Chancellor Goldsmith's Remarks - September 2, 2025 Board of Trustees Meeting

I acknowledge the concerns raised at our last board meeting regarding Canvas and I share them.

I am committed to addressing them collaboratively and asked Dr. Holt-McDonald to meet with many of you to better understand your experiences with the recent changes. Next week she will meet with the Academic Senate Presidents, Distance Education Coordinators, Instructional Designers, and key administrators to discuss this topic and related matters. I am confident that resolution will be achieved, and that our colleagues across the district will play a central role in shaping the solution.

Special thanks to Rebecca Snyder, James Davis and Dr. Buckley for working together to lead our efforts over the summer and this fall to review and recommend revisions to our decision-making handbook for the District. We all know that it is out of date, and we wanted to wait until accreditation was completed to undertake the revision process.  I want to thank everyone who has been involved in that work. I am hopeful that a better process will emerge from that collective work.

Governor Newsom signed the 2025 Budget Bill in June. This comes at a time of significant fiscal pressures for California, with an $11.8 billion General Fund deficit compounded by federal tariffs and immigration policies that are negatively impacting both state revenue and our local economy.

Despite these headwinds, this is a strong budget for community colleges that includes a 2.3% COLA and a substantial increase in enrollment growth funding…2.35% across two years. That is important and I want to thank this Board for joining me in advocacy efforts to increase the state funding for growth. For State Center, this translates into $14.7 million in ongoing growth funds and a reduction of $11.3 million in unfunded FTES. This is particularly critical as our enrollment continues to grow beyond our funded cap.

We see that this is an issue and we remain committed to solving it.

Equally important, we have set aside $16 million for Fiscal Safeguards to protect our students and employees from the uncertainty surrounding federal funding and federal policy shifts. This will ensure we can sustain critical programs and services, like CAMP, in the face of potential cuts.

I am also proud to report that our District has surpassed pre-pandemic FTES levels. Not every college in the state has done this.  In fact, only about a third of California Community Colleges have grown. Fresno City College, in particular, reached an extraordinary milestone of more than 20,000 FTES, officially earning the designation of a large college.

The good news is that all of our colleges will receive additional funding this year. Though, we are approaching position allocations differently.  In past years, the District determined and communicated the number of positions allocated to each college, whether new faculty, classified professionals, or management. This year, we are moving to a more decentralized approach. Each college will use its HR prioritization process to determine the number and type of positions needed.

What remains the same is the timeline: Chancellor’s Cabinet will review all new positions—faculty, classified professionals, and management…during November, as is our usual practice.

As you will hear later from Vice Chancellor El Fattal, during the Budget Presentation, we remain vigilant about economic and policy uncertainties, our District continues to demonstrate fiscal strength and stability.

The presented budget positions us to move forward with confidence, keeping our focus on access, equity, student success, and workforce readiness across all of our colleges.

I appreciate the leadership of the Board in your budget oversight role and to everyone internally who make daily financial decisions in the best interests of serving our students.