On Sept. 27 Chancellor Timothy White spoke to student media at a press conference hosted in Long Beach at the California State University headquarters. During the conference White touched upon key issues such as enrollment growth, funding and a goal toward smoke-free campuses.
White said a main concern has been an inability to meet the demand for students interested in enrolling at a CSU because of a lack of resources.
“It’s frustrating for me personally to know there are people who, through no fault of their own, can’t get in our campuses,” White said.
Despite inappropriate funding for enrollment growth, White was pleased to announce the CSU student body was able to increase by 6,000 students this year. White said with its low budget the CSU system won’t be able to expand the student body much further. Still, it’s continuing to make the case in Sacramento for increased student enrollment.
“I know we need more student enrollment and if I don’t stand up for you then who’s going to stand up for you?” White said. “So, I’m going to stand up and say, ‘This is the true need, Gov. Brown.’ I understand that the political process may not meet that true need … But if I present something less than the true need, then I’m not representing my students or my faculty or staff; I’m not doing my job.”
In the case that the CSU system doesn’t receive the funds necessary to increase student enrollment, White said the Board of Trustees would look into redirecting resources so they would not have to continue to turn away qualified students.
In addition, White said he is in favor of moving all CSU campuses toward becoming smoke-free environments.
“The evidence is overwhelming that smoking is no longer an individual sport,” White said. “The exhale is harmful to others and that’s the basis by which we can say a person’s personal right to make choices is overridden by a broader health concern.”
White said that although he doesn’t wish to marginalize smoking students and understands the difficulty of implementing a ban, he hopes that in doing so it can become an educational process on the health benefits of a smoke-free environment.
Photo Courtesy of Staff Photo
