CSULB kicks off new academic year with many changes, including new leader

Cal State Long Beach is embarking on a significant transition as students, faculty and staff begin the 2025-26 academic year next week. The campus will experience ongoing construction, more opportunities for student success, a new acting president, and more, university officials said on Friday, Aug. 22.

These aspirations and changes ahead were shared by university leaders, including Provost Karyn Scissum Gunn and Acting President Andrew Jones, during the university’s annual convocation at the Carpenter Performing Arts Center. The annual event kicks off the school year each fall and details the university’s priorities for faculty, staff and students and others in the campus community.

The theme for this year’s convocation was “Waves of Change: Honoring the Past, Envisioning the Future.” It allowed the campus community to not only envision what awaits but also reflect on the impact that former President Jane Close Conoley had on CSULB after her tenure of more than a decade, Scissum Gunn said.

“Let’s move forward with intention, energy, purpose,” she said, “as we shape what promises to be a truly impactful academic year.”

Scissum Gunn shared accomplishments, such as CSULB being ranked third among national universities for promoting social mobility, expanding its master’s and doctoral programs across multiple disciplines, and four-year graduation rates more than doubling over the past 10 years.

University leaders are also ready to face challenges, including Jones, whose appointment to the role was announced on Monday. Some of those challenges, he said, include the state budget crisis, devices over the war in Gaza, and ongoing political attacks on higher education.

As the search for a permanent successor continues, Jones said that for however briefly he may be in the role as acting president, he will face those challenges by using his experience and continue to strive toward the university’s mission of being a “place where learning thrives, where all are welcome and where diversity and equity are not just celebrated, but are essential to who we are.”

“Our north star has not changed; we will continue to protect academic freedom, elevate equity and inclusion, and ensure that every member of our community is seen, heard and valued,” Jones said. “I know this won’t be easy, but I also know the strength, talent and resolve in this room and in our community as a whole. Together, we will not only navigate these challenges but we will rise to them and emerge stronger and more united in our purpose.”

Jones already has a deep connection to CSULB. He graduated from the university in 1982 with a bachelor’s degree in business before earning his law degree at UC Davis. For years, Jones has also served the 23-campus CSU system as executive vice chancellor and general counsel.

Students, faculty and staff will also be seeing several construction projects on campus, officials said. The construction for the renovation and expansion of the University Student Union has begun and will be completed by 2028, as well as a new student housing complex to be completed in July.

“After more than a decade of advocacy, planning, and persistence, the expansion and renovation of the University Student Union is officially underway,” said Sonny Ciampa, the university’s Associated Students, Inc. president. “While this project brings a great deal of logistical complexity and short-term disruption, it also represents something far greater. It represents an opportunity to realign our campus with the values and needs of our students.”

The university has also made improvements to its technology infrastructure, enhanced cybersecurity and improved WiFi coverage across the campus. CSULB is also introducing several artificial intelligence-driven tools to help support learning and services, officials said.

In athletics, the university will be opening its new pool in January, creating more opportunities for the water polo programs, kinesiology classes, and the Long Beach community.

Over the summer, administrators updated the university’s “Time, Place and Manner policy,” and incorporated feedback from the campus community to make it “cleaner, more useful and more inclusive,” said Daria Graham, the university’s associate vice president of student success and engagement. CSULB’s “Speak Boldly and Listen Bravely” initiative will also continue to offer training and dialogue that promotes respectful communication, active listening and conversations across the campus.

These policies came to be after university students across the nation, including at CSULB, held protests and encampments in 2024 to protest in support of Palestinians in Gaza and demand that universities divest from investments that fund Israel. Since then, students and faculty at CSULB have held several rallies protesting school- and system-wide budget cuts, and calling on the university to defend diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, and protect undocumented students.

“We remain committed to inclusion and to solidarity with the most vulnerable among us right now,” said Neil Hultgren, CSULB’s academic senate chair. “Undocumented people and their friends and families, starving children, hostages, trans people, researchers and government workers who have lost their livelihoods.

“As faculty, staff and administrators, we cannot let facing disaster cause us to become disasters ourselves,” Hultgren said. “We should be kind to one another, communicate clearly, and be willing to have conversations in a respectful manner.”