During 2020-21, Miguel Jimenez, program coordinator of the Male Success Initiative at California State University, Stanislaus, worked with a team from his campus to develop a stronger institutional approach to engage and support Men of Color on campus. As part of this process, the team participated in several events by the CSU Student Success Network (Network) to examine student data, develop action plans, and implement changes on campus. 

The CSU Student Success Network (Network) stands in solidarity with efforts throughout the CSU system to strengthen our institutional culture around Title IX and civil rights. To this end, we support our fellow middle leaders (faculty, staff, and administrators) and students in strengthening dialogue, accountability, and actions on and across our campuses. The Network also supports transparency in the selection process, including open campus forums for executive positions such as system chancellor and campus presidents, to provide opportunities for public comments on prospective leaders.

This blog is based on interviews with incoming second-year CSU students who attended college virtually during their first year. Highlights of the interviews are enlightening, and they contributed to a lively discussion with a panel of CSU faculty and staff during the CSU Student Success Network Conference in October 2021. The panel focused on what we can learn from students as we reframe our approaches to student engagement during the pandemic.

The CSU Student Success Network is celebrating its first five years of supporting middle leaders in developing campus practices and outcomes that are equitable and student-centered. Since 2016, over 1,800 faculty, staff, and administrators from every CSU campus have stepped forward to get involved in the Network’s activities. At Network events, these middle leaders work with colleagues from their own campus, share strategies and research with other CSU campuses, examine student data, plan new approaches, and work together back on campus to advance policies that support equitable student learning, engagement, progression, and completion.

By CSU Student Success Network Staff

The CSU Student Success Network launched its new Knowledge Center with the release of a new memo that identifies steps that CSU campuses can take to improve persistence and completion for Students of Color who transfer into the CSU. The memo, called “Supporting the Success of Transfer Students of Color by Strengthening your Transfer-Receptive Campus Climate,” is directed to faculty, staff, and administrators in the CSU and is based on findings from a review of research literature in postsecondary education. 

The CSU Student Success Network named Bianca Romina Mothé, Ph.D., professor of biological sciences at Cal State San Marcos, as its new director. As a faculty member and researcher at San Marcos since 2003, Dr. Mothé has helped design novel vaccines for rapidly mutating pathogens, including HIV. She also served as associate dean for undergraduate studies from 2016 to 2018 and faculty director for service learning from 2013-2016.

In this Q & A, Ántonia Peigahi, director of policy and records management at California State University Sacramento, shares her perspectives about the power of being a “middle leader” in supporting equitable student success, including through her work on the advisory board of the CSU Student Success Network. The Network defines middle leaders as faculty, staff, and administrators in the CSU who have leadership roles on campus regardless of whether their position title acknowledges these roles. 

By Dr. Thad Nodine for the CSU Student Success Network

The Middle Leadership Academy, amid a pandemic, supported eight CSU campus teams in developing plans to address equity in 2020-21. During the year, the Academy reconfigured its sessions from longer, in-person events to offer shorter, more frequent online meetings. In both the in-person and virtual formats, the Academy scaffolded supports to build leadership skills among mid-level faculty, staff, and administrators and to help CSU campus teams develop projects to address and support equity on their campus.

By CSU Student Success Network Team

The applications for our Middle Leadership Academy are now open! The Network answers some of the Frequently Asked Questions and explains more about the program.