a lot of tough decisions,' she wrote. So far, Cal State L.A. has not eliminated any degree programs, but course offerings have been reduced. In the political science department, for instance, upper-division electives have been reduced from 22 in spring 2022 to 13 in spring 2025; sections for the required Introduction to American Government class are down from 14 to nine during that same period. The use of lecturers has declined by as much as 70%. Three lecturers lost all classes and four others were reduced to part-time work this year. The result, faculty say, is that students are having a harder time getting needed classes, taking a lower course load and delaying their graduation. Cuts are more dire at other campuses. Sonoma State University announced last week it would eliminate its entire athletic program — disbanding 11 teams with as many as 235 student athletes. The campus will also axe 23 degree programs, including physics, economics, philosophy, geology, theater, dance, modern languages and women and gender studies. Among 302 students enrolled in those programs, 132 with more than 60 units will need to finish their programs with online classes elsewhere or transfer to other institutions, President Emily F. Cutrer told trustees Wednesday. The university's actions drew a flood of protest from students, faculty, coaches and alumni who spoke out in public comments at the meeting Tuesday. Many criticized Cutrer for announcing the cuts in an email, without adequate consultation with the community. Cutrer said her leadership team is trying to support those who are 'grieving' but see the changes as a necessary 'reset' for Sonoma State, whose enrollment has plunged from a peak of 9,100 students in 2015 to 5,800 today. The decrease, she said, was triggered by such factors as the pandemic, the 2017 wildfires in Sonoma and Napa and the declining numbers of the traditional college-age population known in higher education as the 'demographic cliff.' 'We strongly believe that the changes we are making are needed,' Cutrer said, adding that they would bring greater fiscal stability and meet the changing demand of students for particular careers. Some trustees also criticized the state for deferring $252 million in funding for enrollment increases and other goals set out in a five-year compact among Newsom, CSU and the University of California. The compact guaranteed an annual 5% increase in base funding in exchange for progress in increasing graduation rates, eliminating achievement gaps and enrolling more California residents. The state is expecting the university systems to continue progress on those goals even though it is deferring the funding for it. Palmer reiterated that the state is not eliminating the funding but is proposing to defer it. But some CSU officials expressed concern that continued projected state budget deficits, along with enormous costs to address the Palisades and Eaton fires, could potentially jeopardize the funding. Palmer also confirmed that 'consistent with the compact agreements, we expect that the state's university systems will continue to prioritize enrollment growth and equitable outcomes for students.' He said he could not make any 'definitive statement' on what budget changes, if any, may be made in the governor's revised budget proposal to be released in May. For now, CSU leaders said they plan a full-scale advocacy campaign to ramp up public pressure against the cuts. 'It's a political campaign, and we've got to be aggressive acting like it is, said Trustee Douglas Faigin, who has served on the board for 12 years. 'This is the biggest crisis that I've experienced since I've been on the board.'
