Provost's Update - November 29, 2021

November 29, 2021

Hi Everyone:

I hope you all had a terrific holiday and were able to spend some time with people you care about. I want to share some good news.

Outstanding Faculty Awards

As you saw in the November 29th Sacramento State Briefing, the Faculty Senate announced the recipients of the Outstanding Faculty Awards for 2021, “Recipients of these awards are recognized for having positively affected the life of the University through their teaching, their service, and their scholarly and creative activities – displaying consistent and engaging collegiality and a strong commitment to students throughout their careers at California State University, Sacramento. A virtual award ceremony will be held Thursday, March 10.

• Outstanding Teaching Awards: Patrick Ettinger, History (Arts and Letters); Pooria Assadi, Management and Organizations (College of Business); Sarah Jouganatos, Graduate and Professional Studies (College of Education); Jun Dai, Computer Science (Engineering and Computer Science); Susanna Curry, Social Work (Health and Human Services); Lani Gleason, Biological Sciences (Natural Sciences and Mathematics); Sarah Strand, Psychology (Social Sciences and Interdisciplinary Studies)
• Outstanding University Service Awards: Angela Clark-Oates, English (Arts and Letters); Jai-Joon (Jay) Lee, Strategy and Entrepreneurship (College of Business); Kevin Ferreira van Leer, Undergraduate Studies (College of Education); Abhijeet Shirsat, Recreation, Parks and Tourism Administration (Health and Human Services); Amy Wagner, Geology (Natural Sciences and Mathematics)
• Outstanding Scholarly and Creative Activity Awards: Shawna Malvini Redden, Communication Studies (Arts and Letters); Joseph Taylor, Information Systems and Business Analytics (College of Business); Sue Hobbs, Undergraduate Studies (College of Education); Jose Granda, Mechanical Engineering (Engineering and Computer Science); Susanna Curry, Social Work (Health and Human Services); Amelia Vankeuren, Geology (Natural Sciences and Mathematics); Mical Shilts, Family and Consumer Sciences (Social Sciences and Interdisciplinary Studies
• Outstanding Community Service Awards: Summer Ventis, Art (Arts and Letters); Cindy Collado, Teaching Credentials (College of Education); Anna Baynes, Computer Science (Engineering and Computer Science); Bronwyn Fields, Nursing (Health and Human Services); Sayonita Ghosh Hajra, Mathematics and Statistics (Natural Sciences and Mathematics); Catheryn Koss, Gerontology (Social Sciences and Interdisciplinary Studies)

Please join me in congratulating all of these tremendous faculty and thanking them for their continued contributions to our mission.

Curriculum redesign grants

The Office of Undergraduate Studies received 32 curricular redesign proposals requesting over $800,000. Faculty from twenty-seven academic programs, representing all seven colleges, participated. $275,000 will be awarded.

Funding is targeted to support initiatives designed to reduce DFW rates, to reduce equity gaps, to build an anti-racist curriculum and develop anti-racist pedagogy, to foster intercultural competency, and to cultivate inclusivity and belonging in the classroom or in a specific discipline. The goal is to promote significant improvement in academic outcomes for undergraduate students, especially those historically marginalized and/or underrepresented.

An advisory committee reviewed the proposals in three categories—impact, feasibility, and potential for success. Large enrollment courses with high DFW rates and particularly inequitable outcomes rose to the top. Not surprisingly, lower division General Education courses, along with pathway courses, especially those that serve multiple majors, promised to impact the most students.

Proposals presented a variety of strategies for improving student success, reducing equity gaps, and increasing retention and a sense of belonging among students from historically marginalized and underrepresented in a particular field of study. Several proposals promise to create culturally inclusive and anti-racist content and train faculty in inclusive and anti-racist pedagogy for multiple courses in a single discipline. Others seek to increase active learning in the classroom. Some incorporated peer to peer learning while others emphasized hands on learning that illustrates complex theoretical content. Building on what we’ve learned in the pandemic, others promise to create repositories of on-demand learning materials, open-access resources and brief how-to videos, that review difficult concepts.

Successful grant applicants will share their curriculum redesign, along with an initial assessment of its success, at the Center for Teaching and Learning’s Professional Learning Culminating Event in May 2023.

We are pleased at the interest the grants generated and excited by the positive impact they will have on our students. We regret that many fine proposals could not be funded this year, but look forward to putting out an RFP for 2022-2023 in the spring.

These are just some of the great things going on here. Thank you all for what you are doing to support our students, each other, and our region.

Steve Perez
Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs

Dr. LeAnn Fong-Batkin, Executive Director for the Education Insights Ctr

November 15, 2021

I am excited to announce that Dr. LeAnn Fong-Batkin will join us as new Executive Director for the Education Insights Center at Sacramento State.

Dr. Fong-Batkin brings over two decades of K-12 and higher education policy experience from WestEd, the Foundation for California Community Colleges, Sacramento State, the California Department of Education, the California Community College Chancellor’s Office, and the California State Auditor. She has committed her career to social justice and equity for under-represented students.

Dr. Fong-Batkin’s work with EdInsights will begin on Monday, December 6, 2021. Her research areas of interest include the transition of students from K-12 to postsecondary education, diversity, equity, and inclusion, analyzing legislation and policy efforts to create change, and the need for California’s statewide longitudinal data system.

Her ties to EdInsights are strong, as she has followed its work since its inception as the Institute for Higher Education Leadership and Policy. Dr. Fong-Batkin was a fellow in the organization’s Education Policy Fellowship Program and her cohort studied the need for a statewide longitudinal data system.

Recently, Dr. Fong-Batkin worked with WestEd and the Foundation for California Community Colleges as an instrumental co-lead in the development and design of the plans for the California Cradle-to-Career Data System (data system). This groundbreaking effort for the development of California’s statewide longitudinal data system was created through facilitating over 100 public meetings, researching statewide longitudinal data systems and a variety of complex policy topics, and working closely with stakeholders, partner entities, advocates, the Department of Finance, and the Governor’s Office. The Governor and Legislature funded the data system in fiscal year 2021-22, and provided a $15 million budget.

At the California Department of Education (CDE), she served as a branch administrator and senior higher education advisor to former State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tom Torlakson who served as an ex officio member of the Trustees of the California State University and the University of California Regents. She served as the liaison between the CDE, the California Community Colleges, the California State University, the University of California, the Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities, and the Intersegmental Coordinating Committee. Her other work at the CDE focused on designing a racial equity action plan for the department and she was the administrator for the College Readiness Block Grant and Advancement Via Individual Determination grant program.

Dr. Fong-Batkin has a Doctorate in Educational Leadership from the University of California, Davis, a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Sacramento State, and a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

She is active in her community where she volunteers for the Feria de Educación, the Alzheimer’s Association, and coordinates a career day at a local school. She has mentored many high school and undergraduate students through Upward Bound, Cal-in-Sacramento, and the University of California Center Sacramento’s internship programs.

