News and Announcements
College of Science & Engineering Dean Carmen Domingo and Graduate College of Education Dean Cynthia F. Grutzik testified before the California State Assembly Joint Committee for the Arts on Aug. 31. Speaker Emeritus Anthony Rendon chaired the hearing, titled “Putting the ‘A’ Back in STEAM.”
STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics) is an approach to teaching that integrates the arts into all disciplines holistically and intentionally.
Grutzik and Domingo participated in a discussion of “STEAM as a Career Catalyst: Higher Education to Career Pipeline.” They highlighted the need for funding for partnerships and learning spaces as well as the importance of diversity.
Grutzik discussed a donor-funded STEAM initiative in the Graduate College of Education that integrates the arts into every subject area.
“We’ve brought on board a working artist to help with some programming in the College, to make visible the arts in every credential program,” Grutzik said. “These are the future teachers who are going to be out in the high schools. For them to leave us with this clear concept that this integration must happen is really important to us.”
Domingo discussed how arts come into play at the College of Science & Engineering’s two field stations: Estuary & Ocean Science Center and Sierra Nevada Field Campus.
“Students can observe the natural world and integrate it into their creativity, problem solving and solution building, especially in the context of sea level rise, wildfires and many other concerns that we have about our state,” Domingo said. “And, importantly, for many students that are from urban settings, they’ve never been in nature.”
The SF State Children’s Campus provides a play-based curriculum that supports children’s natural curiosity and exploration within a safe, supportive and nurturing environment which promotes their social, emotional, physical, language, literacy and cognitive development in an integrated fashion.
The campus is open 8 a.m. – 5:15 p.m., offers part-time and full-time schedules and is a year-round program. SF State staff and faculty families pay tuition at a discounted rate. For more information, visit the Children’s Campus website or email children@sfsu.edu.
The men’s and women’s Gator soccer teams take the Cox Stadium pitch beginning at noon Friday, Sept. 15, for a doubleheader. The women’s team takes on Concordia at noon, followed by the Gator men versus Westminster at 3 p.m.
Admission to Gator Athletics events is free for SF State faculty, staff and students; tickets are required. Reserve your tickets at SFStateGators.com.
Applications for summer 2024 Orientation leaders are now open. New Student Orientation is in the process of engaging, informing and assisting all new students and their guests (parents, family and student supporters) through their transition to SF State. Orientation leaders support this process by providing new students and guests with a warm introduction to campus and all its resources, drawing from their own experiences as students and from training.
Orientation leaders are chosen based on their current and potential academic, interpersonal and leadership qualities. For more information about becoming an orientation leader, please visit the New Student & Family Programs website.
SF State has partnered with other CSU campuses to provide workshops to employees.
September workshops:
- Breath and Health
- Excel Tips and Tricks
- Gender Identity and Pronouns
- Leadership Footprints: What is Your Legacy?
Visit the CSU Cross-Campus Collaboration Workshops page to view all workshops and register.
If you are interested in sharing your knowledge of a particular topic to the CSU collective, please submit a Professional Development service ticket to request time to review the specifics.
The SF State Academic Senate will meet Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2 – 5 p.m. in person at Seven Hills and virtually via Zoom for its second meeting of the academic year. Please email the Senate office for a Zoom link.
The agenda includes:
- Recommendation from the Campus Curriculum Committee: New minor in Disability Studies, in first reading.
- The Academic Senate will hear formal presentations from:
- John Kim, interim vice provost, Academic Resources: “Academic Affairs Budget Update.”
- Senator Robert Keith Collins, Senator Santhi Kavuri-Bauer and Senator Jackson Wilson: “Academic Senate of the CSU (ASCSU) Report.”
View the full agenda, meeting materials and minutes on the senate website.
Join SF State students and over 50 Bay Area organizations at the annual Service and Internship Fair on Wednesday, Sept. 13, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m., on the Quad. The Institute for Civic and Community Engagement is the host.
This event helps community partners to recruit students for their career-based internship, service-learning, and volunteer opportunities for the 2023 – 2024 school year, as well as network with SF State faculty and staff for prospective collaborations.
The University Tenure and Promotion Committee has three open seats for nomination for a tenure or tenure track. The nominees must be from the Lam Family College of Business, College of Ethnic Studies, Graduate College of Education, College of Liberal & Creative Arts or Library. It is a two-year term.
No one should actively participate simultaneously on promotion and tenure committees at two different levels (department, college and campus) or serve as senator.
To learn more about the open position and the nominations process, please take a moment to review the information below. To submit a nomination for yourself or someone else, please complete the nomination form. To ensure inclusion on the ballot, nominations must be submitted by 5 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 13.
For questions, contact the Office of the Academic Senate.
The Office of International Programs encourages students to take advantage of the chance to study abroad in the spring 2024 semester. SF State has programs in 36 countries.
Undergraduate students can go abroad for their major, minor, general education and/or language learning. Coursework on SF State Abroad Programs counts as SF State resident credit. Students can use their financial aid.
Check out the SF State Abroad database to begin exploring. Apply by 11:59 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 17.
Staff are invited to the next Staff Forum of the semester on Wednesday, Sept. 20, 10 – 11 a.m., via Zoom. All staff, except Management Personnel Plan (MPP) and faculty, are encouraged to attend. Hosted by Human Resources, this forum welcomes President Lynn Mahoney with updates on the University Strategic Plan and more.
Complete the Qualtrics form to RSVP and receive the Zoom link.
Presentations from past Staff Forums are available to view via Box.
Staff Forums are offered monthly. Others taking place this semester will be Oct. 18, Nov. 15 and Dec. 13 (all Wednesdays, 10 – 11 a.m.).
