Sacramento State faces a number of challenges this year, including construction of new facilities, a change in campus leadership positions and revisions of how the university goes about enrollment and retention rates, President Alexander Gonzalez said today at his annual Fall Address.

Parking challenges will be more difficult this semester, Gonzalez said. The challenges are a result of the continuing construction of Parking Structure III, slated to open in spring, and the new bookstore, scheduled to be done by summer, as well as updates on the campus’ pipelines.

In addition, the Spanos Sports and Recreation Complex project is underway. Phase one began on Aug. 24 with the groundbreaking of the new athletic facility ?” the Broad Athletic Facility, estimated to cost about $11 million.

But the university is facing challenges that go deeper than what can be seen on the campus’ surface.

Gonzalez said Sac State’s biggest challenge is a declining public budget amid more demands for student services, particularly services that relate to technology.

The campus president said the he discovered these student needs in a meeting he had with orientation leaders earlier this summer.

“They offered an honest assessment of how we’re doing,” Gonzalez said. “Our students expect us to provide them with more information and more services. They want us to meet them where they are, including on the Web. They want and expect us to offer them the latest in technology.”

The biggest technological need Sac State students need, he said, is to have wireless access throughout campus. “They don’t understand why they can get something like wireless access at a coffeehouse but not on all parts of our campus,” Gonzalez said.

Besides unlimited wireless access on campus, Gonzalez said students want to see more classes being offered and being offered in various ways (online and shorter sessions), office hours to be available to students who go to class in the evening and better advising.

The focus of providing these student needs came from studying the campus’ enrollment rates, Gonzalez said. Enrollment, he said, seems to be “flat once again” ?” a trend that has been continuing for years. Continuing student rates has also declined about 2 percent, with a number of those students being freshmen and sophomores.

“The largest number of students that is leaving the university is comprised of freshmen and sophomores. Clearly, this is an issue we must address and reverse,” Gonzalez said. “Our campus’ student retention rate isn’t nearly as good as it should be.”

To fix this issue, Gonzalez is depending on Joseph Sheley, who has been recently appointed as interim provost and vice president of Academic Affairs, and Vice President for Student Affairs Lori Varlotta.

Although there are many challenges ahead, Gonzalez ensures that he is keeping his head in the game to make Sac State a premier metropolitan campus and destination campus for the west ?” the main goal of the campus’ initiative “Destination 2010.”

“If we tackle these issues of enrollment, budget and planning, we can gain control over our own destiny,” Gonzalez said.

Nika Megino can be reached at [email protected].