Weekly Repopulation Update 5/24

Sent: May 24, 2021

From: Vincent J. Del Casino, Jr., Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs

Dear Colleagues,

I hope that everyone is doing well at the end of this semester! And, what a semester it has been. I am excited to see several thousand students come to campus this week to take photos and “walk” through our campus event (more information can be found here). The event is planned in the context of the current County safety measures. If you are on campus and notice extra traffic, that is why!

You may also notice that classes for fall are starting to fill up. And, orientation is going to be gearing up soon. It appears SJSU is more popular than ever with incoming students. I suspect, although I don’t have empirical evidence, that many students who were waiting to get back to campus have declared interest in SJSU. So, don’t be surprised if we need to add sections to our schedule some time this summer.

There is a special group of essential workers I really need to thank! While we were sheltered in place last year, Distribution Services has been open for business. The packages, mail, freight, and vendor deliveries did not stop! Joel Crowley, Andrew Meneses, and Darryl Muhammad made sure we got our mail and packages. They made sure class materials, kits, awards, etc. reached our students for their distance learning projects. They process about 1,000 pieces of mail a day! And when we were unable to hold commencement last year, they sent out over 6,000 diplomas. Not only did they cut costs by evaluating new processes, they also cut the process time by 50%!  Thanks to the Distribution Services Team, for supporting our division and our mission!

I hope that everyone has some plans to relax over the upcoming three-day weekend with family and/or friends. I know this has been an exhausting year and any downtime we can find is very important! Thanks, again, for all the effort and energy this spring - as a division you have delivered another remarkable semester under very challenging circumstances. 

All the best,
Vin