Please join me in welcoming Dr. Fong-Batkin to the Sacramento State family, Steve Perez
Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs

About EdInsights

The Education Insights Center (EdInsights) is a self-supporting unit of California State University, Sacramento. Established in 2001 as the Institute for Higher Education Leadership & Policy and renamed in 2015, EdInsights is committed to research, evaluation, and capacity building related to practice and policy with the goal of continually improving student success (defined as student learning, engagement, progression, and completion). The work of the Center focuses on creating equitable opportunities and outcomes for California’s diverse student population as students navigate into and through our systems of higher education in California, with a focus on California community colleges and four-year public universities. The Center houses dedicated staff with diverse expertise across a spectrum of applied policy research and analysis, evaluation, capacity building, writing, and communications. The efforts are proudly partnered with experts, leaders, and practitioners from education, philanthropic organizations, and government. Through a collaborative approach, the work has resulted in: ongoing improvement and evaluation of community college professional development, improved implementation of community college pathways, research that pivotally informed the ongoing development of California’s statewide data system, improved quality of education programs and policies, enhanced decision-making focused on equitable student success, and increased cross-system connections that lead to more inclusive and collaborative policymaking and implementation. The Center’s efforts seek to understand and address the institutional and systemic barriers students experience in their educational trajectories, with a focus on students of color, students experiencing poverty, and students who are first in their families to attend college. EdInsights is committed to transforming education systems and providing diverse student populations with what they need to thrive and succeed.

Associate Vice President Paul Hofmann to Retire

November 3, 2021

After serving Sacramento State for five years as Associate Vice President in the office of International Programs and Global Engagement, Dr. Paul Hofmann has decided to retire. Dr. Hofmann came to the University from Fresno State where he served in a similar capacity from 2012-2016; before that, he directed the Center for International Programs at Bowling Green State University, and also held other positions advancing international student and scholar services during his 25+ year career in international education. Two of Dr. Hofmann’s degrees are in Political Science: one from Adrian College (baccalaureate) and one from the University of Toledo (master’s). He also holds a master’s degree in Higher Education from San Jose State and a doctorate in that same discipline from Bowling Green State University.

Dr. Hofmann had a major impact at Sacramento State where he promoted the internationalization of the campus, increasing the number of international students on our campus and the number of students studying abroad, and creating the Passport Place, among other innovations. We are appreciative of his many contributions. I’m sure you join me in thanking Paul for his service to the University, and wishing him the best as he retires. The Administrator-in-Charge of International Programs and Global Engagement is Christine Miller, Interim Vice Provost for Student Academic Success.

Steve Perez
Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs

Planning for spring 2022 schedules and beyond

September 30, 2021

Once again, I want to thank you all for all of the tremendous work you have done providing a top-notch educational experience for our students during these very difficult times. The challenges have been unending and your continued commitment has made our success possible. While the pandemic is clearly not over, I believe we have reached a point where we must look to the future - assuming that we will be living with COVID-19 for the foreseeable future - and figure out how to best accomplish our mission.

We are a brick-and-mortar institution that believes in the power of being together, learning from each other face-to-face. We also believe that the college experience includes learning and development outside the classroom and when we are together. We must get back to our roots as a face-to-face institution and deliver the learning environment that our students deserve and come to us to experience. We also believe that we can, and should, deliver more of our courses virtually than we did before the pandemic.

As we work through the fall 2021 semester, we need to plan course schedules for next spring and future semesters. As always, we must build schedules that best support the success of our students. Our spring 2022 schedules will move much closer to what we expect to be our optimal mix of modalities. As a starting point, we ask each department to plan course schedules using the following guidelines:

• We build course schedules that best support our students’ success.
• Each academic program should have at least 70% of all sections in the academic program utilize a modality with a significant level of face-to-face interaction.
  • WASC requires that “institutions must obtain substantive change approval for programs in which 50% or more will be offered through distance education. Note that for undergraduate programs the 50% rule applies only to the program hours in the major, not the total hours it takes to graduate with a degree.”
  • Regional accreditation standards set forth by the WASC Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC) for virtual and online degree programs have been waived through December 31, 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Department of Education allowed accrediting agencies to provide such temporary authorization. To date, the Department of Education has not provided guidance for remote instruction beyond the 2021 calendar year. The Chancellor’s Office is actively seeking guidance from WSCUC, but it is worth noting that students enrolled in only online courses in fall 2021 may find that in spring 2022 the campus may not be able to provide online sections of course requirements if their degree program has not been approved for online education by WSCUC and, in some disciplines, professional accreditation bodies.
  • The CSU requires that changes in program modality to hybrid and fully online be approved per campus policy and submitted to the CSU Degrees Database, which houses degree information for things such as CSU Apply.

• No more than 30% of all sections in an academic program can be fully online.
  • If a department feels it is in our students’ best interests to have more than 30% of all sections fully online, an exception will need to be granted by the provost and president based on a curricular justification from the academic program and with support from the appropriate dean.

Thank you all for your efforts and hard work to support the Hornet family.

Take care, Steve

Course Redesign Grants

September 22, 2021

Hi everyone,

I want to make a very exciting announcement. The University has allocated ongoing funds for regular review of our curriculum to be targeted for specific topics, issues, or challenges. This year (and perhaps for several years) we are going to target these funds to address the following:

• To redesign a course or sequence of courses to reduce high DFW rates;
• To redesign a course or sequence of courses to reduce significant equity gaps in outcomes; and/or
• To improve student retention, time to degree, and sense of belonging, particularly among those historically marginalized and/or underrepresented, in a particular discipline or field.

Improvements in any of the areas above support our priorities of student success as well as inclusion and anti-racism. We intend to have this grant program be an annual call so we can continually review and improve our curriculum as well as student experience and success. Please look at the announcement below from the Office of Undergraduate Studies.

Thank you and take care,
Steve

Course Redesign Grants: Achieving Equitable Outcomes in Undergraduate Programs

The Office of Undergraduate Studies is soliciting requests for funding to support efforts by academic programs to enhance student success and to achieve equitable outcomes. Faculty may request up to $40,000 for curricular redesign. Funds may be used for initiatives designed to reduce DFW rates, to build an anti-racist curriculum, to develop anti-racist pedagogy, to foster intercultural competency, to cultivate inclusivity and belonging in the classroom and/or in a specific discipline, or any other strategy that could to be shown as likely to promote significant improvement in academic outcomes for undergraduate students, especially those historically marginalized and/or underrepresented. Monies could be used for assigned time, summer stipends, faculty development, outside consultants, and the like. Proposals are encouraged to draw from and develop disciplinary knowledge. They may focus on a single course or on a series of courses in a program. They may come from individual faculty, or from teams of faculty in a discipline. As the grants are one-time, they will fund proposals that promise transformational change without continued expense.

