Responding (respectfully) to part of Aggie 69’s post last week (“That Luke wood has so bamboozled …the students is just beyond belief”). Actually, the students (and faculty and staff) are extremely concerned and upset about Luke Wood’s FBS push. On-campus polls, surveys forums and protests all reflect nothing against Football, repeated pleas to fund the essentials first (offering basic courses, fixing crumbling infrastructure, hiring/retaining qualified faculty) and almost universal disdain for Wood’s agenda and methods.

The fact that all the controversy has failed to result in any journalistic judgement or CSU intervention is indeed puzzling. Some of it may be uncertainty about the finances. Despite incredible Football and Basketball expenditures (in a Chronicle interview last summer Brennan Marion marveled at how much Wood and Orr were willing to spend: “I kept asking and they kept saying yes”), there’s been no audit or detailed accounting. Where is the money coming from? In the March NY Times article about the MAC move, Sac State CFO Rose McAuliffe said the University has been preparing; “We’ve been saving for the last couple of years.” She did not detail the source for these savings. Tough to ask her; she no longer works at Sac State, having joined CSUS admin exodus (the Provost just left as well ... https://www.reddit.com/r/CSUS/comments/1tu6x2y/cameron_out_as_provostwhat_happened/).

On campus (and also at the Bee), hopes that CSU Chancellor Mildred Garcia would step in have fizzled. As Wood moved forward, Garcia response was to approve raises for CSU Presidents. Assembly Bill 1831, if passed, will roll back these raises.

But it is certain that the students (and faculty and staff) feel betrayed, even those of us (like myself) who love college sports. Wood raised Fees, in part to support a new stadium, over strong objections from the students. He chose the Alternative Consultation Process, which required meetings with the students to discuss possible fee increases. Wood appeared only briefly at those meetings. He made introductory remarks and then left before the students could voice their objections to him, objections he has never acknowledged ("that’s not what I heard"). Once Wood raised the fees, he then - to garner support and tamp down journalists’ questions- told the public that the students “voted” for the fee increases.

Furthermore when the students pleaded with Wood to roll back his fee increases so that more of their money could go to campus basics like academics, Wood claimed he could not do so, trotting out his highly deceptive “separate funding streams” talking point, as in “academics and athletics are funded from different pots, and money cannot be moved from one pot to another”. That’s rubbish. Clear CSU Policy gives Wood full power to reduce Category II fees. The students could then use that money to support an Academic Access Fee (common at other CSUs). So money Wood is planning to take from student pockets to fund help his stadium and athletics push very easily could go where the students and campus want and need it to go. Wood’s other response to students’ pleas has been to suggest that the students impose additional fee increases on themselves to pay for courses and other basics.

Another problem is the CSUS Administration (including College Deans, the Finance Office etc). No one seems willing to speak out or, in a few cases, even talk about the problems. A Bee reporter told me his interviewees did acknowledge how bad things are but then pulled back at the last minute and become unwilling to go on the record.

The new ASI officers give us some hope; the top criteria expressed by voting students was that a willingness to stand up to Wood. The new Provost gives us some hope. The departing Provost (a Wood hire) was highly unqualified; her previous experience was at a college with 19 Undergraduates (seriously!). Her replacement is a long-term CSUS Faculty member. Just as I loved Moroski to Ellison, I love Sac State and want to see positive change.