Joseph Sheley spent much of his first year as interim president of California State University, Stanislaus, touring the Central Valley and meeting with business and community leaders and elected officials. In May 2013, the CSU Board of Trustees rewarded Sheley’s hard work with a permanent appointment as president of CSU Stanislaus.
Now in his first full academic year as president, Sheley continues to lay the groundwork for a new era of community partnership that will help uplift the entire region.
Sheley, who received a proclamation from the Turlock City Council in July 2013 and whose appointment was celebrated with an investiture ceremony on campus Nov. 22, 2013, is a strong advocate for university-community partnership.
“I’ve driven to cities and towns all over the region … to meet people and to listen to them, to see where our students live and work, and to send the message that we will come to them,” Sheley said in his 2012 fall address to the campus community. “We are not an island. We are part of an important region, and we truly want to partner in moving this region forward.”
Sheley believes the university and the community should become stronger advocates for each other. CSU Stanislaus alumni, faculty, staff and students should not be shy, he said, when it comes to boasting about the university’s accomplishments and contributions to the region, among them:
• CSU Stanislaus has been featured in the Princeton Review’s “Best Colleges” ranking for seven consecutive years and in U.S. News & World Report’s Best Colleges ranking 17 times.
• The university has been recognized by the Princeton Review as one of the most environmentally responsible colleges in the U.S. and Canada, appearing in all four editions of the “Green Colleges” publication.
• For seven consecutive years, CSU Stanislaus has been named to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for its commitment to volunteering, service learning and civic engagement. The university’s Office of Service Learning works with faculty members and more than 2,400 students every year on community service projects and community-based research initiatives, providing nearly 54,000 volunteer hours to the region and an estimated economic impact of more than $1.14 million in services to the local community in 2012 alone.Ê
• The College of Business Administration at CSU Stanislaus earned renewal of its prestigious accreditation through AACSB (the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business) International. The college was first granted AACSB accreditation in 2003, and in a mark of distinction, it received its renewal without the need for any continuing review from the accrediting agency.Ê
• Gôkçe Soydemir, the Foster Farms endowed professor of business economics, will release the third edition of his Business Forecast Report for the San Joaquin Valley. The report is a valuable tool for the area’s business and community leaders, providing annual projections and midyear updates for the Valley’s labor market; regional housing conditions; prices and inflation; and depositary institutions and capital markets.