Staff

SF State marks new year at Opening Convocation

At annual welcome event for faculty and staff, President Mahoney discusses protests, new buildings on campus 

San Francisco State University celebrated the beginning of the 2024 – 2025 academic year with its traditional Opening Convocation ceremony for faculty and staff on Thursday, Aug. 22. It took place in the University’s McKenna Theatre and was streamed online.  

In her annual address on the state of the University, San Francisco State President Lynn Mahoney said she is proud of the campus community for working together in the spring semester to “support student activism and keep our campus safe and operational.” An encampment on the Quad by pro-Palestinian student protestors ended after two weeks in an agreement with the University to work together to explore ways to limit investments in companies who profit from weapons manufacturing and commit to investments which advance human rights while providing greater transparency around all investments. The SFSU Foundation will post extensive information to its website on its investments. 

“In the spirit of academic freedom — something that’s constantly under threat these days — and free speech, let’s conduct ourselves peacefully,” Mahoney said. “We need not be silent. We should not be silent. But we must allow others to speak. We meet speech with more speech and with supportive services.”  

Mahoney’s remarks also highlighted the two new buildings opening this fall at SF State: the West Grove Commons, a 751-bed residence hall for first-year students, and the Science & Engineering Innovation Center, a 125,000-square-foot building equipped with state-of-the-art equipment and labs. 

Other speakers included Academic Senate Chair Jackson Wilson, California Faculty Association chapter President Brad Erickson, CSU Employees Union chapter President Christine Hintermann, Staff Council President Dylan Mooney, Associated Students President Brandon Foley and Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Amy Sueyoshi. In addition, SF State administrators introduced 29 new tenure-track faculty members joining the University this year. 

Convocation also featured an awards ceremony honoring distinguished faculty and staff, presented by Mary Huss, board chair of the SFSU Foundation. This year’s winners:   

  • Excellence in Teaching (Tenured): Nick Sousanis, Liberal Studies 
  • Excellence in Teaching (Lecturer): Duc Ta, Computer Science 
  • Excellence in Professional Achievement (Tenured): David Peña-Guzmán, Humanities and Comparative and World Literature 
  • Excellence in Service (Tenured): Falu Bakrania, Race and Resistance Studies 
  • Excellence in Service (Staff): Darleen Franklin, Biology 

Visit the Academic Senate website to learn more about the Opening Convocation.  

SF State launches comprehensive online archive of historic student strike

New website features hundreds of photos, news footage, posters, documents, oral histories 

As social movements across the globe are more active than ever, San Francisco State University just upgraded its own archives of the historic 1968 – 1969 Black Student Union/Third World Liberation Front student-led strike. Now, anyone can do their research easily through one comprehensive website, the San Francisco State Strike Collection. It is home to hundreds of historical photos, news footage, posters and flyers, documents and oral histories.  

The new website launched last week on Nov. 6 — marking 55 years to the day when SF State students first walked out to demand a curriculum that reflected the diversity of Black and other ethnic communities. The contentious, heavily policed strike continued for 115 days, becoming the longest college student strike in American history and forever changing the face of higher education. It not only resulted in SF State establishing the nation’s first College of Ethnic Studies, it also paved the way for a nationwide movement in ethnic studies as an academic field. 

The new online collection, organized by Special Collections & Archives in the J. Paul Leonard Library at SF State, combines materials that were previously available on several different websites. University Archives, the Bay Area Television Archive and the Labor Archives and Research Center are the sources for the materials.  

“The SF State Strike Collection is a major contribution to students, faculty, staff and community members who want to reflect, teach, study and understand the sacrifices made to establish the College of Ethnic Studies,” said Grace Yoo, dean of the College of Ethnic Studies. “It preserves the legacy of activists who founded the College of Ethnic Studies and shares this legacy with the rest of the world.” 

The collection also includes content that was previously not available, with more coming soon. An interactive exhibit tells the story of the strike through text, images and video, including events beginning in 1966 that led to the strike. At the time, SF State students created the nation’s first Black Student Union, which then proposed an institute of Black studies to a campus academic committee. 

“Our hope is that the site will highlight the social justice legacy of the campus, tell the full story of the strike and show how ordinary students mobilized to create the College of Ethnic Studies, special admissions and more,” said Eva Martinez, team processing lead for Special Collections. 

Visit the San Francisco State Strike Collection