California State University Long Beach’s 2023 Annual Convocation covered a new structure to tackle student-campus belonging, Academic Senate policy changes and introduced a new pilot program, Beach XP.
The Annual Convocation is a yearly gathering that highlights new projects, new university members and upcoming administrative goals. Other California State University Long Beach achievements highlighted include the Associated Student Inc. approval of expansion to the University Student Union and the Beach Wellness resource.
Creating student belonging at CSULB is part of the university’s values and priorities. One of the innovative, new approaches to create belonging is the Beach Experience Program.
“Beach XP, short for Beach Experience, is an all hands on deck initiative designed to bolster retention of our Beach students during that critical first year,” Karyn Scissum Gunn, CSULB Provost, said.
The program launches this fall and is focused on first-time, first-year students at CSULB. It will help create peer networks, enhance learning, build career connections and give students a chance to build a community.
“Students will be in their cohorted college classes and attend with the same peers each week. This is designed to establish connections and connect our Beach XP students to the campus and to one another,” Miranda Bates, Senior Communication Strategist for the Office of the Provost, said.
CSULB President Jane Close Conoley said she has proposed a structure for creating student-campus belonging. The proposal will work by focusing on a collective network of information gathering through campus convenings and feedback sessions.
The structure is still in the proposal stages and has not been implemented at the time of this writing. The end goal would be to have something prepared by the end of the fall semester. The network would flow from the university’s core values and strategic priorities and be made up of the following:
- Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility work across campus.
- Steering Committees, that would promote support and guidance.
- DEIA collaborations to build on what already is in place.
- Subcommittees to address specific needs.
Pei-Fang Hung, chair of the Academic Senate, said the senate has noted the need to improve processes to recruit and retain the best faculty. This means the senate will work on improving appoints, promotions and tenure. There is also additional policy work to accomplish.
“For example, we (Academic Senate) will work on revising departmentalization policies, certificate policies, appeal procedure, masters policy just to name a few,” Hung said.
The Academic Senate is continuously working towards creating institution changes as well as focusing on moving forward with student-faculty success, diversity, equity, inclusiveness and accessibility.
The Beach Wellness program is focused on giving students, faculty and staff the chance to have their mental and physical health taken care of at the university. The Counseling and Psychological Services, CAPS, Basic Needs and Faculty Affairs have put together the Wellness Ambassador Certificate. It prepares faculty and staff to be able to better address the needs of students.
“As our students return to campus they will need support more than ever, and it’s a beautiful thing to see so many of our campus members responding to be prepared for this call,” Gunn said.
Mitali Jain, president of ASI, said the Future U project, started a year ago, and has garnered information on proposed changes to the University Student Union.
“After a year of active engagement connecting with more than 17,000 campus stakeholders this project has been approved,” Jain said.
This story was edited on Aug. 22, 2023 for accuracy.