Goal 5: Rebuild and Renew
Be a flourishing, modern campus with state-of-the-art infrastructure, campus spaces and technology to support learning, research and community.
Desired Outcomes
Desired Outcome 1: Launch and complete a comprehensive fundraising campaign generating resources that support institutional priorities, such as campus development, while also stewarding future philanthropic opportunities.
- Capital Campaign
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The groundwork is being created for SJSU to launch an ambitious $350 million capital campaign to support institutional priorities at SJSU.
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Desired Outcome 2: Position SJSU as a leader in environmental sustainability.
- Office of Sustainability
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Reflecting SJSU’s commitment to sustainability, the Office of Sustainability was launched in October 2018. The office is charged with integrating sustainability into the curriculum across academic disciplines, and to offer tools to participate in campus sustainability with energy saving measures and waste reduction practices.
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- Rankings
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SJSU’s efforts to become a leader have been recognized by several rankings recently. Princeton Review 2021 lists SJSU as a Green College, while the Sierra Club lists SJSU as one of their Top 50 Cool Schools on the basis of sustainability data, and the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education ranked SJSU as a Top Performer [pdf] and highlighted our Housing Crisis Mitigation Plan and the CSU System-wide Single-use Plastics Policy as model policies.
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- Academics
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SJSU now offers 399 sustainability-related or focused courses in 50 out of 64 academic departments. About half of SJSU students graduating annually with a bachelor’s or master’s degree were in a program with an identified sustainability learning outcome. Ninety-seven faculty engage in research focused on sustainability.
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- Campus and Public Engagement
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Creating a culture of sustainability extends to both the campus community, as well as the public. The Environmental Resource Center works with at least 50 students annually to train them in environmental education and public outreach, gain leadership and project management skills, execute projects or sustain previous projects. The office also supports the annual Sustainability Week which culminates around Earth Day.
Born out of SJSU research, The Green Ninja Project, is an innovative middle school curricula designed to help students understand and tackle problems related to climate change.
Established in 2005, CommUniverCity helps build the local community by engaging residents and students in learning projects that accomplish neighborhood-driven goals. Some of their sustainability projects this past year included: an afterschool community garden and nutrition education program; watershed education in collaboration with the Santa Clara Valley Water District; and, trail clean-ups and park activation for low-income neighborhoods.
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- Facilities
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As SJSU rebuilds and renews its campus facilities, all buildings are being designed to be sustainable. All buildings designed after 2025 will be designed to be net zero, meaning that the total amount of energy used yearly by a building is equal to or less than the amount of energy created onsite through the use of innovative technologies and renewable power.
Already, buildings recently completed or under construction are being built to LEED Gold standards. The Spartan Recreation and Aquatic Center (SRAC) was certified LEED Gold, and the new Interdisciplinary Science Building is being built to LEED Gold standards.
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- Sustainable Campus Operations
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SJSU is in the process of installing solar panels on 10 campus roofs, along with the carport in South Campus. The panels will save an estimated $4.6 million through the warranty period of the panels, as well as lower SJSU’s carbon footprint. Electric car charging stations are also being installed around campus. The Office of Sustainability is drafting a carbon neutrality plan. The GreenWaste Recovery program which separates green waste and then either is composted or converted to energy. Recyclables are also separated out for recycling. This process has diverted 1,272 tons (83%) of waste from the landfill. Use of recycled water was first used at SJSU in 1999, efforts to use recycled water for fountains, landscaping, and other non-potable uses has led to a 43% reduction of potable water use since 2013. This translates to a cost savings of $850,000 annually in water costs and over 100 million gallons of water.
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Desired Outcome 3: Create an information technology (IT) governance structure that cultivates efficiencies, addresses accessible workflow and defines processes.
- Work/Study from Anywhere
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A key goal for the IT department the past three years was to enable students, staff and faculty to be able to work and study from wherever they were located. This vision drove the various IT initiatives, and allowed SJSU to have a three year head start to be able to work and study remotely during this pandemic. This foresight allowed SJSU to pivot in four days from a campus-centric university to a mobile university supporting 40,000 individuals when the shelter-in-place order occurred.
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- Technology & Solutions
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Over the last three years, SJSU upgraded the networks and VPN, creating a more mobile and secure campus with higher bandwidth (from 10GB to 100GB); transitioned from desktops to laptops, so people could work where they need to work; added analytics to our customer service quality evaluations and sought campus inputs to change our service model and maximize support for students, faculty, staff, and researchers; provided a base for Academic Affairs and Student Affairs to establish a data platform strategy; and carried this approach forward into an online modality. Starting in Fall 2021, these analytics will allow for Student Affairs’ advisors to predictively identify and support at-risk students.
SJSU IT also shifted key university communication and collaboration platforms. SJSU needed scalable, HIPAA-compliant communications capabilities. Thus it moved from WebEx to Zoom for cutting-edge video conferencing, from Jabber (chat capability) to a much more user-friendly Google Chat for general consumption, and from a home developed mass email communication to Marketo, for prompt emails and an enterprise solution with analytics capabilities. More importantly, SJSU IT is leveraging technology to enable our campus partners’ success.
