The end result of institutional corruption of State Capitalism? Socialism for rich people.

The CSU was hijacked by corrupt leaders many years ago, and they quickly adopted the sleazy mode of the corporate world, AS THEIR MASTERS WISHED.

This individual appears to have been in charge of Affirmative Action (race preferences/quotas) in the CSU system in the 70s? If you research the origins of fascism, you will see that all Fascist leaders start off on the Left.

A simple test of organizational integrity fails when applied to the CSU system: what are the internal and external structures and processes that ensure accountability? There is an internal culture that is hostile to deep, profound self-examination as to the manner in which the public is served by the CSU system. Little attention is paid to research on the pertinent topics related to accountability. Few traditions exist that would reinforce a culture of integrity and accountability. For instance, former CSUS President Donald Gerth, a historian, wrote a scholarly history of the CSU System a few years ago that revealed a few tidbits about origins of the prevailing sleaze, and it has been almost completely ignored. There is no Center for Ethical Integrity Research in the CSU, and if there was, it would have been hijacked and run sycophants.

M. Scott Peck wrote a book titled “People of the Lie” that explains how psychopaths/liars rise to power. Many other books/articles have been written explaining why evil forms of organizational culture flourish, and how corruption keeps scams going.

Students, Faculty and Employees are being victimized and exploited by executives at the CSU Chancellor’s Office and by members of the Board of Trustees. “Whistleblower” laws are largely meaningless, most employees that complain about malfeasance are attacked, sometimes viciously, by corrupt HR departments and power-crazed managers (who thereby demonstrate their willingness to conform to the corrupt status quo). Union representation is usually ineffective because the union leaders have hijacked the unions for political reasons, and they refuse to tell their members how the unions run their own part of the corrupt scam (fearing deep reforms and populist backlash).

The word “Trust” in “Trustee” is utterly absent in reality (with a few exceptions), the Board should be renamed “Board of Liars and Psychopaths Whose Existence Is Driven By Greed and Ego Gratification”. (shortened to “BOLAPWEIDBGAEG”)

I can recall many articles about corrupt CSU Trustees over the years who have abused power, both D’s and R’s (both “progressives” and conservatives), specifically the leadership tier.

Also, there was another “PR” scandal from the CSU Chancellor’s Office several years ago. This was during a newspaper investigation of lavish travel perks for an IT executive at the CSU (who was being sent to international Peoplesoft/Oracle conferences and put up in $300/day fancy hotels). One of the “PR hacks” at the Chancellor’s Office “accidentally” sent a rude and inappropriate email to a reporter at a local newspaper (in Orange county?). A suitably meaningless “apology” was later issued once the matter was made public. The message basically said that reporters had no business asking for access to public information under the laws of California! The arrogance and creepiness of many of the people at the CO is only matched by their lack of attention to their real duties and responsibilities.

The CSU system was hijacked by corrupt people with agendas that are at odds with the original populist vision of public higher education. The values of the classical liberal tradition have been cast aside by fakes and slick opportunists operating behind a veil of bureaucratic obscurantism.

As documented by Professor Glen Custred during the CSU “Cornerstones” controversy in the 1990s, similar to most of Higher Education in the the USA, the CSU has been taken over by people funded, trained by and linked into quasi-secret pro-Corporate think tanks. These corrupt interests have created an atmosphere of financial aid scandals (probably linked to the bank scandals that almost wrecked the world economy) and they have brainwashed much of the public into a false set of ideas about the value of a college degree that leaves the country very ill prepared to respond to globalization in a meaningful way. Indeed, universities are complicit in immigrations scams that funnel low-paid and exploited immigrant workers to tech companies in the USA, resulting in the loss of jobs once held by american workers with degrees from the CSU!

The legislature and past governors appointed these ridiculous clowns to the Board of Trustees (probably in exchange for corrupt political favors elsewhere), they are the reason that the system is rife with lack of accountability.

The reason that the CSU system is burdened by corruption is because the politics of both major parties in the California are corrupt, and because the people of the state refuse to do the work necessary to participate in the process of populist democracy.

Corrupt public education has “enabled” the idea that “experts” and “social engineering programs” will take care of society. !!!WRONG!!!

As a result, corruption and special interests prevail.

What is needed is a populist movement to clean up the corruption in higher education. In California, a referendum/initiative needs to be put on the ballot to change whatever state laws/regulations/policies currently exist that keep corrupt people on the CSU Board of Trustees and in the CSU Chancellor’s Office.

If new leadership and real accountability is put in place, then the arduous task of cleaning up the vast mess that has been created at mid and low levels in the CSU bureaucracy can begin.

The whole system stinks to high heaven.

A fleet of garbage trucks needs to be sent in to take out the trash.

The last I checked, the four-year graduation rate for my alma mater, SDSU, was a whopping FOURTEEN PERCENT.

They may have boosted it recently but did so only by lowering the bar as they have taken no other corrective action.

The primary reasons for the low graduation rate is sweetheart deals for unqualified students; unavailability of classess because professors are not required to teach enough; and the need of the CSU to pay for grim dormatories and unappealing commons, and to provide ticket-buying “fans” for its marginal sports complex.

CSU has morphed from primarily an upper-division-student professional system to a high-school remediation project more concerned about revenues and perks than the future of young Californians.

As one former CSU chancellor is reliably quoted saying: “We will cope with the budget problem by enrolling eveyrone we can and then daring the legislature to do anything about it.”

Thank you Joel Anderson for accepting the dare.

Larry Stirling

What arrogance consumes these academics. I’m hardly a partisan for our legislators, but they actually are elected to oversee every dollar spent by the state government. And why is there an “Assistant Vice Chancellor of Public Affairs” at Cal State? She’s just a PR hack.

This is another reason to completely reform the Cal State systems, where there are more adminstrators than professors.

— John Seiler