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Dear Sonoma State Community,
On Friday, we came together to mark the beginning of a new academic year and celebrate the community that makes Sonoma State such a special place.
At the Fall 2026 Kickoff, we also launched "Think Outside the Box," a new opportunity for our community to share ideas, aspirations, and possibilities for Sonoma State's future.
The idea is simple: great ideas can come from anywhere.
Our future will be shaped by the creativity, experience, perspectives, and commitment of people across our entire community. "Think Outside the Box" is one way to ensure their voices are heard, inviting all of us to imagine what is possible.
Throughout the morning, students, faculty, and staff added their ideas to our interactive installation. It was exciting to watch the installation begin to disappear beneath Post-it notes representing the hopes, ideas, and possibilities of our community.
But Friday's event was only the beginning.
Whether you joined us on Friday or weren't able to attend, I invite you to be part of the conversation. Visit Think Outside the Box to share what possibility excites you most for Sonoma State. Share one idea or several -- there are no limits outside the box.
In the weeks and months ahead, we'll continue sharing ideas and themes that emerge from the conversation and will look for opportunities to connect them with the work happening across the university.
Thank you for everything you do for our students, for one another, and for Sonoma State. I am excited about what lies ahead and the possibilities we will create together.
Let's keep thinking differently, imagining what's possible, and building our next chapter together.
Warmly,
Archive
Good evening Seawolves:
Please see the following letter from the Chancellor and the CSU presidents to all CSU students, and note Sonoma State’s addendum to the CSU Time, Place, and Manner policy: https://www.sonoma.edu/time-place-and-manner.
Over the past two weeks, I have taken time to meet with several key groups and individuals, including the President of the Associated Students, the Academic Senate leadership, SSU-Students for Justice in Palestine, the Jewish faculty affinity group, and various other stakeholders to listen, learn, and reflect, and develop a course of action for continued university dialogue about events in the Middle East, the harm violence causes to all commu
Please join me in celebrating Women’s History Month and all that women have created, accomplished, and contributed to all of our lives. Sonoma State University is no exception. While our first president was not a woman, Marjorie Downing Wagner, SSU’s third president, was one of the first woman presidents of a U.S. public college or university.
Happy New Year!
January promises to be a busy month for Sonoma State University. In addition to dodging raindrops, our main items of interest are the return of students and studies for the start of the semester on January 22. The university will be open and operating; the start of some classes might be delayed due to a planned strike by faculty January 22-26.
As we enter the final days of 2023 and prepare for the holiday festivities shortly ahead, I want to express my sincerest thanks to all of you for making Sonoma State such a success during the past year. We certainly have had challenges, and the path forward will not be without more obstacles, but we have abundant reasons for optimism going into the new year.