Timetable:

• Proposals are due no later than 5:00 PM on October 15, 2021.
• Notification of awards will be made by November 1, 2021.
• Funds become available November 15, 2021 and, except for assessment, must be spent by August 30, 2022.
• Redesigned course(s) must be available for student enrollment in Fall semester 2022.
• Assessment report due to Undergraduate Studies during Spring semester 2023.
• Presentation of implementation and initial data collection/assessment at Center for Teaching and Learning’s Professional Learning Culminating Event in May 2023.

Selection Criteria: Proposals may be made

• To redesign a course or sequence of courses to reduce high DFW rates
• To redesign a course or sequence of courses to reduce significant equity gaps in outcomes
• To improve student retention and sense of belonging, particularly among those historically marginalized and/or underrepresented, in a particular discipline or field.

Both proposals and assessment reports must reference DFW rates and/or equity gaps as published by the Office of Institutional Research, Effectiveness, and Planning. Additional assessments, such as anonymous pre-post intervention surveys, class artifacts that illustrate the impact of the project, and alignment of learning outcomes, learning activities, and programmatic outcomes, are encouraged as appropriate.

Application Materials: Applications must contain the following supporting documentation:

• Project Narrative (2 pages), including
  -A description of the problem to be solved
  -A discussion of the significance of the problem for student success
  -A proposed set of actions with specific expected outcomes
  -A pathway for sustainable implementation
  -A plan for assessment and assessment reporting
• Budget (1 page), including an explanatory narrative. (Assessment and reporting must be included in the budget).
• Statement from the department chair (1 page) that assesses departmental buy-in and estimates impact of proposal, if implemented, on student success in an academic program or programs.

Proposal Submission Process: Find and complete the application here: https://www.csus.edu/undergraduate-studies/. Upload the Application Materials (PDF) and submit by 5:00 PM on Friday, October 15, 2021.

Award Selection: An Advisory Committee consisting of faculty from each of the colleges will review and rank the proposals in three categories--impact, feasibility, and potential for success—and recommend proposals to the Dean of Undergraduate Studies for funding.

Provost's Update: August 31, 2021

August 31, 2021

Hello everyone,

Welcome to the Fall 2021 semester. As I sit in my office and see students, staff, and faculty walk by, I am so excited to kick off this new school year. Preparing for this return-to-campus has been a big effort: Thank you all for the work you have done getting ready and for the many ways you make Sacramento State a caring campus. And thank you to all of our campus partners that have done so much to prepare for the semester.

Working as a team, we continue to transform the lives of our students, their families, and our region. Washington Monthly just published its rankings, and Sacramento State is No. 10 among Master’s Universities “based on [our] contribution to the public good in three broad categories: social mobility, research, and promoting public service.” You each make a difference and it shows.

If you have not already done so, please take some time to watch the President’s Fall Address to hear directly where we are and where we need to go together.

IRT continues to produce great resources to keep in mind as you think of how to communicate with our students and each other. As we find new and interesting ways to utilize zoom, keep in mind these suggested security tips.

Good news

• Professor Erin Ellison from Psychology has been awarded a grant by the Spencer Foundation to study, "Youth Participatory Action Research and Critical Literacy in the Context of Gentrification"
• Professor Luis Garcia from Art received a Faculty Fellows award from the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education with a “primary goal is to prepare Latina/o/x faculty for successful careers in academia and beyond by increasing the number of tenured and promoted Latina/o/x faculty.”

As a reminder, we are posting Frequently Asked Questions related to COVID and fall 2021 on the Academic Continuity website. Please continue to ask.

Thank you all for your efforts and hard work to support the Hornet family. Previous Provost’s Updates can be found here.

Take care, Steve

Provost's Update: August 20, 2021

August 20, 2021

Hello everyone,

I hope you are all doing well. As we transition back to campus, I know there is a mix of worry and excitement. Please be assured that we are following the guidance of campus and local health authorities on how to best manage our transition.

Vaccine certification

As of August 11th, of the people who have certified vaccination status, more than 95% of students, staff, and faculty that will be on campus have attested to being vaccinated. We need to continue getting vaccinated as this is our number one defense against the virus. If you have not already attested to your vaccination status or know someone who needs to, go here for more information.

Many of you have asked what will happen if students have not certified that they are vaccinated or having a medical or religious exemption. Students will soon receive this message. In sum, all students must certify their COVID vaccination status by September 13, 2021. Students who fail to complete their certification by that date will not be permitted to physically access the campus or any campus facilities. Students who fail to certify will also not be permitted to engage in any off-campus activities related to Sacramento State (e.g. internships, field placements, club sports, etc.). Faculty will be notified which students are not allowed to access campus and can refer any barred students who come to campus to the Office of Student Conduct. Faculty may choose to work with students remotely after September 13 but are under no obligation to do so. We will continue to work with these students to get them vaccinated or certified with an exemption (and thus into the testing program). If this is not done by September 27, the student will be administratively dropped from face-to-face classes.

We all have many questions related to our current environment. As a reminder, we are posting Frequently Asked Questions related to COVID and fall 2021 (including, what to do if a student refuses to wear a mask...spoiler alert, faculty should not call the campus police) on the Academic Continuity website. Please continue to ask.

Policies

As we transition back to campus we will also transition back to our academic policies as described in the catalog, the new syllabus policy, and important dates for the fall 2021 semester. Speaking of syllabi, take a look at this column from the Chronicle of Higher Education about reexamining your syllabus. There are some good suggestions about how to support our students. We continue to have a large number of virtual courses, thus one policy that will continue to be suspended is the e-learning policy, which you will recall was suspended as we transitioned our courses to virtual modalities. In the coming year, I think we should reexamine the policy to see what improvements can be made, based on what we have learned in the past several months.

New technology in classrooms

Thank you to our friends in IRT and Facilities for all of the hard work they did to get new technology that facilitates all teaching modalities. As you go into our classrooms, you will see new microphones, cameras, computers, etc., all to make it easier to teach our students in flexible and meaningful ways. Please take a moment and look through what has been added to modernize our classrooms.

Good news

• The CSU Student Success Network is excited to partner with the USC Race & Equity Center for its workshop series Equity Now! – an equity-focused professional development series for CSU staff, faculty, and administrators. During the four-week span of the project, Equity Now! practitioners will engage faculty and staff in action-planning to identify barriers and opportunities to create and sustain equity-minded change for their campuses. For more information about this free professional development opportunity for CSU staff, faculty, and administrators go here. The series begins in early September and space is limited.
• The Student Investment Fund started in Fall 2010 with a seed investment of $250,000 and just passed $1,000,000! Congratulations to all of the students, faculty, and staff who have been involved over the years, Professor David Moore, the faculty advisor, and UEI, which not only maintains and manages the funds but also got it started with the initial investment.

Thank you all for your efforts and hard work to support the Hornet family. Previous Provost’s Updates can be found here.

