2022-23 SA Reimagining Project

Background & Guiding Principles

In January 2021, Vice President Viridiana Diaz joined the CSUSM Student Affairs family. Over the past year, Dr. Diaz has met with various CSUSM constituents, including staff, students, administration, faculty, and community members, to learn about the culture, structure, and practices of the university and of Student Affairs. The 2022-23 Student Affairs Reimagining Project is designed to address evolving student needs and expectations, lessons learned from the pandemic, budget and enrollment projections, and our Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) and Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institution (AANIPISI) status, as well as the new university’s Strategic Plan.

The Student Affairs Reimaging Project will inform organizational alignment decisions within the division. This process will help identify opportunities for:

• greater synergy;
• collaboration;
• partnership by leveraging existing talent;
• developing internal opportunities;
• positioning expertise and strengths while addressing divisional needs.

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Desired Outcomes: Remain Competent, Competitive, and Relevant

1. Respond to the needs of students and staff
2. Create opportunities for advancement
3. Build efficiencies
4. Improve processes
5. Establish sensible expectations
6. Build higher functioning departments/units
7. Align outcomes with strategic plans, etc.
8. Be proactive vs. reactive
9. Become stronger as a division
10. Ensure we thrive in a changing environment

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Timeline

Interim changes that are required for business continuity may be implemented earlier.

• August – November 2022
  Divisional Senior Leadership Team members individually met with the Vice President for Student Affairs to share their thoughts, recommendations, concerns, and hopes for their existing units.
• November 2022
  Divisional Senior Leadership Team members met with their unit directors to discuss the scope of the reimagining effort, review the process’ guiding principles, and engage in in-depth conversations to gain unit managers’ input.
• November 30, 2022

  Student Affairs Leadership Team met with the Vice President for Student Affairs and the division’s Senior Leadership Team to further discuss the Reimagination Project.

• December 2022
  Unit directors hold collective and individual meetings to discuss the reimagining process and gather their thoughts, recommendations, and concerns.
• January – February 2023

  Group chats open to all divisional employees and students to discuss and collect feedback on the process and potential synergies. 

  Meeting Modality: Hybrid (option to attend in-person or virtually)

  • Student Affairs Managers​ | January 31, 2023 | 10am – 11am | The Hub, Administrative Building 2302 | Register Here by Friday, January 27, 2023
  • Student Affairs Staff & Faculty | February 1, 2023 | ​2pm – 3pm | The Hub, Administrative Building 2302 | Register Here by Monday, January 30, 2023
  • Students | February 2, 2023 | 12pm – 1pm | The Hub, Administrative Building 2302 | Register Here by Tuesday, January 31, 2023
• January – February 2023
  An open comment period–for individuals who would like to submit written comments. Comments may be submitted online here.
• March – May 2023
  Divisional leadership reviews collected feedback and develops reimagining recommendations.
• June 2023 (tentative)
  Reimagining Project concludes; organizational alignments are finalized and shared with the division.

Note: The timeline is tentative and subject to change. The website will be revised accordingly.

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