By Fredrick Misleh
Senior Staff Writer
On Sept. 20, a ceremony was held at the McMahan House in honor of the inauguration of the CSU’s Institute for Palliative Care at CSUSM. Among the speakers at the ceremony was none other than the outgoing CSU chancellor, Charles B. Reed. While not surprising that the CSU chancellor would attend such an event, what is surprising is that the two co-editors-in-chief of the Cougar Chronicle were the only two students who attended the event, and as press.
No other student was aware of Reed’s visit. No students from the nursing program attended, even though the Institute for Palliative Care falls under CSUSM’s nursing program. While plenty of announcements regarding palliative care were made in the weekly Campus-wide Announcement emails sent out by the Office of Communications, none of them mentioned that Reed would be attending, let alone speaking, at the inauguration ceremony.
Why all the secrecy? Granted, Reed is not the most popular figure within the CSU among students. After all, tuition and parking permit fees increased by 5 percent and faculty suffered a major pay cut under Reed’s administration in November 2011; at the same time, presidents of the CSU schools, the Board of Trustees members, and Reed himself received raises to their overly bloated salaries.
Perhaps Reed was concerned for [his] safety? That was the same reason he barred students from attending the November 2011 Board of Trustees meeting where the aforementioned tuition increases and pay raises occurred. After all, who could ignore the student protests that followed? Perhaps Reed feared he might have school supplies or, even more degrading, spare change thrown at him?
Whatever the reason, it is an outrage. If we as students are asked to pay more into the system so that the CSU presidents, Trustees, and Chancellor can finally afford the latest model Lamborghini, we should be informed of when the Chancellor will be making a visit to our school (whether he’s driving said Lamborghini or not).
*Editor’s Note: Chancellor Reed is publically noted as mainly utilizing chauffeur services. Campus interim-Presidents are noted as having a $1,000 per month vehicle allowance, in lieu of a university-provided vehicle. Symbolic Motor Company of La Jolla estimates that the lease on a 2013 Lamborghini Gallardo Coupe would be about $3,500 per month.