Method

How a CSU Watch piece is built

Persuasion is easy. The standard here is to be difficult to dismiss. That takes an evidence layer the reader can inspect and labels that separate what was seen from what was proved.

The five-step form

Open with an artifact. A Board agenda item, a compensation report, a construction binder, a public-comment rule, a records-request response. Something with a date and a page.
Name the contradiction. The gap between what the CSU says about the artifact and what the artifact, or the public file around it, shows.
Explain the system failure. Why the gap exists: information is distributed across offices, summaries replace audit trails, and responsibility becomes hard to locate.
Show the remedy. What should be published, by whom, and by when, written so it could be adopted.
End with a test. A question a student, employee, or resident could answer in five minutes from public records if the remedy were in place.

The four labels

I observedSomething I saw or heard myself, with the date and setting.

The document showsA fact that appears in a cited record, with a page number.

The evidence suggestsAn inference from the documents, stated as an inference.

The record does not yet establishWhat the public file cannot answer. Often the point of the piece.

Every factual sentence on this site can be sorted under one of these. When a label is missing, the reader should assume the weakest one applies.

The source box

Every article and proposal ends with a box that answers six questions. It is the part of the page a reporter, a trustee's chief of staff, or an opposing analyst should be able to check without reading the argument.

Source box template

Primary document: Title, issuing body, and a link to the official copy.
Date: Of the document, and of the meeting where it was presented or adopted.
Relevant pages: Page numbers as printed, with the agenda item number where there is one.
What the document shows: Only what can be read from it, in the document's own figures.
What the record does not yet establish: The questions the public file cannot answer. Stated plainly, because this is usually the finding.
Secondary sources: News coverage, union statements, and commentary, labeled as secondary and never used for a number a primary document could supply.

Corrections and records requests

Corrections are logged on the page they change, with the date and what changed. Public Records Act requests that inform a piece are posted with the piece, along with the agency's response, so a reader can judge both.

What this site is not

It is not a news organization, a union publication, or a CSU channel. It is one faculty member's attempt to read the system's own paper carefully and in public, using the same method applied in OLE Lab Notebook and More Capable: start with the artifact, label the inference, and propose the remedy.