Tech deal called off

Fee may meet future high-tech needs

After nine months of debates and controversies, the unprecedented deal between the California State University system and two large corporations came to a halt in June.

The California Education Technology Initiative, which had been touted by CSU administrators as the solution to the ongoing computer technology gap, was abandoned after the CSU team and representatives from GTE and Fujitsu were unable to find a way to make a profit.

"The decision was based solely on not being able to get a financial plan that would work to pay back the debt that would have been incurred," CSU Chancellor Charles Reed said.

Though Microsoft and Hughes, two of the original corporations involved, dropped out in April, Reed said then that the loss of the those partners did not signal the end of CETI.

Since the plan's announcement in September 1997, CETI had been under fire from student and faculty groups who wanted input into the agreement, which was kept under wraps until it was announced.

CSUS Faculty Senate passed a resolution in December asking for more time to review the deal. Faculty Senate chair Tom Krabacher said many faculty objected to the lack of input from professors.

"It was done with a fair amount of secrecy," Krabacher said. "I wasn't notified until two days before the deal was set to be announced in Long Beach."

Following resolutions by the faculty senates and student governments of several other CSU campuses and the California State Students Association, the signing date was moved from Dec. 15 until January. Soon after that, it was scheduled for March, then moved again to an undisclosed date in the fall.

By June, the beleaguered agreement was abandoned.

Though CSU had several employees working full-time on the agreement, CSU public relations director Ken Swisher said that the amount of money spent on pursuing the agreement was "nominal."

"As of January or February, they hired an attorney, and sometime in the fall they hired a financial consultant," he said. "But, that cost very little because they weren't employed for long."

Reed said CSU is still looking at alternative to CETI, including seeking other companies to work toward future partnerships with.

"We are looking at many options, including asking the state Legislature for the funds, and seeing if campuses can be more efficient with their resources. It may come to be that students will be asked to pick up some portion of the price in the form of a technology fee," Reed said.