The California Educational Technology Initiative will be accepted by the California State University system, Chancellor Charles Reed said Tuesday.
The acceptance is contingent upon the agreement of CETI's corporate partners to give a proposed $300 million to the CSU system.
If CETI is implemented, the corporate conglomeration of GTE, Fujitsu, Boeing and Microsoft will provide CSU with the funding needed to revamp the technological infrastructures of all the campuses.
At a board of trustees meeting, Reed said he had met with the president and chairman of the board of Fujitsu, with senior officers at Microsoft and with the president of GTE to discuss negotiations between the conglomerates and the CSU system.
A team of staff from various CSU campuses discussed the pros and cons of the initiative for four weeks, Reed said.
"The team often worked twelve hours a day, six days a week to discuss with the companies the 100 written questions that students, faculty, senate and Associated Students Inc. had about the partnership," Reed said.
The companies answered each question in writing, which the team considered satisfactory, he said.
"Now the hard part is negotiating the financial arrangements and seeing if the corporate partners will accept the $300 million," Reed said.
After one week to 10 days of negotiations, the CSU team will consult with faculty, staff and students for 45 days of contract review before deciding whether or not to accept the CETI offer in early May.
"Without this or something similar, technological demands [in the CSU system] will not be met," Reed said.
If the initiative should follow through, negotiations will take place on a day-to-day basis thereafter to insure there will be no intrusion on academic freedom.
There is also a provision in the contract that the chancellor must approve any new business enterprises involving the CSU campuses, Reed said.