January 2024 A&F Times
January Column
I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and were able to take some time to rest and celebrate with friends and family! I would also like to thank our colleagues from Facilities, UPD, and other areas, who worked part or all of the winter break. Their continued support of our campus and the campus community is greatly appreciated.
Last year was a momentous year for Sonoma State and for all of us on campus. We went through some major changes and challenges: realignment of staff, reorganization of departments, revisited our campus infrastructure needs, and most importantly, planned for the future. Each of you have been a tremendous asset and continued to support our campus and our students throughout these changes. I am proud of everything our team accomplished this last year, and even more excited for what the new year will bring.
As we move into 2024, we already see the signs of recovery and rejuvenation on and around campus. Our Fall 2024 applications are up, our retention numbers are holding steady, and our overall enrollment is trending in the right direction. We are looking forward to welcoming more students back to campus and continuing to grow our campus community.
In the coming weeks, the Senior Administration Leadership Team (SALT) will be meeting to discuss our plan and strategy for 2024. My desire will be to focus our efforts and energy on three broad areas: student recruitment and retention, workforce development, and improving campus facilities. We will continue to have a broad focus while partnering with other university areas to implement campus-wide strategic initiatives that will impact these broad goals and move our campus forward.
2024-25 is shaping out to be the year our net enrollment numbers will start to move back up. We are very excited about the change and are appreciative of our campus’ collective efforts the past few years to help the campus regain its enrollment. We are projecting a continued year over year enrollment increase in the coming years.
I am grateful for all the A&F members who continue to provide the campus with the high standard of excellence that creates a great experience for all our students.
- Monir Ahmed, Vice President for Administration & Finance
What's Happening on Campus
Infrastructure Upgrades
This year our Facilities team will be focusing on renewing our campus infrastructure, including major upgrades to campus power and wet utilities, which will make our campus more resilient as well as energy efficient. One of these projects is a revitalization of our North Lakes. This work is scheduled to begin next summer and will include dredging to remove years of buildup. This will not only make the lakes a cleaner, better home for wildlife, but increases the emergency water supply to campus in the event of a fire.
The university is also continuing to look for new ways and opportunities to manage, maintain, and renew our campus buildings. With the current reduced population on campus, a few of the older buildings with lower utilization may be moved to an asset preservation category to help us focus on highly utilized buildings such as Stevenson Hall, Salazar Hall, Darwin Hall, the Student Center, and others. Additional communication regarding these plans will be sent out as more information becomes available.
Employee Housing
Did you know SSU has employee-exclusive housing available on campus? Sonoma State University remains committed to offering faculty and staff a variety of high-quality local housing at reasonable prices, and in the Fall of 2022 we opened the Cabernet Village Apartments. These pet-friendly, two-bedroom, one-bathroom, 1,200-square-foot apartments are tucked away in a serene setting in the northwest corner of campus. Rental units are available for $2,500 per month, which includes all utilities, wi-fi, laundry facilities, and Xfinity Stream digital cable. For more information, check out the Employee Housing website or email employee.housing@sonoma.edu.
Time to Celebrate!
Join the AP and PO teams in celebrating Jennifer Kroh and her 25 years of commitment to Sonoma State University! Cake and refreshments will be served Friday, February 2, 2024 from 2:00pm-4:00pm in Overlook. Please come by and wish Jennifer the very best in retirement. Mark your calendars with the invite! If you can't make it on February 2 but still want to say congratulations, Jennifer's last day on campus is February 12, 2024.
New Year, New Look
Did you notice we got a new look? The IT team is working on upgrading all campus websites to the new version of Drupal, D10, which brings a host of new features and improvements to university websites:
- Intuitive User Interface: A modern, intuitive UI in D10 allows content managers greater flexibility and creativity in sharing information while adhering to branding guidelines. This directly benefits content editors by simplifying their workflow.
- Accessibility and Responsive Design: Improved accessibility features in D10 make sites more user-friendly for individuals with disabilities, enhancing the visitor experience. The responsive design ensures sites look great on all devices, catering to a broader audience.
- Faster Performance: Enhanced caching and optimization lead to quicker load times and a smoother browsing experience, significantly improving the site visitor experience.
- Robust Security: Enhanced security measures offer better protection against cyber threats, ensuring a safe browsing environment for visitors and safeguarding content.
- Automated Testing Support: Improved support for automated testing in D10 helps maintain a consistent and high-quality user experience, with fewer disruptions for visitors and easier maintenance for editors.
- Modern Technology Stack: Drupal 10's advanced technology stack not only enhances user experience but also streamlines development and maintenance processes.
Over the upcoming months, all sites across campus will be migrating to D10 as the previous version, D7, is being phased out. As the latest version, D10 guarantees extended support and regular updates, ensuring a future-proof and continually improving platform that will provide greater security, support, and accessibility for all campus users.
Special shoutout to Ian Carlson, Jaime Russell, and the whole Enterprise Applications team on their work to not only bring this project to fruition, but create a smooth and seamless experience for all involved!
Anniversaries & New Hires!
Welcomed to SSU in December
| Name | Department |
|---|---|
| Paige Berendsen | Payroll & Benefits |
| Erykah Lopez | Payroll & Benefits |
Celebrated Anniversaries in December
| Name | Department |
|---|---|
| Ryan Fasano | Entrepreneurial Activities |
| Melissa Castro | Conference & Event Services |
| Nader Oweis | University Police |
| Noah Fell | Operations & Engineering |
| Jenna Hennessy | Student Center Operations |
| Hayley Avery | University Budget and Planning |
| Karl Mortenson | University Police |
| Mira Aceves | Network Security & Communication Services |
| Missy Brunetta | Risk Management & Safety Services |
| Amanda McGowan | IT Project Management Office |
| Jon Boehlke | Enterprise Infrastructure Services |
| Mark Harlin | Accounting/Financial Reporting |