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Resources include those material assets on which the university draws to perform its mission and also the intellectual, social, cultural, and spiritual resources emanating from the human capital of our staff, students, faculty and administrators, without which no educating or operating would take place.

The fiscal resources of the university are support from the State of California, other government agencies, and private support, including gifts, grants and contracts. The State of California is the major source of funding for the CSU in general. Funds are allocated to a campus based on the number of FTES, or full time equivalent students. In addition, general obligation bonds are sold by the State, based upon voter support, for capital improvements consisting of new construction and renovation projects. These funds, although limited in amount, are allocated based upon system-wide priorities and campus need.

The second major resource of the university is its physical property. Of all the California State University campuses, Cal Poly Pomona stands out in certain respects. The second largest land-based CSU, it spans approximately 1,400 acres and has over 60 buildings. At this writing a number of capital improvements are under construction in order to better serve the needs of the university. The list in Annex D1 includes not only major capital improvements funded by bonds backed by the State of California, but also capital projects built with Foundation funds, funds from major donors, as well as funds from federal agencies.

The efforts of the Division of University Advancement and the Development officers have clearly amplified the ability of the university to provide education. Figure 24 provides a rough picture of the supplementary income of the university they have brought in, during the period of 1994-1999. While we do not have the official fund-raising figures for 1999-2000 yet, we know that it set another record in fund-raising at Cal Poly Pomona and puts us among the top twenty nationwide from the several hundred Master’s level institutions.

Funds in endowment managed by the Foundation increased from $75,000.00 to nearly $14 million over the last decade (see Annex D1). These are summarized in Figure 25, explicated further in Annex D2.

The Foundation’s resources are described more thoroughly in Annex D6. The total tangible value of these new or enhanced resources is in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Clearly the list enumerated in Annex D1 shows that the university as a functioning entity manages and enhances resources relatively well, as a part of its daily, monthly, and yearly operations.

The faculty and staff of the university number approximately 2,200 people. The major portion of the tenured and tenure-track faculty are terminally degreed professionals, many with significant outside experience in their fields. Although smaller in number, a significant portion of the teaching load at the university is taken up by adjunct faculty. Many of the adjunct faculty hold doctorates, teach full time, occupy major offices on departmental, college and university committees, and serve in the Academic Senate. They are a valuable but under-valued resource for the academic community. Lecturers’ contractual protections have improved in the current epoch, but their opportunities and compensation are still far inferior.

In order to enhance the performance of the faculty, opportunities for their development and improvement must be provided. The university is able to contribute to the future prosperity of the State of California only if the faculty’s role is constantly enhanced so that they can provide students with the intellectual resources that they need to succeed in their future. Proper planning, care, and enhancement of the faculty leads to an increase in knowledge capital for all humankind as well as a classroom educational experience that benefits the State of California, the people of California, the faculty, and most of all the students enrolled at the university. Interim administrators frequently have been drawn from the ranks of faculty who are experienced in relevant fields. While their use in this fashion constitutes for many of them an opportunity for learning, advancement and additional earnings, a few people see it as an abuse, when such appointments become numerous, of either too-brief or too-lengthy duration, are not evaluated consistently, or result in penalties of one kind or another when the faculty member returns to his or her department. The consequences for the university of high rates of interim office leadership have not been measured, though they are frequently mentioned as problematic.

Staff are an occasionally under-appreciated resource that must also be enhanced, cultivated, improved, updated and not taken for granted. Staff form the human infrastructure of the university. From visible tasks such as record keeping, admissions, and technical support to behind the scenes work in areas such as custodial, grounds, building maintenance, and public safety, staff are an indispensable part of the university. In these modern times with declining support, more pressure is being put on staff to be motivated, productive, and congenial than ever before. Staff are now expected to do much more with much less. In some cases responding to decreased state support has resulted in staff reductions while at the same time the need and scope of their duties are increasing. Staff must be used in a manner that enhances their dignity and productivity. In the CSU, "A third of the support staff are temporary employees and almost three-quarters of new hires are temporary positions. The university is permanent -- why aren’t we?" ("Fighting For Our Future: CSEA’s Vision For the CSU" http://www.calcsea.org/csu/fightingfuture.html).

Increasing use of contingent workers has increased the sense of insecurity among the staff. As of 6/30/00, 867 staff personnel were employed at Cal Poly Pomona. 156 of these individuals were temporary employees. Only after four years of employment is the university required to make a temporary employee permanent, as we were told by the Labor Council (CSEA bargaining agreement). Implementation of merit pay schemes for staff has compensated for some lack of security (Annex D10).

However the university is viewed by others, the faculty, staff, students, and the State of California have an interlocking complex relationship that requires a considerable amount of planning and support. The university, the knowledge it represents, the faculty who provide the learning experience, the students who come to learn, the staff who support the learning, are all resources. These resources must be constantly developed, supported, upgraded and renewed.

Professional development opportunities for faculty have improved significantly since the last WASC visit, and improved somewhat for staff (see Theme One, Chapter V, for a lengthier discussion of this matter). The Faculty Center for Professional Development has been organized, staffed, and now offers professional development opportunities for the faculty in almost every conceivable area including technical assistance with computing problems (through the Faculty Computing Support Center, now separate from the FCPD). A Lecturer Support Program has also been recently organized to assist adjunct faculty with problems specific to the nature of their appointments and roles.

The university has an enviable record among the CSU campuses for acquiring and enhancing resources (President Suzuki, Fall Conference 1999). Major capital improvements with funding (as of June, 2000) are: the Engineering Laboratory Building, Biotechnology Science Laboratory Building, Chilled Water Central Plant and distribution system, University Union Expansion, Collins School addition, Technology Center and College of the Extended University, Sewer Infrastructure, Telecommunication Infrastructure, Agriscapes, Housing Phase I 400 beds, Parking Lot B 800 spaces, along with many smaller but yet significant enhancements to classrooms and laboratories. (A Construction Update is available in the Team Room.)

The campus has finally begun to wrestle with the question of what constitutes success or failure at nurturing these scarce and potentially nonrenewable campus assets; that is to say, there is a broader comprehension of the role of planning and assessment in regard to the management of resources. This is a CSU and State funding issue, not restricted to Cal Poly Pomona, which somehow must be addressed during the next decade.