Take care,
Steve

Provost's Update: August 10, 2021

August 10, 2021

As we approach the beginning of the fall semester, we have a number of things to be excited about. We will welcome more than 30,000 students and 22 new tenure track faculty. As well, thanks to partially restored budgets, we’ve been able to hire new staff to help alleviate the burden on our overworked colleagues.

Returning to campus after months apart will allow us to achieve tremendous things, even in the face of tremendous challenges. I’m proud and excited for what’s next.

I know the coming fall semester brings anxiety as there remain so many unanswered questions and uncertainty about what we will face. We all feel that anxiety. I find comfort by looking at what we need to do to fulfill our mission. We are here to transform our students’ lives, which we do in so many ways. Our mission has been consistent before and during the pandemic, and will continue to be so as we come out of the pandemic.

As I look at the next several semesters, I do not see an abrupt end to the impacts of the virus. As we vaccinate more people, we diminish those impacts; but we need to get used to living our lives and meeting our mission with the knowledge that COVID is with us. For this reason, we should continue to move forward with repopulation while building Academic Continuity Plans as they will likely be necessary. Returning to campus is the best way to transform lives, impact our community and meet our mission.

I also know there are a lot of questions and uncertainty. In discussing the effect of uncertainty on stress, Matt Reed said it better than I can in his column in Inside Higher Ed:

“Next month we’ll have students, staff and faculty return who have been remote for a year and a half. I suspect — I hope to be wrong on this — that some of the strains people have felt have been largely hidden by virtue of being home. When they come to campus, even if only for part of the week, some of those hidden struggles may become visible. And when some folks aren’t at their best, they can set off unhelpful responses among others whose fuses are uncharacteristically short after so much isolation and under so much stress. ...

“In the absence of certainty about circumstance, we’re probably best off relying on what we do know. We know that decency in how we treat each other can go a long way. We know that nobody is superhuman, and we all sometimes need to take a moment. We know that many, many people are bearing scars, most of which we can’t see. And we know that we can choose to make those scars worse, or to help them heal.”

As we have said, we will not be coming back to the same workplace we left in March 2020. We will be more flexible in the workplace and have more virtual options for our students. What will not be different is our commitment to our students and each other. We will still be a caring campus, understanding of individual challenges we each face and meeting them with grace.

Good news:

Here is a great story about Professor Michelle Stevens and her students’ work to restore Bushy Lake. Professor Stevens was named 2021 Environmentalist of the Year by the Environmental Council of Sacramento.

Carla Cruz Medina (a graduate student in Professor Tim Davidson’s lab) was awarded the prestigious 2021 CSU Trustees' Award for Outstanding Achievement. This award is for superior academic performance, exemplary community service, and significant personal accomplishments.

Our Computer Science department was just ranked #10 in the country by CodeSignal based on the coding skills of graduates.

And finally, we are posting Frequently Asked Questions related to COVID and fall 2021 that we have received (including, among others, what to do with a student that refuses to wear a mask) on the Academic Continuity website. Please continue to ask. Previous Provost’s Updates can be found here.

Thank you for all you do,
Steve.

Provost's Update: July 27, 2021

July 27, 2021

Hi everyone,

I hope you are well and happy. As we are quickly moving towards the beginning of the fall semester, we are readying to welcome a new group of Hornets to campus and looking forward to seeing each other again soon. It is a good time to think about the coming semester.

We will not be back to operating the way we did pre-pandemic, but we are not yet post-pandemic; this is a time of transition as we move towards what we will be in the future. As we transition, we will take what we’ve learned in the last few years and improve on what we do to become an even better University supporting student success, antiracism and inclusion, and our community.

Vaccination Requirement

As you saw in the Chancellor’s and President’s Announcements, all students will be required to be vaccinated before returning to campus. It takes approximately five weeks to be considered fully vaccinated with a two-shot series (Pfizer), and two weeks with a single-dose (Johnson and Johnson) vaccine. Since some students will be getting their first vaccine in the next week or two, and since classes begin in less than five weeks, it is likely that some students will not be allowed to come to campus for class (or other activities) for the first two weeks of the semester.

As such, we ask faculty to be understanding of students who cannot attend face-to-face classes in the first two weeks if they have not reached full vaccination status. Faculty can choose how they want to be flexible; either alternative assignments, recording lectures, starting the semester virtually, or some other way. Whatever the choice, faculty should let their department chair know and communicate their plans clearly, and frequently, with their students. If a student is not fully vaccinated in the first two weeks of the semester and cannot attend face-to-face classes, it is the student’s responsibility to know how they are expected to maintain progress in the class and turn in assignments.

Academic Continuity

As we have just seen, one thing we have learned is that circumstances can change at any time. In the last six semesters since fall 2018, we have only had one semester when we didn’t experience an interruption of campus operations (either due to smoke or the pandemic). It would be foolish to think we will never have any more interruptions. I want us to be ready next time. To enhance our ability to continue meeting our mission under challenging circumstances, we must strengthen our resiliency and develop Academic Continuity Plans.

As you prepare for the coming semester (and future semesters), you can, and should, do some scenario planning. What would you do if campus were closed for a day, week, month, or the remainder of a semester? How would you communicate with your students? How would you maintain important campus operations? What equipment do you need to bring home, what files, etc.? Are you registered for the Emergency Notification System? Would you pivot to synchronous or asynchronous delivery of course materials? How will your students and/or colleagues know what you are going to do?

For any given semester, we do not know what may happen to interrupt our ability to operate, but we can expect that something could. And recent history suggests that something very well will, and we will be better prepared if we plan ahead. We have developed a website for Academic Continuity, including best practices and a checklist of questions faculty can ask themselves when planning for a semester. For staff and faculty, here is a checklist for you to be prepared to work from home and some Remote Work Resources.

The most important aspect of Academic Continuity is communication. Be sure to be clear with our students how you will communicate with them in the event there is an interruption to campus operations. Include in your syllabus, on your website(s), or any other resource students can get information from you how you will communicate with them so they know what to expect and are also prepared.

Welcome Back BBQ

On Friday, August 27, 2021, President Nelsen will host the Welcome Back Student BBQ at Sacramento State. To ensure the best experience for our students and their guests, we will need 50 volunteers to fill shifts on event day.

• MPP Employees can volunteer during work hours (with admin approval) and during off-work hours
• Exempt Employees can volunteer during work hours (with admin approval) and during off-work hours
• Non-Exempt and Student Employees can volunteer during work hours (with admin approval)

No employee is required to volunteer. However, we need your help to make the event a success.

Please sign up to volunteer and designate your shift preference by Friday, July 30, 2021. tinyurl.com/hwbbq-volunteer

Good news

• I am proud that our history students will work with Sacramento’s Historic Preservation team on a grant funded project to study our region's Black history as highlighted in this Bee story.
• Biology professors Kimberly Mulligan and Kelly McDonald submitted a successful proposal for continued funding of the Professional Masters in Stem Cell Research. This program funds cohorts of 10 students through a 2-year Masters program, including an 8-month paid research internship with faculty at UC Davis Medical Center. The award is just shy of $3M from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine.
• The Passport Place is scheduled to reopen this fall and will begin accepting passport applications on September 1, 2021.
• A partnership between the United Way Capital Region, the City of Sacramento, SMUD, the City of Rancho Cordova, and local non-profits looks to bridge the digital divide by making internet, computers, and digital training available to those that need it through a digital equity program.

