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Destination 2010 Home

Students & Academics

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PROGRESS

Continually assessing and strengthening our academic and related co-curricular offerings

Goal: Evaluate general education and graduation requirements in terms of our students' capacity to respond to changing economic and career conditions throughout life.

Progress:

  • 2008-09 will feature discussions of the value, goals and applications of our general education and graduation requirements programs.
  • General education and graduation requirements have been the centerpieces of our recent regional, NCAA and professional college accreditation self-studies.
  • All academic departments have completed reports that illustrate how the majors are responding to the new campus information competency requirement.
  • Sacramento State’s Career Center provides students not only with links to employers and community resources but also with career information for most of our major academic programs. 


Goal: Integrate more systematically academic (curricular) and student (co-curricular) programming.

Progress:

  • The offices of Academic Affairs and Student Affairs continue their efforts to integrate classroom theory with experiential opportunities through student organizational and service-learning activities.
  • Sacramento State is a participant in the American Democracy Project, a multi-campus initiative to increase students' awareness of, and commitment to, civic engagement.
  • Service learning and civic learning components are part of most of our Freshman Seminars, and two new initiatives are underway to help faculty incorporate these areas into their Freshman Programs material.
  • In each of the past three years, more than 1,500 Sacramento State students participated in some form of community service or work experience through faculty-sponsored service learning, internships or cooperative education placements (paid workplace opportunities). We expect more than 2,000 students to participate in these programs in 2008-09.
  • Alternative Break, a collaborative project by staff members from the Community Engagement Center, Student Activities, and the Alcohol Education Program, provides Sacramento State students with team-oriented community service options during academic breaks.
  • Sacramento State's Community Engagement Center has developed partnerships with agencies, organizations and school districts throughout the Sacramento Region. Students from academic programs such as Child Development, Nursing, English, Communication Studies, Family and Consumer Sciences, Government, History, Art, and Urban Education participate in these active learning community experiences.
  • Nursing students have worked with the Community Engagement Center since 2004 to promote the application of educational course content regarding growth and development in childhood, pediatric assessment tools and techniques, and wellness education to community settings with children and childrearing families. Each semester, more than 100 students serve 11 organizations throughout the region.


Goal: Maintain Sacramento State' s presence as a cultural arts “hub” for the Sacramento Region.

Progress:

  • The College of Arts and Letters offers more than 300 art, creative writing, dance, design, music, and theatre events each year, many during the spring Festival of the Arts.
  • The University Library Gallery brings to Sacramento the works of notable artists such as Robert Therrien, the Society of Six and the Royal Chicano Air Force.
  • The departments of Art and Design maintain three galleries to exhibit student and faculty work in more than 50 exhibits each year.
  • The Department of Music produces nationally prominent events such as the Festival of New American Music and the New Millennium Series, educational programming such as the Summer Jazz Camp and the Strings Project, and concerts and recitals featuring students and faculty performing instrumental, vocal and choral works ranging from jazz to world premieres.
  • The Department of Theatre and Dance celebrated its Golden Anniversary in 2006 and continues to produce plays, musicals and dance programs along with its nationally renowned Lenaea Festival of competitive high school performances.
  • Guest artists appearing on campus have included the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, pianist Jon Nakamatsu, Carol Channing, installation artist Richard Jackson, and Nicholas Leitner Dance.


Goal: Develop partnerships within the region to advance Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) initiatives.

Progress:

  • We have developed the Center for STEM Excellence, a university-wide initiative to strengthen STEM education and research and increase the number of students entering and graduating from STEM disciplines, to meet regional needs.
  • In 2007, Sacramento State joined with regional education and corporate leaders in a STEM summit entitled "Building the STEM Pipeline." The Summit focused on developing the best kindergarten-to-workforce STEM pipeline in California.
  • The College of Engineering and Computer Science’s faculty members and students have partnered with state and federal government agencies and the region's industries to conduct applied research in support of the region's move toward a more sustainable and clean technological society.
  • Sacramento State recently joined a team of regional leaders to advocate in Washington, D.C. for energy conservation, green workforce education, and economic development of the “green sector.”
  • Sacramento State’s faculty and staff have received numerous state and federal grants to increase the number and improve the quality of science and mathematics teachers in the K-12 grades.
  • With sponsorship from the Women of AT&T, SMUD and Intel, we hosted “Expanding Your Horizons” and the regional “Science Olympiad,” to stimulate interest in science, engineering and mathematics among middle-school students, particularly girls.

Goal: Increase curricular attention to local and state policy formation.

Progress:

  • We have formed a partnership with the Sacramento Area Regional Trade Association to engage faculty and students in regional research and policy analysis.
  • The Sacramento State Annual Survey of theRegion assesses public opinion and perceptions of quality of life in the Sacramento Region regarding a wide range of local and national issues. Results are quoted in such venues as the Wall Street Journal, the Sacramento Business Journal and The Sacramento Bee.
  • The Center for California Studies and the Center for Collaborative Policy continue to provide opportunities for faculty and students to participate in policy formation and evaluate policy outcomes.
  • The LegiSchool Project, a non-partisan collaboration between the University and the State Legislature, links California high school students and state leaders in discussions of government and policy issues.


Goal: Increase our roster of applied graduate programs and expand capacity in high-demand programs such as nursing.

Progress:

  • We now offer the doctorate in education, focusing on leadership in higher education.
  • We offer an innovative program in nursing leading to certification and a master's degree for those currently holding a bachelor's degree.
  • Our Liberal Arts and Sciences undergraduate and graduate programs continue to send high numbers of students on to professional and doctoral studies at major research universities.
  • Our College of Education continues as the major producer of teaching and administrative credential holders in the Sacramento Region.
  • Our highly successful Executive MBA program continues as a leader in the region.