Lane Olson, Staff Representative to the Senate

Convocation Speech, Fall 2008

Good morning and welcome students and faculty, staff and administrators. In the midst of a world filled with people and nations in relationship and, as a result, more and more fragile, I find myself surprisingly upbeat at the beginning of this school year.

We will be electing a new President of the United States this semester.

We welcome 22 new students who are recent graduates of the Roseland University Prep High School; a program that was set up in partnership with Sonoma State with the goal of attracting young people who might not otherwise attend university. Forty of the 64 Roseland graduates plan to attend Sonoma State and other four-year universities and most of the others plan to enroll at Santa Rosa Junior College, an institution that is registering over 35,000 students this semester.

The perspective, focus, and public voice of the student body are changing. Last semester they presented us with a new energy marching on campus in protest against racism and homophobia. We look forward to continued examples of their commitment to human rights, a hallmark of an educated populous.

The campus is expanding: New buildings are going up and new faculty hired. It is also contracting: We in Unit 4, and those of the other staff unions, did not receive the promised pay increase this year and staff are under a hiring freeze which is forcing reorganizations that require, in some cases, longer hours and certainly harder work during those hours. And yet, the power of the unions remains strong. Unit 4 received a number of concessions this year which clearly benefit our members. I encourage everyone RIGHT NOW to join the union. It does make a difference.

In the midst of these challenging times, and I know many of us have this experience, we can be confident that we make a difference in ways not always readily apparent. Recently I received an email from a spring credential graduate, Carrie Becker Fishman, which contained the following message:

"I will always hold my experience at SSU dear--especially the semester of student teaching at Tech High. It changed my life. I searched for the "right" career for so many years, re-entering college at 25 to become a teacher. It wasn't until that semester of student teaching that I really KNEW that this was not only the best career for me, but the ONLY career for me. Stepping into the classroom was like slipping on the glass slipper--a fit crafted from the start. Many of us griped about "hoops" to jump through but we sure got prepared to work within a bureaucracy! Ultimately, how can you not love a program that champions multiculturalism, social activism, and meeting the needs of EVERY student? Thank you and everyone in the program, to all the schools that collaborate with SSU (especially Tech High, which is so exceptional in every respect), and my supervisor Susan Hirsch: the Dumbledore to my Harry Potter! I miss you all."

This is what I suggest our mission is all about. It is a mission that professes to prepare learned men and women who:

• Have a foundation for life-long learning
• Have a broad cultural perspective
• Have a keen appreciation of intellectual and aesthetic achievements
• Will be active citizens and leaders in society
• Are capable of pursing fulfilling careers in a changing world, and
• Are concerned with contributing to the health and well-being of the world at large.

And so I paraphrase one of my early educational mentors, Sr. Samuel Conlan, in saying that this does not necessarily represent a brilliant display of knowledge flashing across a dark sky but rather a slow strategic cumulative reduction of the discrepancy between appearance and reality so that over time we, the university and each of us, become ever more fully what we otherwise only pretend to be.

Thank you.

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