Provost's Update: July 12, 2021

July 12, 2021

I hope you all had a restful and not too hot weekend. As alluded to in my update a couple of weeks ago, I am pleased to announce that we have HEERF funds to hire students to help faculty members for the Fall semester.

If you can use help with class preparation, in the classroom, in the research setting, and/or in other areas, we can use these funds to hire Unit 11 (ISA, GA, TA) student employees and traditional student assistants (SA), depending on what is the most appropriate area. The main goal is to provide extra resources to help and to support our students. More information regarding logistics will go to your colleges soon.

As you saw in the announcement from the Office of Faculty Advancement, many of our colleagues now can self-attest to having been vaccinated. This means that the Voluntary Verification Program now applies to fully vaccinated CFA, CSUEU and Teamsters represented staff, MPPs, Confidentials, and all non-represented employees (including non-UAW student assistants). Those individuals not participating in the Voluntary Verification Program will need to continue to wear masks, physical distance, and follow existing safety protocols. Systemwide Labor Relations is working diligently to negotiate similar agreements with the remaining unions.

Good News

New Grant Awards Received in June 2021:

• Professors Jana Noel, Tim Fong, and Jacqueline Brooks have been awarded a five-year renewal from the U.S. Department of Education for the “Pathways Fellows: Studying Supports and Barriers To and Through Higher Education” project. The grant totals $1,371,707 and Sacramento State was one of only five institutions in the nation to a receive a grant under this Department of Education program competition.
• Kelly Linder, Library Gallery, received a $10,000 grant from Cal Humanities to support an Interpretive art exhibit entitled, “Rajkamal Kahlon: And Still I Rise."
• Professor Amy Wagner, Geology, has been award a grant from the National Science Foundation for a collaborative research project entitled, “Southeast Pacific and Southern Ocean Seawater Isotopes Determined from US GEOTRACES GP17-OCE and GP17-ANT Samples.” This is a collaborative project with faculty from Rutgers University, and the grant award totals $239,096 over 3 years.
• Professors Xiaoyan Sun and Jun Dai, Computer Science, have been awarded a National Science Foundation grant for a project entitled, “Developing Ready-to-Use Hands-on Labs with Portable Operating Environments for Digital Forensics Education.” The grant award totals $391,012 over 3 years.
• Professor Xuyu Wang, Computer Science, has been awarded two National Science Foundation grants in recent months. This includes a grant for a project entitled, “Exploiting Robust Deep Learning Framework for Wireless Localization Systems in Adversarial IoT Environments” in the amount of $174,999 over two years and a collaborative research grant to work with colleagues from Auburn University and Temple University on a project entitled, “Data Augmentation and Adaptive Learning for Next Generation Wireless Spectrum Systems.” The grant award to Sacramento State for this project totals $279,946 over 3 years.

More Good News

• The Planetarium looks to reopen in August! Also, the two large telescopes have finally been installed in the Tschannen Science Complex observatory, thanks to the hard work of Tom Scary, the Instructional Support Technician for Physics & Astronomy.
• Sacramento State is resuming study abroad activities and will be sending 25-30 students abroad this fall. A record number of study abroad students is expected for spring 2022.
• The departments of Art and Design and the College of Arts & Letters are happy to note that starting in early August, Kadema Hall will be undergoing renovation. The renovations will make our photography and studio art facilities much safer and ADA compliant and respond to issues raised by their accrediting body nearly 6 years ago. Thank you to our friends in Facilities!
• The Occupational Health and Safety program in the Department of Public Health was recently approved as a Quality Academic Program (QAP) by the Board of Certified Safety Professionals (BCSP)! This designation recognizes our program’s having met quality standards, allows our graduates to apply for the Graduate Safety Practitioner (GSP) certification, and sets the stage for full ABET accreditation within the next few years.

After such a difficult year, I was thrilled to have both of my sons home — unmasked, vaccinated, and able to hug! — this past weekend. I hope you are enjoying family and friends as the world is opening up.

As always, I offer you my thanks for continuing to work hard toward our common goals: Student success, antiracism and inclusion, and fulfilling our role as an Anchor University.

Provost's Update: July 2, 2021

July 2, 2021

Hi everyone,

I hope you have all had a great week. Things are slowly coming alive on campus as the temperature is heating up. I have had the pleasure of seeing student tours go past my window and it is great to hear student voices and their excitement. This week Governor Newsom and the California State Legislature passed a budget that, in the words of Chancellor Castro, "is a bold and visionary investment in the California State University that further elevates the university's ability to meet the current and future needs of California.” Budgetary cuts from last year were restored, and there is additional ongoing funding coming to the CSU.

The contrast of our current outlook to that of the same time last year is striking. The budget process we followed this year anticipated the restoration of the cuts, and we have already restored baseline funding to each program center (Colleges, Library, ORIED, etc.) to partially thaw the hiring chill and solidify operations. While this news is very good, new funding to the system has yet to be allocated to the campuses. We will need to work strategically to best utilize this funding to support our mission and our priorities.

This week, President Nelsen released the Antiracism and Inclusive Campus Plan. I wish to join him in thanking the many dedicated people who participated in the development of the plan; I look forward to working alongside you all as we move to its implementation, with an eye toward continually developing our campus community into an antiracist and inclusive one where we can be our authentic selves and truly support each other.

Good news

Here’s some good news from our colleagues:

• Yesterday, Interim Vice Provost Bill DeGraffenreid shared with you a program that I am very excited about. This coming fall and spring, we will be able to provide assigned time to many of our probationary faculty to restimulate their scholarship and creative activities that were negatively impacted by COVID. Bill will be reaching out to those identified as eligible in the coming days. Our faculty have done many remarkable things in the last fifteen months; the retention, tenure, and promotion files that I’ve seen and the reports I’ve gotten from the Deans have demonstrated this time and time again. Yet, I know many probationary faculty are anxious about how COVID might impact their progress in this area, so I encourage those who are eligible to take advantage of this program.
• Sacramento State was named a top-Fulbright producing institution for 2020-21 and ranks first nationally among master’s granting institutions, producing four Fulbright recipients.
• Dr. Kathy Kasic (Film) has just received word (thank you, Associate Vice President Yvonne Harris and ORIED) that NSF has granted an award for a new project, “Collaborative Research: A fossil ecosystem under the ice: deciphering the glacial and vegetation history of northwest Greenland. . .”
• Dr. Chris Boosalis collaborated with Twin Rivers Unified School District to pilot an online tutoring program for English learners who were supported by students in his EDUC170: Introduction to Bilingual Education course. Sac State students met weekly with Newcomer High School students. Thank you to Vice President Ed Mills who also supported this effort with special Sac State swag for the high school students and a presentation about going to college. The district hopes to expand this partnership in the fall.

