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Dear Cal State East Bay community,

I am writing today to share next steps following the final report of the Scaling Career Services Task Force. I appreciate all the feedback I received from our campus community about this report.

With a majority of our students being the first in their families to earn degrees, most of them also need our help to understand careers available to them, pathways to achieving those careers, and developing professional networks. Though Cal State East Bay currently provides career services, the report highlights opportunities for us to scale those services and to provide integrated career information and support throughout a student’s time here. This type of intentional and integrated career service, including faculty involvement, is a high impact practice that supports student retention and degree completion.

I want to thank Ashmita Ahluwalia, Jennifer Aure, Evelyn Buchanan (Co-Chair), Steven Cleveland, Bridget Ford, Cathey Hurtt, Balvinder Kumar (Co-Chair), Ally Pelland, Kathryn Palmieri, Farzad Shahbodaghlou and Krystle Tonga for their work to study this opportunity and to make recommendations. Based on my reading the final report and your feedback as well as a previous report from the Career Leadership Collective, I have decided to implement recommendations in the Task Force report.

Effective November 1, 2023 our Career Services will report under University Advancement.  Academic Advising will remain in Academic Affairs.  I am confident that both teams will continue to work diligently and ensure the best possible experience for our students. 

I am very pleased to report Cal State East Bay has received a gift of over $1 million to fund two new career services positions to help us more quickly implement recommendations and scale this important service for students. In addition, there has been great interest from our alumni to give back to their school by engaging with and supporting our students’ career aspirations, and thus their social and economic mobility. 

I hope you join me in my excitement and optimism for this opportunity to further support Cal State East Bay students.

Thank you very much for your interest.

Sincerely,

Cathy Sandeen
President

October 11, 2023