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We have made significant strides over the summer on high-impact initiatives including our path to earning the Seal of Excelencia, promoting student enrollment, engagement, retention, and graduation rates, as well as funding to hire new faculty for fall 2024. Below is just a summary of what we’ve accomplished.
This year, we submitted our application for the Seal of Excelencia to be a Certified Institution and will find out if we’ve been selected on September 29. By the same token, our very own CSUN Bridge to the Future Scholars Program was selected as one of 19 finalists for the 2023 “Examples of Excelencia,” the only national effort to identify and promote evidence-based practices accelerating Latinx student success in higher education. The four programs selected will be announced September 28 at the organization’s annual Celebración de Excelencia in Washington, D.C.
In an effort to enhance our research mission, Dr. Gabriela Chavira, Director of the Office of Undergraduate Research, is leading the charge to promote and support student success through mentored undergraduate research. This high-impact practice has been shown to have the most positive effects with regards to promoting student engagement as it provides our students with hands-on experiences and a chance to connect with faculty and peers.
Another critical initiative this year is student advisement. Advisors play a vital role in empowering students to create and achieve their educational goals. Studies show that advising also positively impacts retention and graduation rates. Accordingly, we have invested in advisement by hiring an interim Senior Director of University Advising, and will be hiring a Director of Advising for every college and 20 additional advisors to help manage the workload.
Finally, we piloted a new four-day New Faculty Orientation that started earlier this year and saw great success with 29 of our 30 new tenure-faculty members in attendance. Even more exciting is that we are planning to hire 38 new tenure-faculty members for fall 2024, pending budgetary considerations.
I am so proud of everything we’ve been able to accomplish together! Though we have more to do, I know we will be successful if we continue to work in partnership. Only by working together can we achieve 100% placement for our students.
Thank you for all you do and your dedication to our students and mission. We would not be able to do much without your support and collaboration. A very special recognition to all our wonderful and dedicated staff, who are on the front lines and the first point-of-contact for our students. We certainly could not be successful without you.
I am excited about this new academic year and the impact we will all have in the lives of our students.
Thank you,
Meera
Meera Komarraju, Ph.D.
Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs
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