Once again, thank you for all you do to support our students, our region, and each other, Steve

Provost's Update: June 25, 2021

June 25, 2021

Hi everyone,

I hope this email finds you well and you are getting some time to relax. This has been quite the year (plus). We have all faced personal and professional challenges. However, we have a lot to be proud of and thankful for. Collectively, we graduated 9,099 students this past academic year, we supported our students and each other through a global pandemic, and we have performed professionally in ways we could never have imagined.

Among the many things we have learned is that we can never over-communicate, and we can always get better at sharing information. We have a lot of information posted on our Return to Campus webpage. However, it will also be helpful for you to hear information directly. To that end, I plan to send out regular (perhaps weekly) messages with information regarding what is going on in Academic Affairs.

If you have been keeping up with the University’s social media accounts, you may have noticed the theme, “Hornet Family. Together Again.” That theme encompasses our forward-looking commitment to putting behind us the various constraints that have kept us apart, as soon as is safe and prudent.

Course Modality

While details regarding masks, vaccines, and physical distancing still need to be finalized via policies and conversations with the unions, all signs and science point to the reality that we will most likely return to campus in the fall with no masks and no distancing requirements for vaccinated individuals. This fills me with joy because I know that face-to-face learning is a vital component of the education we provide for our students, especially our first-time, rising second-year students, and transfer students who have been learning remotely for the past year and haven’t experienced in-person interactions with our outstanding faculty and devoted staff. Though you may worry about the hassles of making changes to the schedule right now, it’s not too late, and President Nelsen and I request that you find ways to bring students Together Again on campus. Please work with your department chair to increase face-to-face content where it is in the best interests of our students.

We know a change in course modality presents challenges to both our faculty and students. Nonetheless, it is the responsibility of the deans, associate deans, chairs, and program directors to develop course schedules with a mix of modalities that will best support our students’ success. We are a brick-and-mortar institution, and our mix of teaching and learning modalities ought to reflect that. We have all worked tremendously hard to adjust during the unique challenges of the pandemic, and it has made a difference. Let’s continue to work together to support our students. When a change in modality featuring more face-to-face interaction is the best way forward, let’s reach out to our students and help them manage the change.

Faculty and Staff Support

We also know that the pandemic has significantly affected everyone’s ability to perform day-to-day duties, not to mention maintain professional momentum. We need to find ways to support each other and provide resources to invigorate professional development and elevate our capacity to succeed. To that end, we are working to secure resources and promote opportunities to support the success and well-being of our faculty and staff. We now have the funding to support faculty to hire student assistants for helping with grading, facilitating classroom discussions, and supporting faculty research. We will share details in future updates as soon as possible.

While longer than future updates are likely to be, I hope you find this one helpful. If you are wondering about anything or think there is something potentially useful for me to include in future updates, please do not hesitate to contact me. As I’ve said many times, this has been a challenging year in many ways. However, I am heartened and extremely grateful for what you all have done to help us meet our mission. Our students, our campus community, and our entire region are better for all you do.

Thank you for all you do to support our students, each other, and our region, Steve

Thank you for what you have done this year

May 7, 2021

As we wind down this academic year that has been unlike any we have experienced, I want to again share my appreciation and admiration for what we have been able to accomplish this year. We have all experienced loss and felt trauma and have had our lives turned upside down. But, through it all, we have remained true to our mission to prepare students for leadership, service, and success. Many pieces of data can be used to exemplify our successes led by the fact that through your work, along with that of our many campus partners, over 9,000 students will graduate again this year. This represents a truly tremendous accomplishment, and we should all be very proud.

As we get ready to finish this semester, we are also winding down the preparations for the fall 2021 semester. The schedule of classes is posted and students are registering. The majority of course sections have some face-to-face content and we offer an array of online sections as well. We do not anticipate major changes to the schedule. Over the summer, we will reopen offices and begin to repopulate. While many of the details are still being worked out, we will fully reopen campus on August 2nd. Additionally, we expect a vaccination policy in the next couple of weeks. As with everything during these times, if circumstances change, we will need to adjust. Here is what we expect now, with details for each still to be determined:

• MPPs and Auxiliary Managers will come back to campus on June 1st.
• College Offices, and others, will be open over the summer.
• August 2nd campus will be open.
• Vaccines will be required when FDA approval is received, anticipated for fall 2021.
• The fall 2021 course schedule is posted and students are registering.
• In spring 2022, we look forward to seeing everyone and starting our new normal.

The transition back to campus will be a challenge, but we will do it like we do everything else, by supporting each other. We should begin planning for spring 2022. The fall semester will provide a smooth glide path to everyone fully returning to campus and we should look at the spring 2022 semester as though it will be our new normal.

I deeply appreciate the work we have all done to continue putting our students first and providing the best education we can. Recently, I walked past Capistrano Hall and heard a student playing a horn and it literally brought me to tears. The feeling that we are getting back to what we want and need to be overwhelmed me. I cannot wait for us to get back together and continue working on the great opportunity we have each day to impact lives.

Steve Perez
Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs

Kevan Shafizadeh named Interim Dean of College of ECS

April 21, 2021

After consultation with the Faculty Senate Executive Committee and with the concurrence of President Nelsen, I am pleased to announce that Dr. Kevan Shafizadeh will be appointed Interim Dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science until a national search for a permanent appointment can take place. Dr. Shafizadeh will begin his appointment as Interim Dean on June 1st following the departure of Dean Lorenzo M. Smith, who has accepted the position of Provost and Executive Vice President at Stephen F. Austin State University. Once again, please join me in congratulating Dr. Smith on his appointment.

Dr. Shafizadeh joined the Hornet family in 2004 as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering, teaching transportation engineering and planning, computer applications, and applied statistics. He chaired the Department from 2012 to 2015 and became Associate Dean of the College in 2016 after serving on an interim basis for a year. As Associate Dean, Dr. Shafizadeh served as the primary contact on many college and university initiatives and worked with Dean Smith to support students, faculty and staff. In this role, Dr. Shafizadeh launched teaching and research initiatives, improved graduation and job placement rates, expanded student services, and upgraded lab facilities.

Dr. Shafizadeh is a recognized expert in transportation engineering and planning. He is a state-registered professional civil engineer, a nationally certified Professional Traffic Operations Engineer and a nationally certified Professional Transportation Planner with numerous presentations and publications to his credit. He received an Outstanding Scholarly and Creative Activity Award from Sacramento State in 2012. He is a fellow of the Institute of Transportation Engineers and was honored by the Northern California Section with Distinguished Service Awards in 2006 and 2014.

