SACRAMENTO, California — The new president of Sacramento State University is announcing new safety measures just one week before students start coming back to campus.
"We are launching a presidential task force on campus security, and what the task force is going to do is it's going to bring together our students, our faculty, our staff, and experts to come together and make recommendations for what the campus should be doing," said Dr. Luke Wood.
"We have a right to not be scared at night" was the chant from students as they marched through campus earlier this year demanding better lighting and a stronger response to a string of sexual assaults.
With student worried about safety, Wood has a message for them. He hears them.
"I have been here for a few short weeks, but in those few short weeks I have heard from students myself who have also expressed concerns about safety on our campus," said Wood.
After student led townhalls demanding action, Dr. Wood said the new task force is just the first step.
"In addition to announcing that task force, we're already going to make these following commitments. We're going to expedite the lighting on our Intramural Fields for athletics. We're going to be increasing the number of full-time counselors that are working with our students because, when we think about campus security, we have to think about it holistically and recognize wellness as a part of that. We're going to be increasing the number of our CSS officers on campus which are our public safety officers who will have an even increased visible force on our campus," said Wood.
Wood said he's come back to Sacramento State to finished what he started 20 years ago, back when he was a student leader in government.
"The only time that I decided that I wouldn't run for president is when my twin brother ran for president," said Wood. "As a student leader, I said that I was committed to focusing on campus safety. I said I was committed to focusing on athletics. That's intercollegiate athletics and intramurals. I was committed to ensuring that we had affordable housing for our students, and I was committed to addressing graduation rates and equity gaps. And 20 years later, those are the same things that I'm still focused on."
And he admits, that for him, this mission is personal.
"There were days where I would go two, sometimes three days at a time, without eating. I would scrounge up change of the ground, and there was a Taco Bell not too far from here, and I would walk to that Taco Bell because back then you could get a cup of water and a bean burrito for 69 cents," said Wood. "At the same time, I struggled with housing insecurity. There were times when I lived in my car. There were times when I lived in my brother's garage. Most people don't know but when my twin brother was student body president here, he lived in his office because he was homeless. And I'm not just saying this is something that's important because it's some lofty thing that sounds good for an administrator to say, but because I personally experienced this. And I want to make sure that everyone single one of our students knows that they have a place to lay their head at night and that they have a meal coming to them so that they're not focusing on that."
The Sacramento Black Chamber of Commerce held a "Welcome Home" celebration for Wood and urged the community to step up.
"All of those things that he struggled with when he was going to Sac State, he wants to be sure that those things are eradicated under his watch. I'm really proud of him for doing that. He understands because he's lived it," said Azizza Davis Goines, Sacramento Black Chamber president.
Goines said she wants people to support him and help him complete his mission. It's a mission that includes new investments on campus.
"We have to build housing for our students. We have to make sure that we have enough housing so that at the very least all of our first and second year students have a place to lay their head at night," said Wood.
Wood is the ninth president of Sacramento State. He's also the second African American to hold the position. Now leading the university he once attended, he hopes it sends a signal to the community.
"Well hopefully, it signals to the community that instead of shying away from difficult conversations on diversity and inclusion and equity and justice that we're going to lean into those conversations. Because it's in those conversations that we discover what it's going to take for us to get to that next level in terms of remediating those equity gaps," said Wood.
WATCH ALSO:
