SACRAMENTO, Calif. — As Sacramento State Hornets returned to campus Wednesday, new President Dr. Luke Wood prepared for his fall address.
He’s introducing what he calls the “100 days of listening” to ask staff, students and the local community “what is it that makes us distinctive?”
He’s the ninth president of Sac State and the second African American to hold the position. He wants to lead the university he once attended to a better place.
“Hopefully it signals to the community that instead of shying away from difficult conversations on diversity, inclusion, equity and justice that we’re going to lean into those conversations because it’s in those conversations that we discover what is going to take for us to get to that next level in terms of remediating those equity gaps.” said Wood.
One of those difficult conversations, he says, is the graduation rate.
In the last eight years, the overall 4-year graduation rate increased 212% but the graduation rate for Black students only increased 15.6%.
“When you start disaggregating that data, you find that our students of color, particularly our male students of color, have outcomes that are lower than that of their peers,” said Wood. “
He says the university could be doing better for men of color as 4-year numbers show Black men 14%, multi-ethnic men 14%, Southeast Asian men 15.3% and Latino men 17.1%.
First-year, transfer and new graduate students were able to move onto campus Wednesday ahead of classes starting.
Campus safety is another tough topic Wood wants to tackle this year.
“When a parent drops their child off at Sacramento State they’re putting their faith in us that we’re going to do everything humanly possible to make sure that their child is safe, and that they have an opportunity to walk across that stage at graduation. The worst possible thing that we can do is send a false promise to the community,” said Wood.
He’s launching a presidential task force on campus security which includes rolling out better lighting and additional public safety officers.
“We see this as a priority, and as parents are bringing their children here and as they’re driving home they know that we will not sleep at night so that they can sleep better,” said Wood.
The fall address is set for 9 a.m. Thursday where Wood will announce his 100 days of listening campaign and talk more about his visions for the school year ahead.