Before joining Sacramento State, Dr. Shafizadeh earned his Ph.D. from the University of Washington in Civil and Environmental Engineering. He holds a Master of Science degree and a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from UC Davis. In the area of academic leadership, he completed Sacramento State’s Academic Leadership Development Program in 2018 and UC Berkeley’s Executive Leadership Academy in 2019. Dr. Shafizadeh is also a program evaluator for ABET, the accreditation body for engineering and computer science programs.

Because of these impressive accomplishments, Dr. Shafizadeh is well prepared to lead the College of Engineering and Computer Science as it continues to transform the lives of students and meet the growing engineering, construction management, and computer science needs of the Sacramento region. Please join me in congratulating Dr. Shafizadeh as he continues to lead the faculty, staff, and students of the College of Engineering and Computer Science.

Steve Perez
Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs

We are at our best!

March 25, 2021

Hi everyone,

I read a column in the Chronicle of Higher Education today that made me think of you all and how much great work we are all doing. It also reminded me that I haven’t sent you all a message in a while. So, as we have reached spring break in the third semester of our experience with the COVID-19 global pandemic, please take a few minutes and watch this video message and know how much we appreciate all that you are doing to care for our students and each other and provide a transformative educational experience to our students.

Thank you all, Steve.

Steve Perez
Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs

Congratulations Dean Smith!

March 18, 2021

With mixed emotions, I offer the news that Dr. Lorenzo Smith, Dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science, is leaving Sacramento State after the Spring semester concludes. He has accepted the position of Provost and Executive Vice President at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas. While I am thrilled for the professional opportunity this change represents for Dr. Smith, I am also disappointed that he will no longer be contributing to student success at Sacramento State.

Those contributions have been profound. Dr. Smith has been at the helm of the College since 2014. Before that, he was Associate Dean of the School of Engineering and Computer Science at Oakland University in Michigan, where he began as an Assistant Professor. He holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana and Wayne State University (respectively), and a Ph.D. in Engineering Mechanics from Michigan State University. While earning his advanced degrees, Dr. Smith worked at Ford Motor Company in research and development, and at General Motors Corporation as an engineering analyst.

Once he became a Hornet, his impact on the success of students in the College of Engineering was immediate. Over the course of his time with us, four previously un-ranked programs in the College have achieved national rankings: Civil Engineering is 11th, Computer Engineering is 13th, Electrical and Electronic Engineering is 18th, and Mechanical Engineering is 22nd among 220 peer institutions nationwide. He has also secured $5.6 million in gifts for the College, including funds to establish the Hornet Leadership Program, a co-curricular set of learning experiences centered around students receiving mentorship from industry leaders. Consistent with the strategic plan he established, the College now also boasts a multi-faceted student success center and a research assistantship program, along with multiple instructional laboratory upgrades and the hiring of 28 tenure-track faculty college-wide since 2014.

With two teaching awards, fifty-eight publications, two U.S. patents, and over $7 million in external funding for research during his career so far, Stephen F. Austin State University is very lucky to be able to call their next Provost a true teacher-scholar. He will be missed at Sacramento State, but I’m sure you all join me in congratulating him, and wishing him success as he continues his leadership journey.

Steve Perez
Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs

Vaccination Update

March 8, 2021

Good afternoon Academic Affairs Staff, Faculty, and MPP employees,

Per President Nelsen’s message, Sac State employees began to receive email invitations to sign up for vaccine appointments at the vaccination site located in the University Union. This program started with priority groups, those approved to be on campus starting with those with the highest interaction with others. As of today, however, all Academic Affairs staff, faculty, and MPPs should have received such an invitation. Following Sacramento County guidance, only very narrow conditions allow for student employees to receive vaccines at this time (we have been working with managers closely on these narrow cases).

Please note the following:

• If you elect to get vaccinated at the Sac State clinic, it is highly encouraged that you sign up for an appointment this week. You can do so by following the instructions outlined in the invitation email. It is advised that you verify that the email is not in your junk email folder; some security settings may cause it to be routed there.

• If you received your vaccination already (at Sac State or elsewhere), or elect not to get vaccinated, no action is needed and you may delete your invitation email. If you have already started the vaccination process, you should complete it with the same provider.

• If you did not receive an invitation or did not get a chance to sign up for an appointment, please contact me (degraff@csus.edu) as soon as possible. We will make sure that another invite is sent out.

Thank you!

Bill
William DeGraffenreid, Ph.D.
Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs (interim)

Mary Maguire named Interim Dean of College of Health and Human Services

March 8, 2021

After consultation with the Faculty Senate Executive Committee and with the concurrence of President Nelsen, it’s my great pleasure to announce that Dr. Mary Maguire will serve as Interim Dean of the College of Health and Human Services, until a national search for a permanent appointment can take place. Dr. Maguire joined the Hornet family in 2005 as an Assistant Professor in the Division of Criminal Justice. She chaired that Division for five years beginning in January of 2013, and became Associate Dean of the College in 2017. She has been acting as Administrator-in-Charge of the College since Dean Robin Carter retired almost a month ago.

Before coming to Sacramento State, Dr. Maguire earned her Ph. D. and her Master of Social Work degrees from Portland State University in Social Work and Social Research. She also holds a Master of Arts degree in Psychology from Lindenwood University, and a Bachelor of Science degree in English from William Woods University. In the leadership development realm, she is a graduate of Harvard’s Management Development Program and the HERS Leadership Institute.

Professionally, Dr. Maguire has served as the past President of the Western Society of Criminology, and received the J.D. Lohman Award for Outstanding Service to that organization. She has several presentations and publications to her credit, and also received an Outstanding Teaching award from Sacramento State.

Because of these impressive accomplishments, Dr. Maguire is well prepared to lead the College of Health and Human Services, with its eight departments and approximately 7,500 majors. From the awarding of bachelor’s degrees to doctorates, the College is meeting the needs of the Sacramento region and transforming students’ lives through efforts such as new degree programs and dramatic improvements in graduation rates. Please join me in congratulating Dr. Mary Maguire as she leads the faculty, staff and students of the College of Health and Human Services to even more remarkable successes!

Steve Perez
Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs

Are you expecting to be Face-to-Face in the Summer or Fall?

March 1, 2021

Sent to you on behalf of the Office of Faculty Advancement

Dear Faculty,

Campus is currently making vaccination appointments for those who are now teaching Face-To-Face, along with some other priority groups. We want to be prepared to move to the next phase, those faculty who will be, or expect to be, teaching Face-To-Face in the Summer or Fall terms.

If you know that you will be teaching Face-To-Face, or think that there is a possibility that you will, please go the Office Form that has been created to share your name and email address.

• If you have received the vaccine for COVID (or are in the process of obtaining in now), you do not need to complete the form.

• Those who will be teaching only virtually also do not need to complete the form; as noted, we are prioritizing those teaching Face-To-Face.

Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions.

