The SDSU of the Future
Ann M. Johns
[This opinion
piece appear in the San Diego Union-Tribune, March 24, 2004]
What should the educational and service roles of San Diego State University
be? How should SDSU, the most comprehensive California State University
(CSU) in the region, balance teaching and research, graduate and undergraduate
programs, and its regional, state, and international interests?
The answers to these questions were clear when our family arrived in
San Diego nearly forty years ago: SDSU was a teaching institution devoted
principally to serving local undergraduates. Students with baccalaureate
degrees generally remained in the region, so our local businesses, educational
institutions, and political offices are now filled with more than 100,000
SDSU alumni. The campus also offered a few region-appropriate graduate
programs in the 1960s, including those credentialing public school teachers.
In the past twenty years or so––and with accelerating speed
in the last ten—the university has shifted its priorities dramatically.
The campus administration has encouraged departments to propose doctoral
programs, with plans to have more than twenty-five in place during the
coming years. New tenure-track faculty are hired principally for their
research potential; their tenure depends, in large part, upon their
abilities to bring prestige to the campus through grants, publications,
and even private donations. Because major efforts are underway to enhance
graduate education, undergraduates are finding themselves in much larger
classrooms, with many General Education courses enrolling 100, 200,
and even 500 students. In recent years, up to 40% of the General Education
classes have been taught by non-tenured faculty or teaching assistants,
since permanent faculty must devote time to their laboratories, advanced
students, or their professional growth.
To achieve its goal of “world-class status,” the university
is determined to shed its regional standing and recruit more students
from other parts of the state, the nation, and the world. (University
President Stephen Weber uses the term “import” rather than
recruit, according to Neil Morgan, San Diego Union-Tribune, March 3,
2004.) Since the campus is turning away more than 10,000 applicants
each year, local students must be discouraged from attending. So because
it is a CSU mandate that qualified local students be given priority,
the campus has established a Dual Admissions Program: those who are
CSU qualified but do not achieve sufficiently high scores on English
or math placement examinations are accepted, but they must attend the
already overburdened community colleges until they have met the designated
competencies. Of the 860 students who were designated as Dual Admits
in fall 2002, 303 attended community college classes, and 180 were fully
enrolled on the SDSU campus in fall 2003, a 21% success rate. Though
the campus continues to be involved in regional educational efforts
such as the City Heights Project and Compact for Success (with the Sweetwater
Union High School District), a large number of students applying from
high schools in these areas are designated Dual Admits or rejected outright.
But it must be more than Dual Admission that is discouraging students
in the region from attending. In fall 1999, 43.9% of the freshman class
came from San Diego or Imperial Counties; by fall 2002, this percentage
had declined to 35.8%.
Its other world-class goal, to become a top research institution, will
also divert the campus from its original mission; and even if this goal
were a worthy one, it is unlikely to be realized. Because the campus
is part of the CSU system, SDSU is required to have a higher student-faculty
ratio than the University of California (UC) campuses, and its doctoral
degrees can only be offered in conjunction with doctoral granting institutions.
Particularly in these times of severe budget cuts, many campus departments
cannot afford to give faculty the kinds of travel, released time, or
grant monies required to pursue extensive research.
Are these efforts to import large numbers of students and “increase
intellectual capital” in the region appropriate for SDSU? Are the
benefits accrued worth a decline in local student enrollment and diversion
of funds from undergraduate education? At a time when business leaders
in the region are complaining that SDSU graduates have trouble communicating,
are larger undergraduate classes that result in fewer writing assignments
and speaking opportunities acceptable to the community?
In a recent Academe article, Philip G. Altbach noted that efforts to
achieve world- class status by universities that are not well-endowed
or research-designated can “divert energy and resources from more
important—and more realistic—goals.” Could this diversion
of efforts be the reason why SDSU is still found in the fourth tier
of the annual U. S. News and World Report campus poll, well below a
number of its sister CSU campuses?
At this point, it would be inappropriate for the campus to return to
policies of the 1960s. However, there may be a middle way: rather than
attempting to attain UC-like, world-class status, SDSU could refashion
itself as an outstanding regional campus. It could be more selective
about its doctoral programs, advancing only those that are region-appropriate.
At the same time, it could enhance recruitment of CSU-qualified local
students, providing additional access and support to young people already
in the region, a number of whom, for family or financial reasons, cannot
leave to attend another CSU. Those students could bring a richness not
measured by test scores to the campus—and to the community after
graduation.
Ann M. Johns is Professor Emerita of Linguistics and Writing Studies
at San Diego State University. During her more than 30 years on campus,
she founded and directed the American Language Institute and the Center
for Teaching and Learning and co-founded the Freshman Success Program,
in addition to conducting research and teaching at several academic
levels. In 1987, and again in 1999, she was awarded a “Monty”
from the SDSU Alumni and Associates for outstanding contributions to
the university.