Provost Newsletter February 2023

A Note From the Provost

Dear Faculty and Staff,

I’ve been on campus for nearly eight weeks, and during this time I’ve gained a sense of the lay of the land as I met with and listened to you, our faculty and staff. I have truly enjoyed meeting people at the Faculty Retreat hosted by Faculty Senate; talking with my direct reports, our own Deans and Vice Presidents, as well as meeting the CSU administrators and all the provosts and vice presidents at the Long Beach system office. I even attended a very festive Chinese New Year party hosted by the CSUN China Institute and the Chinese Students and Scholars Association.

What I have picked up throughout these different interactions is that two things should be front and center for our priorities: one, enrollment and bringing an increasing number of new students to our campus; and two, retaining and graduating our current students so they achieve successful career placement. So, our job is two-fold. It’s not sufficient to just bring in new students, we must reach and support the students who are here, so we retain them and see them through to persist, graduate and are successful in gaining employment or pursuing higher education.

This priority is in tune with the GI 2025 initiative, focused on persistence and graduation. It also ties in with CSUN’s Road Map to the Future, with its focus on academic excellence, inclusion and student success. We cannot be successful unless we help all our students.

Really, the key to this is for everyone – students, faculty, staff – to work together. We must collaborate across campus and across functional divisions, too. I encourage you to look for ways to work with others to foster student belonging and to advance excellence in teaching, research and creative activities. I also invite you to share your insights about how we can enhance student success on our campus and how we can facilitate the work that our faculty and staff are already doing in achieving these outcomes.

Much is happening on our beautiful campus, and I hope you will enjoy reading the highlights from Academic Affairs in this edition of the Provost’s Newsletter. Among the news items below you will find updates from the Library, the Michael D. Eisner College of Education, and a special Meet the Dean feature with Dean Joyce Feucht-Haviar of The Tseng College.

Sincerely,
Meera

Meera Komarraju, Ph.D.
Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs

Latest Academic News

University Library Offers First Credit-Bearing Course

The Library's inaugural credit-bearing course (LIB 296A – The Information Ecosystem: Becoming A Savvy User) will be offered for the first time this spring. The course was approved as an experimental course in spring 2022 which means it can be offered up to four times in the next six years. Click here for further details.

Campus News

Changes to the Common Read, News from CTL, Upcoming Training Programs and More

Much is happening on campus, including a change to the Common Read Program, developments at the Center for Teaching and Learning, training opportunities and more.

Read about Academic Affairs news>

Events and Activities

Save the Date: Provost's Colloquium on Wednesday, April 5 at 3 pm (On Campus and Zoom)

This year's Jerome Richfield Fellow is Dr. Myriam Forster of CSUN Health Sciences, who will present a lecture on April 5th as part of the Provost's Colloquium Series. This event is organized by Research & Sponsored Programs.

Read more and RSVP at this link>

Meet the Dean: Joyce Feucht-Haviar, Dean, Tseng College

What brought you to CSUN?

An executive search firm, two remarkable CSUN leaders (Blenda Wilson and Louanne Kennedy), a plane (and a moving truck).

Blenda and Louanne thought there could be (should be) a different way to use the self-support capacity at CSUN than how it was used at that time (which was very much in keeping with the standard approach of other universities in the system). They didn’t know exactly what that “different way” might be or where it might lead. They were looking for someone who could take on the role and then create that different way. I really couldn’t say no to that. Read more about Dean Joyce Feucht-Haviar at this link.

It Happened on Campus More than 50 Years Ago

Did you know . . . that in the Fall of 1969, EOP was officially established by Senator John Harmer’s Senate Bill No. 1072, “State College Educational Opportunity Program.” Learn more and watch a video about the history of EOP at this link.

Diversity & Equity Innovation Grant Recipients Announced

The CSUN Commission on Diversity and Inclusion recently announced the results of the 2022-2023 Diversity & Equity Innovation Grant (DEIG) process. After extensive review of 28 applications, the Commission recommended funding for 18 proposals. First launched in August 2020, DEIG was established to support educational projects, scholarly research, creative activities and other initiatives that promote diversity, equity, inclusion, access, anti-racism and social justice for the benefit of the CSUN community.

Congratulations to all the funding recipients! Following are the 13 grant winners in the Division of Academic Affairs:

Climate Leadership, Empowerment, Activism & Research (CLEAR) Project, Chicana/o Studies
Simulation for Inclusive Multicultural Preparation and Cultural Transformation [SIMPACT]: Using avatars to increase DEI awareness and skills with CSUN faculty and students, Center for Teaching and Learning
Formerly Incarcerated People Building Communities of Care and Transforming Justice, Chicana/o Studies
Colita de Rana Healing Circle, Chicana/o Studies
Asian American Studies Peer Involvement And Recruitment in Education: Towards the Restoration of AANAPISI Designation, Asian American Studies
Vitalizing "Our" Museum: An Interdisciplinary Student-Led Collaboration with the Museum of the San Fernando Valley, Anthropology
Centering the Margins: Cultivating Spaces for Student Learning and Leadership at CSUN, Asian American Studies
Equity-Minded Multimodal Media: Building a Pipeline to Graduate School for Underrepresented Students, Graduate Studies (GRAD Center)
CSUN Farmworker Oral History Student Dramatization Project, University Library
The capacity of a San Fernando Valley NGO to address double exposure to socio-ecological injustice through higher education, Geography and Environmental Studies
Symposium on Piano Music of Black Composers, Music Department
From Surviving to Thriving: A Support Group for Counseling and MFT Graduate Students, Educational Psychology & Counseling
Maintaining the Movement ...We are the Legacy of Cesar Chavez, Journalism Department

Additional grant recipients across the campus included:

Essential Talks: Providing Brave Spaces for the CSUN Campus Community 3rd Year Diversity & Equity Innovation Grant Funding Request, University Student Union
Disseminating the Keys to Digital Equity 2.0: Peer-to-Peer Technology Training for Early Start Students, Information Technology
AS Diversity and Inclusion Week, Associated Students
Black Student Leadership Retreat, Matador Involvement Center
Building LGBTQ+ Connections across Campus with The Soraya, The Soraya

Read more about DEIG at this link.

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