The University Budget Committee (UBC) invites the campus community to its next meeting on Thursday, Sept. 21, 10 a.m. – noon, via Zoom. Topics include a wide range of finance-related topics that affect every part of campus operations.
Members of the UBC are staff, faculty, students and administrators. The committee’s work and information about past meetings are available to view on the Administration & Finance website.
UBC members offer “office hours” on Fridays after the monthly meetings via Zoom to answer questions about budget-related matters. Staff and faculty UBC members will host the office hours on Friday, Sept. 22, 10 – 11 a.m.
To RSVP and receive the meeting agenda and Zoom links, e-mail the University Budget Committee.
Join fellow faculty in structured, dedicated and quiet writing time. SF State Transforms and the Center for Equity and Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CEETL) will host weekly faculty writing meetups during the fall semester. Sessions will provide brief opportunities for faculty to check in about their writing and ample time to work quietly on individual writing projects. This is part of Transforms and CEETL’s continued efforts to create greater faculty scholarship on campus.
The meetups are scheduled for every first and third Tuesday, 1 – 3 p.m., and every second and fourth Friday, 1 – 3 p.m. Tuesday sessions will be hybrid; join virtually or in person at the Learning and Teaching Commons on in Library 286. Friday sessions are virtual. The first session is Tuesday, Sept. 19, at 1 p.m.
For the Zoom link or any inquiries, please contact Ilse Gonzalez. To attend, please fill out the Qualtrics form.
SF State Spotlight
A Sept. 4 column in the Los Angeles Times about anti-LGBTQ+ hate includes commentary from Marc Stein, the Jamie and Phyllis Pasker Professor of History. He notes that public policies protective of gay rights at the state levels have “opened the door to national transformation.”
“It’s about creating safe spaces and sanctuary jurisdictions, but it’s also about providing positive models,” Stein said.
SF State faculty are involved in two projects recently awarded grant support by the SF State Water Contractors (SWC). SWC partnered with the California Department of Water Resources to award more than $4 million across six projects through their first science proposal solicitation. The projects address factors affecting water supply reliability and habitat restoration to better manage the San Francisco Bay, Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and watershed.
Estuary and Oceance Science Center Adjunct Professor Emeritus of Biology Wim Kimmerer and Adjunct Professor Michelle Jungbluth will work with ICF Jones & Stokes Inc. to assess a model to test how Longfin Smelt respond to spring outflow. Though once abundant in the San Francisco Estuary, these fish are now a threatened species. Since abundance appears to rebound when spring outflow is high, researchers want to understand how Longfin Smelt abundance varies in dry and wet years. Evidence suggests interactions between the estuary’s complex flow patterns and the larvae’s swimming behavior might improve their survival during wet springs.
In another project, School of Environment Assistant Professor Erin Bray will study how river temperatures impact salmon. Her team will develop a spectral physically based energy model to predict the temperature of river water under current and future climates and help understand how rivers warm downstream of dams. Understanding how to manage river temperature might help maintain cool temperatures for salmon under warming climate conditions.
Josh Davis, assistant professor of Journalism, received the Emerging Adviser Award from the College Media Association (CMA), the nation’s largest organization dedicated to serving collegiate media advisers, for his role as a faculty adviser for the SF State student publications, Golden Gate Xpress and Xpress Magazine.
The Emerging Adviser Award is a national recognition, celebrating outstanding college media advisers for their distinguished service. Davis will be honored next month at the CMA National College Media Convention in Atlanta.
Tess & The Details are a San Francisco punk rock band led by SF State’s social media specialist, Tess Stevens. They just released their first single and music video, “Canary.” Their debut album “Runaway” (Double Helix Records) comes out on vinyl and streaming Tuesday, Nov. 14, and can be preordered from Hello Merch.
Tess & The Details’ next show is at the free, family-friendly Ever Higher music festival on Saturday, Sept. 23, at Jerry Garcia Ampitheater in McLaren Park in San Francisco.
Recreation, Parks, Tourism and Holistic Health Professors Erik Peper and Richard Harvey, with students Singing Chen and Nicholas Heinz, authored “Hope for menstrual cramps (dysmenorrhea) with breathing.” It was published by Biofeedback in summer 2023.
The article suggests that women may be able to reduce menstrual cramps with guided diaphragmatic breathing and imagery.
Associate Professor of Counseling Tiffany O’Shaughnessy helped lead two events at the American Psychological Association’s 2023 annual convention. She helped facilitate a dialogue about gender inclusivity and racial justice in feminist psychology and co-presented a poster, “Initial Development and Validation of the Attitudes Towards Telesupervision Scale.”
The meeting was held Aug. 3 – 5 in Washington, D.C.
In a Sept. 1 story in the Nevada Current, Assistant Professor of Political Science Amanda Roberti discussed issues with anti-abortion activists co-opting language from the civil rights movement in their campaigns. Their rhetoric often invokes slavery, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Black Lives Matter.
“There is a widespread and widely cast approach going on here, but that is something that social movements can do, especially when they’re multifaceted like the anti-abortion movement is,” Roberti said. “They have an overarching goal of the end of abortion, but I think there are other groups that have slightly different tactics and what they want to pursue.”
Imagine an eight-lane freeway tearing through Golden Gate Park and the Panhandle in the middle of San Francisco. Thanks to activists like Philosophy Professor Emeritus Arthur Bierman, it remained an imagination and was never built. An Aug. 26 story in the San Francisco Chronicle revisits the Panhandle Freeway rebellion.
On March 16, 1961, Bierman and 150 Haight-Ashbury residents attended a city planning meeting at Dudley Stone School, “dominating the meeting with their protests.”
“An unlikely coalition, led by hundreds of housewives, stood up to the massive political machine and didn’t just save the Panhandle — they stopped the encroachment of freeways throughout the city,” the story stated.