Meeting Recap for August 25, 2015
Posted by Jay Lowden
on Aug 27, 2015
The bells tolled and President Dave Cohen called the meeting to order and thanked PP Peter Dannenfelser II for a terrific wine reception. Mike Miklaus shared with us the need to be “comfortable with being uncomfortable” as the thought of the day. Michael Burman and Michelle Single were thanked for serving as the meeting greeters.
Sergeant-at-Arms John McIntyre introduced a plethora of guests, prospective members and visiting Rotarians. President Dave then introduced the head table and called on Denise Barajas, Rotaract representative from the CSUS Alumni Center to make a few comments as the meeting’s sponsor.
Joe Grant led off the club announcements by promoting the need for hosts for the upcoming Brown Bag day on September 29; Michelle Single announced an upcoming Facebook 101 on September 11, prior to the meeting at 11:00 am; Leesa Fons gave a pitch for Passions Day on October 6 and was then joined by PP Peter Dannenfelser II announcing the upcoming Firesides; Roy Alexander shared the news that there will be two, possible three Theater Nights – Elf in November, Motown in the Spring and possible Book of Mormon in between; Todd Andrews and two lovely Fräuleins (Elfrena Foord & Diane Woodruff) then promoted Sac Century Bike Ride & Octoberfest which is on October 10. He also mentioned something about guaranteeing no rain which considering the drought we are in is not much of a stretch.
Two members had President Dave ringing his bells; Jay Lowden contributed to his Eddie Mulligan in honor of his son’s new job and Robyn DeLong contributed to her Eddie Mulligan and Paul Harris, happy for her successful speaking engagement at her church.
Chair of the Day Vince Sales provided the best and quickest introduction of a guest speaker as he introduced Dr. Robert Nelsen, President of California State University, Sacramento.
President Robert Nelsen is the eighth President at CSUS and has been on board for a few months. He started by stating that Sac State is “such a great University, even I can’t screw it up.” He then shared a story about his last position at the University of Texas-Pan American in Edinburg in Southern Texas where he found a “loophole” in the law that resulted in merging with a sister campus in Brownsville to form a new university that resulted in $340 million of much needed capital investment in their campus from state designated funds. He feels that Sac State is a “place where I can put my heart” for the benefit of the nearly 30,000 students. He shared some of the concerning statistics about Sac State that he plans to address including: only 9% of students graduate in 4 years; only 43% graduate in 6 years; 606 students drop out annuals; 53-56% of students need to take remedial courses; and 37% of the students will never graduate. His plan includes reaching out to the community’s high schools to help prepare students before they get to Sac State; hiring much needed staff; and, introducing new software that all CSUS students can use to determine which courses are needed each semester so the students get the classes they need when they need them.
The mission of Sac State is simple: “As California Capital University we transform lives by preparing students for leadership, success and service.” This is exemplified in the more than 2 million hours of volunteer service provided by Sac State students each year in the community, and through the example of Anthony Sadler, a Sac State senior who along with his friend thwarted a terrorist attack on a train in France last week.
President Nelsen is “damn proud to be in Sacramento” and it is very evident that he is passionate about leading Sacramento State.
The President’s presentation prompted a lively question session from the audience and President Dave then thanked the speaker and adjourned the meeting.