November 11, 2004

Shakedown at San Jose State

Aviation students lead revolt against school leadership

By Kymberli W. Brady
Staff Writer

Lately, San Jose State University [SJSU] has fallen victim to an unusual exodus of top officials and Aviation Department students are wondering if it has anything to do with a complaint they filed on Oct. 3.

Although their future at SJSU was questionable, Aviation Department Freshman and Sophomores join fellow coalition students, alumni, and industry members by taking matters into their own hands by restoring the dilapidated campus. Photo by Kymberli Brady.

That’s when members of the newly formed Coalition of San Jose State Aviation Students, now over 200 strong, issued their first attack against SJSU in an effort to save the Aviation Department from what they called a “calculated dismantling.” They also claim that the university has deprived them of the level of education promised by its accreditation and mission statement of goals and accused Dr. Patricia Backer, Aviation and Technology Department Chair of accreditations violations and not acting in their best interests.

The students had contacted newly appointed President Paul Yu to discuss their concerns and agreed to meet with him. But by the time they had arrived, he was already gone.

After only 19 days on campus, Yu’s sudden departure on Aug. 2 was attributed to health concerns. But news that he had accepted a professor position with New York State University College at Brockport on Sept. 21 leaves students questioning the departure—especially now, since three more have followed suit—which are unusual moves to make mid-semester.

CSU Chancellor Charles Reed subsequently appointed Don Kassing, SJSU vice president of administration and finance as interim president—further down the hall from the position he held in the finance department since 1993
In less than a month, a flurry of top university officials have since retired, stepped down, or are being reviewed, including Michael Ego, Dean of the College of Applied Sciences and Arts [CASA], Provost Marshall Goodman, and Vice President of Student Affairs Monica Rascoe.

On Oct. 6, Ego announced plans to resign after the semester and become the associate vice provost for the University of Connecticut’s Stamford regional campus. Until four years ago, the SJSU Aviation Department had been under his watch.

Last Thursday, Goodman and Rascoe both notified President Kassing—by memo of their resignations, just two days after Athletic Director Chuck Bell announced his retirement.

The news was a complete surprise to Vice Provost Charles Whitcomb, who said Goodman, now on professional leave, “wasn’t at liberty to discuss anything.”

Rascoe has since changed offices and now serves as President Kassing’s special assistant.

“There’s a mass exodus from our school,” exclaims Dan Casey, a helicopter pilot who graduated in maintenance management last May. “I’m wondering what’s going on.”

“I’d like to think it has to do with our cause,” adds Kenneth Pierce, a junior aviation administration major and coalition ringleader. “There has to be something happening on the inside. Having deans and provosts and presidents resigning is very odd—that usually doesn’t happen, especially mid semester. It makes you wonder.”

A call for change
On Oct. 14, Pierce, along with Mike Natale, an Aviation Operations major and president of Pi Kappa Alpha led the attack, presenting their second formal complaint against the members of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges [WASC] committee team, including Backer’s FAA violations. The complaint was also filed with the Student Fairness Committee, Dean Belle Wei and Ombudsman Savander Parker.

“She told me there was a complaint from someone to the Federal Aviation Agency,” explains Vice President of Undergraduate Studies Bob Cooper. “It was then investigated and she was told that no violations were found. Notice that all I have is hearsay.”

“This goes back four years,” says Casey, who was the first student to issue a complaint against Dr. Backer in 2003 and admits he’s not surprised because she reported only to Goodman. “Dr. Backer is a poor leader and has not represented the best interests of the students in this community.”

“Our goal is to hopefully have a change of leadership,” adds Pierce, explaining the coalition’s reason for writing the letter.

Casey further adds that Ping Sue threatened him over the summer, after he stayed to help “clean the program up” and then questioned why he had to pay for two classes, when he was only required to pay for one.

“If you ever bring that up again, I will pull your graduation certificate,” he said, according to Casey.

“Looks like they can have a phantom class and state that we’re enrolled,” Casey claims, “then milk Sacramento for the 30 students.”

For Troy Towner, his degree came at a higher price than he had bargained for. He followed his 1999 course catalog, expecting to graduate in 2003. But he says that cancelled classes and changes to the curriculum thrust him into the unenviable position of paying for additional semesters and taking inappropriate classes—while struggling with a full-time course schedule and no time to earn a living.

“It took me five years to graduate,” he says. “For the first time since being in college, I couldn’t work with 14 to 18 units every semester, as I was forced to take—and pay for summer and winter semesters because classes that were prearranged had been cancelled. There was a huge change in the middle without a lot of information so I had to go another year. I lost $1,600 plus not being able to work.”

This and other issues were among those presented to the WASC Accreditation Committee and are currently under review.

“Backer went through and changed the whole program,” adds Casey. “She changed the curriculum and number of units required to satisfy graduation. I believe she did this all on her own—she didn’t use any alumni, aviation community members, or faculty to create this, but she rattled off names like Women in Aviation [WIA] as having helped to design it.”

Yet, in an official statement, a WIA officer said that they were never contacted to council Dr. Backer on changing the Aviation curriculum, even though it had been presented as such on a document at the Aug. 3 meeting to over 100 attendees, including Belle Wei, Ping Su, Parker, Cooper, students, alumni, and industry.

Beachfront property
Some students, along with their alumni coalition counterparts are even more concerned that the program’s systematic demise is not as much about enrollment as it is real estate.

“I had heard the students were concerned that the money would be used for something else,” admitted Cooper.

“The money we use for operational and instructional programs is separate from that used to build things. It comes straight from the Chancellor’s office and can’t be moved from one pile to the other. This came up when the library was being built too, and the new student housing.”

According to the term of the lease—signed on Nov. 18, 1960, the five-acre parcel of land was granted to the university under the condition that it be used only for the program’s aeronautical laboratory as part of the State educational system—at a price of $2,500 per year for 50 years.

Cooper maintains that the program is not going away. However, programs with declining enrollment were targeted for elimination in the 90s—including the Aviation Program, which he says Dr. Backer defended.

“It’s the airport’s decision to take the space back,” he says. “We’d have to pay commercial rates or at least find space nearby—that’s financially not viable for us.”

The lease, although six years away, will expire in 2010, after which it will be tagged for general aviation use.

However, Atken made it perfectly clear to the students Monday evening that the university had approached the airport on three occasions and requested an early buyout.

“This industry is based on trust and no one can trust Backer,” Casey said. “The students in a few short months have assumed her job and are now trying to negotiate a lease extension with the Airport Commission, the majority of whom expressed an interest in doing so. They don’t want to be responsible for us leaving the site.”

“Talks of renegotiating the lease probably won’t happen until after the removal of Dr. Backer,” Pierce contends.

For now, Casey plans to stay as involved as possible by developing an outreach program that will use a network of aviation alumni to draw in and mentor future students. He says the university however still needs a better check and balance system in place.

“I suggest that the restructuring of the aviation program serve as a role model for the entire CSU system and offer to design or utilize an audit system that can monitor the successes, goals, money, etc, that goes through the department,“ he says. “Otherwise, it’s academic murder. There should also be some program for internal audits. Backer’s very protected right now. We’re just asking for permission to do her job.”

For more Aviation Coalition information, campus cleanup, and updates, visit: www.savesjsuaviation.com.