Identify Activity
That Will Require
Augmentation in FY 2001-02
The Division requests
funding for three academic support initiatives: Faculty
Recruitment, Academic
Personnel Support, and MESA.
MESA - $60,000
The Mathematics, Engineering,
and Science Achievement (MESA) Program is a university-based
effort to work with high schools with low rates of college
attendance, plus their feeder middle schools, to prepare
larger numbers of their students for admission into higher
education, especially in the sciences, mathematics, and
engineering. In 1999 the statewide MESA office, which is
part of the UC Office of the President, announced that it
was terminating funding for the CSULB program site, because
our campus program had failed to produce the verified results
required by state regulations. The campus was successful
in appealing this decision, but it was given only one probationary
year to remedy the situation. A change in the organizational
structure and leadership of our campus program was implemented
immediately, a new program plan was developed, and the new
staff set to work to implement that plan with energy and
enthusiasm. The statewide MESA office has recognized the
success of the reinvigorated campus program by not only
restoring its funding on a permanent basis, but by asking
our Principal Investigator (Linda Tiggs-Taylor) to become
a member of the Advisory Board for the statewide program.
At the time that it
appealed the termination decision, CSULB was asked, as an
earnest of its commitment to the program, to increase its
campus match by $60,000 annually in operating expense money,
which President Maxson agreed to do. The Office of Academic
Affairs allocated this money from overenrollment funds the
first year and from its own operating budget this year.
Since it is now clear that the campus will retain its MESA
funding from the state, this is a permanent commitment,
and we are asking that the $60,000 be allocated on a permanent
basis.
