President John Welty challenged California State University, Fresno faculty members to rise above the pain of state budget fallout and stay focused on academic needs of students, the university, region and state by “transforming adversity into opportunity.”

“We cannot let the budget define us this year,” Welty told the annual faculty assembly at Fresno State today. “Whatever the budget issues and fiscal uncertainties may be, we will not retreat from our vision.

”Though we may alter some of the ways we do business as a university, we will be steadfast in our efforts to advance scholarship and leadership and serve our students and our region.”

Welty added, “All of us must participate in addressing the critical issues we face. That means we must rise above self-interest to determine what is necessary for the long-term health of our state and region” and be aware that “the stakes are very high.”

One initiative in helping the region is the university’s partnership with the Community Food Bank in which Fresno State faculty and staff will use fall semester furlough days to help feed the hungry on the drought-stricken, economically depressed west side, Welty said.

He told returning faculty, “This has been a very difficult summer,” during which California State University trustees raised student fees and CSU campuses undertook budget-cutting measures that included enrollment limitations and class reductions. Employee furloughs and layoffs, reduction in part-time faculty, travel limitations, deferred equipment purchases and maintenance, eliminating vacant positions and freezing salaries are other parts of Fresno State’s cost-saving plan.

And that may not be enough, Welty cautioned: “We will be reviewing our situation at mid-year, and will determine if any further personnel actions will have to take place at that time.

“As we have addressed this situation, my respect and appreciation have grown for the members of our campus community who have worked together to seek ways to alleviate the horrendous impact of this situation on members of our university community,” Welty told the faculty, repeating a message he delivered Friday, Aug. 14, to nonfaculty employees.

Planning for the future, he said, will prepare Fresno State to lead “in educating the next generation of leaders” in classrooms across the central San Joaquin Valley. “They’re bright, they’re eager and they’re the reason we are laying plans for the future,” Welty declared.

To be ready when students come to Fresno State, Welty said, university faculty and staff must “challenge our own thinking and behavior and ask the question: How can we do things differently to get better results?”

Making the changes necessary to propel the university into its second century also will require continued robust private financial investment through the Campaign for Fresno State, he said. “The difference between a good university and a great university is private support,” Welty said. “That has never been more true than now. The gifts we receive through the campaign change the way we think about what we do now – and in the future.”

He said the campaign has attracted more than $134 million since it began in 2005 and now is in its public phase with a goal of $200 million by 2012. The gifts to the university range downward from $29.4 million to the Jordan College of Agricultural Sciences and Technology.

A $6 million gift from an anonymous donor that established the Hans L. and Anna Beck Endowed Scholarship Fund, Welty said, provides full scholarships for students and is the largest scholarship endowment at Fresno State.

A gift from the estate of Alpheda Knorr, who was head nurse supervisor of operating rooms at Valley Medical Center in Fresno, will help construct a $250,000 nursing skills simulation laboratory, Welty added. And a Center for Academic Excellence in the Kremen School of Education and Human Development will be endowed from a $900,000 charitable trust established by the late Dr. Maxima Dandoy, a professor of education at Fresno State.

“The work we do and the gifts we make combine to give our students a promising future,” said Welty. “The region’s future depends on the imaginations, ingenuity, commitment and research work of our students and our outstanding faculty. We are dreaming big dreams that will come true.”

Providing opportunities to make dreams come true has been part of the university’s mission since its founding in 1911, he said.

He offered the examples of Tammy Savage, whose Fresno State business training led her to become general manager of Microsoft’s societal networking initiatives, and Victor Hernandez, who studied journalism and now oversees CNN’s domestic news-gathering operations.

“We like to say that Fresno State is powering the New California,” Welty said. “Well, our alumni have been powering Fresno, Central California, the state, the nation and the world for almost 100 years.”

The key to continuing that mission is turning today’s adversity into tomorrow’s opportunities, Welty said, adding, “I know we want to do it. I know we can do it. I know we must do it – for ourselves, our students and our region.”

Listen to the speech and watch the entire Academic Assembly at