Thursday, June 6, 2002

At Faculty's Request, California Auditor Will Review Cal State Computing Project By FLORENCE OLSEN California's state auditor has begun an extensive review of California State University's administrative-systems and data-center project, which is expected to cost the state more than $400-million by the time it is completed. Faculty-union leaders at Cal State, who fear that the project will drain money from instructional budgets, asked for the audit and were joined in their request by the California State Employees Association. The state's Joint Legislative Audit Committee approved the audit in April. Representatives of the California Faculty Association, the faculty union, fear that at a time of shrinking budgets, the project represents "misplaced priorities" and a "lack of accountability" on the part of university leaders. That concern, they say, justifies their asking state legislators to investigate the project, which is known as the Common Management System. The Cal State chancellor's office began work in 1998 to unify administrative-computing technologies across the university's 23 campuses. By 2006, all campuses are supposed to be using the new consolidated system, which employs administrative software from PeopleSoft Inc. The auditor's review of relevant laws and policies, in addition to procurement, management, and practices related to the project, will take months to complete and will cost about $185,000. State officials say the new audit has no connection to a recent audit of California's database contract with the Oracle Corporation. Charles B. Reed, chancellor of the California State University System, says that his office has already had an initial visit from auditors reviewing the PeopleSoft administrative-systems project. "We are within budget," he says, "and we are on schedule." He says the project is costing about $50-million a year, half of which is for the salaries of current employees who are working on various aspects of the project. The chancellor, whose speeches were picketed by Cal State faculty members during recent contract negotiations, says the faculty union wants the $400-million to be spent on faculty compensation. "So they have a disagreement," he says. According to Mr. Reed, Cal State's current information systems are "very poor." He says the systems are about to break down because they are old and not designed to handle records for the 400,000 students now on Cal State's campuses. The audit, among other things, will look into how much money Cal State has redirected from other priorities to pay for the new administrative systems. Faculty-union leaders say they suspect that Cal State is paying for new technology by cutting spending on faculty compensation, libraries, and student services, such as academic and psychological counseling. "We're struggling to have enough teachers, and we've got classes where there are not enough chairs for all the students who show up," says Alice Sunshine, a staff representative for the faculty union. One question the audit will try to answer is whether the current law, which lets Cal State manage its budget without oversight from the state's Departments of Finance and Information Technology, should be changed. Since the early '90s, Cal State -- along with the University of California -- has not been subject to the same spending reviews as the state's other public agencies. Depending on what the audit finds, faculty-union leaders says they are prepared to use public pressure to halt the multimillion-dollar project, at least until the state's current budget crisis is resolved. Many state officials are expecting budget cuts for the next several years. "If the administration tries to implement those cuts by further eroding the instructional budget, the student-services budget, and the libraries, at that point I think faculty would mobilize to demand that the Common Management System be put on hold," says Patricia Evridge Hill, an associate professor of history at San Jose State University who is the statewide secretary for the faculty union. "What we've seen over the past 10 years is a decline in the percentage of the [Cal State] budget devoted to instruction," Ms. Hill says. Instructional spending in the 2000-2001 academic year was only 43 percent of the total system budget. Spending on instruction has dropped from 55 percent of the total a decade ago, according to data published in the Cal State Statistical Abstract. Mr. Reed, the chancellor, says he expects that the auditors will make some recommendations but he remains optimistic about completing the Common Management System. The state's budget crisis could hold up some portions of the project, he acknowledges. "We might have to spread it out another year or so before we cross the finish line." Background articles from The Chronicle: A New Approach to PeopleSoft Installations Sets Limits on Time and Costs (11/2/2001 ) Cal State Hires Unisys to Run Its PeopleSoft Administrative Software (4/6/2001) Easy-to-print version E-mail this article

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