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- University Process and Workflows
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By working closely with departments across the campus, SJSU IT digitized roughly 65% of the university’s processes and workflows. Every manager leads two student-related process improvements per year. The goal is to be as close to 100% as possible by the end of 2022 or early 2023.
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- Student Access
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All technical student labs can now be accessed remotely. Through a partnership with EDUROAM, SJSU affiliates can utilize their SJSU credentials to access WiFi anywhere in the world that uses the service (106 countries/territories). Students can also print from anywhere to various print stations on campus.
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Desired Outcome 4: Lead a comprehensive digital transformation on campus by advancing IT initiatives to enhance user experience, engagement and responsiveness.
- Customer Service
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IT customer service was overhauled to meet the needs of the campus community. Classroom support hours were extended and personalized check-ups for online computers were developed. Advanced feedback metrics are utilized to identify specific areas of opportunity for improvement.
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- Recognition
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In Spring 2020, San José State won the CIO100 award for the partnership with IBM. The CIO100 Award celebrates 100 organizations that are using IT in innovative ways to deliver business value, whether by creating a competitive advantage, optimizing business processes, enabling growth, or improving relationships with customers. San José State University is standing next to some very notable award winners for 2020. They include Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin, Accenture, Mastercard, Merck & Co., Nationwide, GE, and Raytheon Company.
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- Digital Divide
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Shifting to remote learning quickly made apparent the digital divide among our students. Almost 70% of students reported technology insecurity and nearly 10% of students reported limited to no broadband access at home. As a result, SJSU made available laptops and WiFi hotspots for the general student population.
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Desired Outcome 5: Strive to make SJSU the safest digital and physical campus.
- Information Security
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SJSU IT has implemented multiple layers of security measures to address information security over the past three years. Artificial intelligence technology is utilized to proactively monitor the security posture of our campus. Additionally, multi-factor authentication (DUO), network scanning, and application penetration testing has been implemented to better allow for dynamic changes in the cybersecurity landscape. To stay current on cybersecurity issues, SJSU IT engages with third parties like the National Guard, independent agencies, and the Chancellor’s Office to assess our environment and business processes.
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- Task Force on Campus Safety and Policing
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The Task Force is charged with examining the critical safety issues of the San José State University campus and the roles the University Police Department and other campus departments, student and community organizations, neighborhood associations and other groups have in ensuring an environment conducive to learning, racial justice and equity. The group is currently meeting, engaging stakeholders in the process and deliberating on issues.
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- 21st Century Policing
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The University Police Department, in conjunction with all the California State University Police Departments have developed a strategic plan that reimagine police service that is inline with the Obama Administration's The 21st Century Policing Report. The report centers policing around six pillars: building trust and legitimacy; policy and oversight; technology and social media; community policing and crime reduction; officer training and education; and, officer safety and wellness.
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- Building Security
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To ensure the physical security of students, faculty and staff, buildings now require Tower IDs to gain access. This security precaution helps to minimize unauthorized individuals from entering buildings.
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- Library Security
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Discussions are underway between SJSU and the City of San José regarding changes to the physical layout of the library in order to better create a safe space for its patrons.
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- Campus-Wide Bollard Installation
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Bollards have been installed at all main entry points to the University. These key areas have been a problem for several years with the increase of vehicles, deliveries and contractors just driving onto campus without permission.
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Desired Outcome 6: Build inspiring, modern facilities such as the Interdisciplinary Science Building that will set the groundwork for a Science Park, where modern teaching, research and laboratory spaces facilitate interdisciplinary projects, connecting faculty members and students across studies, and fostering industry partnerships and solutions.
- New Facilities
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SJSU is investing in building new facilities to meet the growing needs of students, staff and faculty. These new facilities include: Interdisciplinary Science Building, Spartan Athletic Center, South Campus Parking Garage, and the Spartan Recreation and Aquatic Center.
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- Student Success Hubs
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These hubs are physical spaces that allow students and faculty to collaborate, continue learning and discussions outside of the classroom, and will be equipped with technology. These spaces will be built into the planning of future buildings and be created in current buildings. The Interdisciplinary Science Building will have student success hubs located on each floor, the Spartan Athletic Center will include a hub, and hubs are being planned for the library and the residence halls. Additionally, given remote learning, plans for digital student success hubs are underway.
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- Housing
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To meet the need for affordable housing for staff, faculty, and graduate students, SJSU has acquired the Alquist building site in Downtown San José from the State of California. The project is in a study phase during which an external firm will conduct a study on what the project will entail and look like.
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- Campus Master Plan Advisory Committee
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This advisory committee is composed of representatives across the different divisions. Their charge is to provide feedback and advice to the University staff and master plan consultant team, over the three year process of creating a long range planning guide for campus facilities.
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