The CSU Student Success Network is an independent network developed by CSU faculty, staff and administrators looking to provide spaces and resources for people in all levels of the CSU system in support of increasing graduation rates, equity-based inquiry and action, and closing critical opportunity and outcomes gaps.
The network was created at the Sacramento State campus and is currently celebrating its fifth year in operations.Since 2016, nearly two thousand faculty, staff, and administrators from every CSU campus have stepped forward to get involved in the network’s activities. The network hosts an abundance of convenings and annual conferences to not only network with other individuals within the CSU system, but also to share ideas and potential problems.
Convenings provide opportunities for middle leaders in the CSU to come together across institutions and roles to focus on issues of practice that affect students. Each convening is centered on a topic representing an issue affecting campuses across the system. Meetings are designed to stimulate conversations and encourage collaboration.
As for annual conferences, its purpose is to advance equitable student success by providing faculty, staff, administrators and students with an annual statewide opportunity to share actionable research, evidence, and practices for use or adaptation on our own campuses.
“Being able to engage in the convenings and annual conference, I get the chance to collaborate with faculty, staff and students from all over the CSU,” said communications assistant Kenya Burton. “There are many ways to engage and learn from each other, it is great to have support from multiple levels and create a better understanding for the challenges we face.”
The most recent convening was held virtually on March 4, titled These Precedented Times: Crisis Management in the CSU. The convening covered a wide range of past crises such as 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, the lessons to be learned from them and how to work through them from an educational standpoint. The convening offered a platform for the CSU community to share ideas and lessons on how to be better prepared for the next crises, whatever or whenever it may be.
The last annual conference took place from October 13 to 14 of last year. This conference was titled The Time Is Now: Forging New Visions for Equity in the CSU and was designed to forge new goals and equity throughout CSU campuses during the age of Covid-19 and following recent racial injustices. The conference provided the CSU community with models, concepts and practices they can adapt to their own settings.
If interested in sharing, learning or collaborating about issues related to student success head to the CSU Student Success Network’s website, which is csustudentsuccess.net. or follow their Twitter account @CSU_SuccessNet.
