Message from the Provost, Mary Beth Walker

First announced last year, CSUN is now fully implementing the Provost’s Equity in Faculty Hiring Initiative. 

"We’ve created a new, comprehensive search manual that emphasizes best practices for ensuring equitable searches that are compliant with Equal Employment Opportunity principles," explained Dr. Elena Miranda, Co-Director of Equity and Compliance for Faculty Recruitment & Retention . "We call the new manual the Tenure-Track Hiring Toolkit, and along with its companion appendices, it provides a step-by-step overview of the entire search process as well as examples and templates for all the documents needed as part of an equitable search." Click to continue reading.

The university has developed a number of initiatives tailored to the needs of transfer students, including a Pathways project that has received support from the Chancellor’s Office.  To be designed as an online, graphic guide, the Pathways program map will enable students to explore a program of study from required coursework through to career entry.  The objective is to build a visual description of a curriculum that is more user-friendly that traditional paper forms.  

EOP summer bridge programs welcomed 475 enthusiastic, new Matadors this season.  "It was great to have our programs and students back on campus this summer," said Shiva Parsa, Sr. Director of EOP.  "Students were excited to be here and enjoyed the opportunity to build a strong community with each other."

The Residential, Transfer, Commuter, and FreshStart programs are designed to help students acclimate to the university environment by providing a head start toward a successful college experience and are offered free of charge.

First established in 1985, the EOP Transitional Program emphasizes not only academic preparation but also community-building for freshmen through a focus on mentoring. To continue reading, click here.

For the first time, CSUN has exceeded the $36 million mark in external research funding. In addition, external proposals submitted also broke records, exceeding $170 million.  The high value of awards granted and proposals submitted for fiscal year 21-22 reflects the amount of research activity happening on campus.  

“This is an exciting time at CSUN,” explained Christopher Sanford, Ph.D., Associate Vice President, Research and Sponsored Programs. “Expanded research and creative activity benefits our entire CSUN community and especially our graduate and undergraduate students. Credit for this achievement goes to our outstanding faculty, students and staff, whose hard work and endless hours spent on the activities have led us to this point. I would also be remiss if I didn't mention the tremendous support from RSP and TUC staff.” For RSP's news of funding opportunities click here.

The GRAD Center PhD Application Bootcamp, an intensive, 4-day program for students interested in pursuing a doctorate, was attended by 36 students in July.  Organized by the GRAD (Graduate Resource and Academic Development) Center, the bootcamp has expanded since the program’s first year.

“This program can show a lot of students interested in the Ph.D. application process the breadth of what needs to be accomplished,” explained DeVere Vidamuerte, graduate student in Psychological Sciences and a Researcher in the Visual Information Sciences & Neuroscience (V.I.S.N.) Lab at CSUN.  “Some of us are very lucky to have concerned faculty mentors who share their experience and knowledge of what needs to be done, but scarcely any [students] manage the full grasp of how weighty a task the application process is. This bootcamp properly shows how much work and time must be dedicated in order to accomplish such a feat.”