A diverse array of faculty, staff and a head basketball coach were In Long Beach last week to voice their concerns about the Board of Trustees’ Mandatory Early Start Program (MESP).

The MESP would require students who have not yet tested "CSU college ready" in English and/or mathematics to begin a summer school course or program of study to make up those deficiencies and prepare them for baccalaureate-level courses before matriculation to any campus of the CSU System.

An ad hoc group – composed of over 200 CSU faculty and staff representing all 23 campuses – has coalesced in opposition to the program and has dubbed itself the “Access and Equity Work Group.”

The group was represented at the meeting by Kimberly King, a Psychology professor at Cal State LA and member of the Early Start Task Force; Pat Fuscaldo, Men’s Basketball Head Coach at Sonoma State University; and Steve Teixeira, a Student Services professional at Cal State LA.

Fuscaldo told the Trustees about the economic difficulties the MESP would present his student-athletes, saying “the first thing that came to my mind with this program is who is going to pay for it?

“Who is going to be there to help the families out to find the extra money to send their kids to summer school? If you are an athlete it is very difficult to find time to work. So it's a double burden that you put on these students.”

Members of the Early Start Work Group also made recommendations to the Trustees about how Administrators can work in conjunction with CSU faculty, staff and coaches to address the program’s shortcomings.

Those suggestions were:

1. Exemptions must be made broadly available to students who have work or family responsibilities during the summer or have health or transportation difficulties.
2. Early Start Programs should be provided at no cost to the students, including textbooks.
3. Any Early Start programs should be designed and implemented primarily by faculty and staff knowledgeable about remedial education and educationally disadvantaged students.
4. Any Early Start programs must be designed and structured not to interfere with existing successful developmental programs such as Summer Bridge and stretch courses.
5. Students with a need for developmental courses benefit from one-on-one and small group interaction with well-trained and experienced faculty and staff. Any online component must be supplemental to significant instruction and support by faculty and staff.
6. Becoming integrated and familiar with a college campus community and its resources is a significant factor in the success of matriculating students; therefore the best practice is that the ESP takes place on a Cal State campus with that campus’s staff and faculty, particularly those who have expertise and experience in remedial education.
7. Campuses with higher rates of remedial students must receive commensurate funding so that the cost of early start programs is not a financial burden that drains their resources for other programs.