Remembering what’s important this holiday season…
by Dr. Jolene Koester on December 13th, 2010 under Campus messages, Communications
With students now in the midst of their final exams and, along with faculty and staff, looking forward to the upcoming holiday break, I thought this would be a good time to take stock of the state of the University as we head toward the new year.
Although there continues to be a measure of uncertainty related to the state and University budgets, and many in the campus community remain deeply affected by the volatility of the past year related to budget cuts, enrollment reductions, and registration fee increases, there is still much to be grateful for as we head into 2011. The budget that was passed by the state legislature in October restored funding to the California State University and to Cal State Northridge. More importantly, thanks to careful planning and some good luck, on campus we have been able to accept new students for the spring semester, increase enrollment for this and next academic year, initiate a significant number of new searches for tenure track faculty, and offer more course sections for students so that they can get the classes they need to graduate.
And in spite of the difficult challenges and obstacles we faced during the past few years, thanks to the continued commitment of our faculty and staff, the University has continued to demonstrate excellence. Recent examples that come to mind is the success, again, that Cal State Northridge’s Model United Nations Team earned at a recent national conference in Washington, DC, where the team won “Outstanding Delegation Award”; the selection of the College of Business and Economics by the Princeton Review as one of the top business schools in the country for the fourth year in a row; and the recognition of our alumni for excellence in their respective fields, including Genein Letford, who was a recipient of a national teaching award, and Josh Nitschke, who was one of four first place winners from each major region of the world in the 2010 Kodak Film School Competition. As these examples show, Cal State Northridge remains focused on its work of preparing students for success.
Though we will continue to deal with difficult issues in the coming year, I hope the gift of time most of us will enjoy during the holiday break will be an opportunity to appreciate the good and important in our lives, and to spend quality time with family, friends and loved ones.
In this spirit, please accept my best wishes for a joyous holiday season and happy new year.
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