Next Steps on the Working Professionals Task Force

Dear Cal State East Bay community,

I am writing today to share next steps following the final report of the Working Professionals Recruitment and Service Task Force. I appreciate all the feedback I received from our campus community about this report.

As many of us realize, Cal State East Bay has great potential to serve working professionals in our region who are interested in finishing their initial bachelor degrees and/or in pursuing additional degrees and credentials. Industries in our region require a highly educated workforce. Demographers estimate there are close to 4 million Californians with some college, but no degree. Cal State East Bay already serves this student segment well. Our goal is to proactively increase enrollment from this important segment of students. 

I want to thank Claire Abshire, Dan Bellone, Nolan Calara, Brian Cook (Co-Chair), Patricia Drew, Murray Horne, Balvinder Kumar, Travis Nelson, Keri O’Neal, Zinovy Radovilsky, Gangaram Singh (Co-Chair), Marc Strong and Kathleen Wong(Lau) for their work to study this opportunity and to make recommendations. Based on my reading the final report, my past experience serving this demographic, and your feedback, I have decided to delve further into opportunities available to us. I have engaged consultants from the University Professional and Continuing Education Association to develop a strategic growth plan for us with specific actions and target markets. This plan will serve as a guide to jump start impactful, high-demand programs. In my judgment, this is our best path forward to rapidly increase enrollments among working professional students to serve workforce needs in our region. 

I will share high level findings and recommendations from the UPCEA report as well as process for appointing a new leader for University Extension later this academic year.

Thank you very much for your interest.

Sincerely,

Cathy Sandeen

October 12, 2023