Provost Communication, Monday, December 16, 2024

Good morning everyone and happy Monday and finals week. We are nearing the end of the Fall 2024 semester and winter break is creeping up on us quickly. I’m not sure about you, but I am ready for the break following this very important last push through finals week and of course graduation!

Commencement

I am looking forward to seeing many of you at Commencement this Friday, December 20, 2024, whether you are walking, supporting the event, or just cheering on the success of our graduates and their families. As a reminder, the commencement ceremonies will be held in Lumberjack Arena with the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (CAHSS) and the College of Professional Studies (CPS) having a joint ceremony at 1:00 pm. The College of Natural Resources and Sciences (CNRS) will go at 3:30 pm. I hope to see you all there. It’s one of my very favorite days on campus and no matter what your role is on campus, your contribution to our graduates' success is felt that day and every day. Thank you.  

Enrollment and Recruitment Update

There is a lot of positive work happening in our Enrollment Management and Student Success Division particularly as they collaborate with other teams to work toward increasing our enrollment and in particular our yield (increasing the number of applicants that enroll at Humboldt). As an example, a collaboration between Financial Aid, Advancement, and the Strategic Student Communication team has led to more than tripling the number of 2025-2026 scholarship applications we have as compared to this time last year for 2024-2025. 

To dive into the details, more than 1,045 potential Fall 2025 students have completed the scholarship application for the next cycle, and the deadline is not until January 2025. This bodes very well for yield efforts.

A similar level of collaboration has led to the awarding for this current school year of $1.23 million in institutional scholarships, compared to $972k in all of last year and this number is expected to grow in the spring. Outstanding news! 

Well Done!

Speaking of outstanding, the Winter 2025 Special Edition of the SENCER International Journal has just been released and this issue contains five articles from our campus with two community collaborators, 11 student authors, seven staff members, and 15 faculty.

The forum begins with an introduction of the ‘IKE Alliance and its strategic plan, “The Indigenous Knowledges, Encouragements, Engagements, and Experiences (‘IKE) Alliance for Transforming STEM Education.” It then features conversations between Native students and the Indigenous academics and elders who guided the work. One is our own Dr. Cutcha Risling Baldy. In her interview, Dr. Risling Baldy discusses what it means to have Traditional Ecological Knowledge as a foundation for her work and her experience within STEM academia as an Indigenous person in universities that reside on stolen Native lands. 

Please click on the link above to read the entire edition with all of our campus and community member contributions reflected. It’s incredible.

Have a wonderful Monday.

Jenn Capps

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Jenn Capps, PhD 

Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs 

Cal Poly Humboldt