Office of the Provost Newsletter March 2025

Dear Colleagues,

As I enter my third year at CSUN, I remain deeply grateful to you for your support and openness in welcoming me as I transitioned from Southern Illinois to Southern California. I now feel very much at home and continue to admire all of CSUN’s gems including our faculty, staff and administrators and their steadfast commitment to our students.

I hope you got a bit of rest over the winter break as the start of the new year ushered in the dangers accompanying unexpected wildfires. Our thoughts and prayers are with all of our colleagues who have been impacted by this tragic disaster, directly or indirectly. Additionally, transitions in national leadership have presented higher education with new challenges that we are doing our best to address even as we remain grounded in our values and focused on our purpose. At CSUN we continue to be devoted to our ideals and our commitment to ensuring our students have a rich and rewarding journey.

Here are some updates since my last message to you in December.

Enrollment: Bringing new students to campus, retaining them and ensuring their success in achieving their academic aspirations is a top priority. We will be hosting an “Admitted Matadors Day” event on Saturday, April 5, 2025 for prospective students admitted for Fall 2025. We look forward to all our academic programs engaging with the admitted students who have expressed interest in their disciplines, and persuading them that CSUN is the best choice for them! Thank you for what you are already doing and will continue to do.

On a related note, we also have the Retention Workgroup meeting regularly and sharing best practices regarding outreach to the students who joined us in Fall 2024. This semester, college-level teams that include the Associate Dean, Director of College Advising and the Graduation and Retention Specialists are reaching out to first-year freshmen who are starting this Spring semester on “Academic Notice” with the purpose of supporting their academic success.

Budget: As we continue to face new budget challenges, we are doing our best to share information as widely as possible. Last semester, VP Donahue and I were able to visit with all the colleges and share more college specific information and respond to questions. Last month, a February 4th budget memo co-signed by Colin Donahue, CSUN’s VP for Administration and Finance & CFO, and me was sent out. Subsequently, on February 7, we had our first University Budget & Planning Group [UPBG] meeting of the semester, and we thank you for attending, engaging, asking questions, sharing your insights and concerns and identifying potential action steps.

Faculty hires: We have initiated the hiring process for 40 tenure-track faculty hires for Fall 2025 and that process is underway. We are grateful to faculty for stepping up to serve on search committees, review applications and identify the pool of candidates we bring to campus for interviews. Since teaching and learning are central to our mission, we are prioritizing this investment in building our instructional infrastructure. We are also appreciative of the dedication and support our lecturing faculty provide in advancing our important mission.

Thank you for all you do and your commitment to our students and mission.

With gratitude,

Meera