Best regards,

Bill

William DeGraffenreid
Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs (interim)

Vaccine Emails

February 26, 2021

Good morning everyone:

As we are experiencing our spring semester we are simultaneously planning for our fall schedule. The challenges posed are significant as we do not know what the circumstances relative to the pandemic will be in six months. However, there are positive signs about our future and one of them is the possibility for widespread vaccinations. On Feb. 17th, President Nelsen sent a message to us all saying Sacramento State is serving as a vaccination center. As described in that message, invitations to faculty and staff have begun based on availability. This is great news.

I’m sending this message today because we are hearing that some people are finding their invitations in their spam folder. If you believe that you meet the criteria described in the message and didn’t receive and email, please check your spam. If you missed your appointment opportunity because the email was filtered to your spam folder, please contact Ed Mills at shcs@csus.edu. Please visit Sacramento State’s COVID-19 website for updated information.

Thank you for all you do to support our students, each other, and our region, Steve.

Steve Perez
Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs

Student Evaluation Memo – Impact on Evaluation due to Covid-19: UPDATED

Resending with a different version of the PDF. The original Acrobat Sign version is proving difficult to merge into other PDF files.

February 18, 2021

TO: All College Deans, Associate Deans and Chairs

FROM: William DeGraffenreid, Vice Provost (interim)

RE: Student Evaluation Memorandum to Reviewer – Impact on Evaluation due to COVID 19

Attached is a copy of a memorandum regarding the impact of student evaluation relative to faculty performance evaluation for the Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 terms. Sacramento State and CFA worked jointly on the language.

In sum, all Reviewers conducting performance evaluations are expected to take into consideration the impact that COVID 19 may have had on student evaluations. To that end, a copy of this memorandum is to be permanently appended to the front of each course evaluation performed in Fall 2020 and Spring 2021. Please place the memorandum in the file as soon as possible, but no later than February 26, 2021.

On 11/13/2020, Provost Perez provided his expectations regarding faculty (including reviewer) in a SacSend relative to the impact of COVID 19 which is applicable for the Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 term. Please encourage faculty to revisit his message.
Please let me know if you have any questions. Thank you in advance.

Robin Carter Retiring from Sacramento State

February 8, 2021

In December, I had the great pleasure of announcing the wonderful news that Dr. Robin Carter had accepted the position as the Dean of the College of Health and Human Services. As you can see in that announcement, Dr. Carter has an illustrious track record of success at Sacramento State supporting our students, staff, and faculty as well as an extensive record of supporting our region.

It is with great difficulty that I write to you today to announce that Dr. Carter has decided to retire from the University for personal reasons.

Dr. Carter has literally grown up at Sacramento State and Sacramento State has grown up with her. Dr. Carter’s impact on us as a campus and a community cannot be overstated. She has left a lasting impact on us and we are indebted to her for her care and leadership. Personally, I have valued her partnership and friendship and will miss working with her very much. I have worked with, travelled with, and celebrated with Dr. Carter and have benefited from her strong, compassionate, and dedicated leadership, and her honesty and integrity.

Please join me in congratulating Dr. Carter on her tremendous career and thanking her for her dedication to the Hornet Family. We look forward to all that she has in front of her and wish her all the best as she makes this transition into her future. I can’t wait to see what comes next in her fantastic journey.

Sincerely,
Steve Perez
Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs

Spring 2021 Welcome

January 14, 2021

Hi everyone,

I hope this email finds you well and having a relaxing break between semesters. While I was able to recharge some from the continual efforts we all put in every day to provide a great educational experience to our students during incredibly difficult times, the events in Washington, D.C. on January 6th shook me. I found myself very emotional watching what looked like our country crumbling and felt overwhelmed wondering what our future brings. While I still do not know what is in our future, even as the pandemic surges, watching the bipartisan condemnation of the attack on the Capitol gave me hope. It gives me hope that we can see across our differences and work towards a better future for all of us. We must continue to stand for democracy and stand up against attempts to challenge it with mistruths and deception. We must continue to support each other.

We have done that in many ways on our caring campus. We continue to have a lot of work, discussion, debate, and understanding needed to make our campus a truly welcoming and inclusive one. I have every confidence that we can and will succeed. I have already seen the work and care we have put into supporting our students and each other during the pandemic. We have transitioned our campus to a mostly virtual experience out of necessity and we need to keep it up for another semester. We are all exhausted and we miss interacting with one another. Those days will come again and we anticipate being back on campus in some form next fall. Until then, we have another virtual semester ahead of us and we must continue to protect ourselves and one another from the virus. It will require us all to continue to be flexible, caring, and understanding of how we are each struggling and how we can succeed together. I know you already have been carrying out this Herculean task for nearly a year now, but we must continue.

Among the many ways we adjusted last semester was with the implementation of some emergency policies and procedures described in my messages from August and September and this video. As we continue to experience the effects of the pandemic, we must maintain these policies and procedures, including those explained in the interim course syllabus policy.

The aspect of these policies and procedures which has received the most attention is the section regarding webcams:

To support student privacy and for equity reasons students shall not be required by faculty to allow live access to a webcam. This includes proctoring, discussion, class sessions, office hours, or other consultation. Courses (or departments) that must require live access to a webcam for course pedagogy (e.g. American Sign Language courses, theater and dance courses) must obtain an exception from the Department Chair and College Dean before the start of the semester.

The equity concerns regarding access to high-speed internet and technology continue, and thus we shall maintain this aspect of the policies and procedures. With that said, I have heard from some faculty that they would like to encourage students to turn on their cameras to increase engagement. I understand that and I agree it could enhance a student’s ability to be engaged in a course. Faculty should feel free to explain the benefits of having cameras on and how it can improve everyone’s experience. However, a student should not be penalized if they are not able or willing to turn on their camera. Our collective goal is to support one another, with care and compassion.

Delivering an education virtually would have been impossible without your work and the support of IRT over the past 10 months. IRT has done a tremendous job supporting the needs of our students, faculty, and staff and we owe them a big Thank You! If you or your students have technology needs, please look here for resources available.

This coming semester we should look to the future, one with a challenging budget yet also one with many possibilities. We will continue to strengthen and innovate in the ways in which we support our students. We will continue working on our campus antiracism plan. And we will continue to expand our activities to support our region as an Anchor Institution. We have learned many things about what we can do in this last year. Now we need to determine what of this we want to continue doing and how else we can evolve and innovate to provide the best education possible for our students. Our first step will be to plan how to accommodate the likely need for high flexibility in the fall 2021 semester. We do not know exactly what it will be like, but we can plan for a semester that supports a combination of face to face, virtual, and highly flexible courses to meet the varied and changing needs of our students, staff, and faculty. I hope you share my optimism about the coming semester and the future ahead.

Once again, thank you for all you are doing to support our students, each other, and the region. We have faced so many challenges and difficulties in the last year and done so with grace, care, and understanding. We will face more, and I know we can get through them together.

Take care, Steve

Steve Perez
Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs

Archive of Provost Communications

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