Welcome all of you to the beginning of another school year at Sacramento State.

This year is very special for our campus, as it marks the culmination of our Destination 2010 initiative to improve the University. We implemented Destination 2010 so we could provide better academic programs, facilities and services to our students.

For those of you who have been with us on campus before, I hope you are noticing some of the changes we have made.

Renovations of Del Norte Hall are complete, and new classrooms are in use to reduce the crunch for space.

Another improvement we all can take pride in is The Well. From the first day of classes, we had lines going out the door of students ready to activate their memberships to this new facility. If you haven’t had the opportunity to check it out, I encourage you to do so.

The Well’s opening was one of my proudest moments at Sacramento State, because it showed the entire region what our students are capable of.

As students, you voted to approve The Well, you helped to design it, and you agreed to pay for it with your student fees. Now we have a facility that is bustling with activity and will help students live healthier lives for years to come.

You have my most sincere congratulations for your outstanding commitment to this project. I also want to applaud the approximately 175 students who work in The Well. Because of you, The Well is home to world-class service, in addition to state-of-the-art amenities.

Projects like The Well are so important because they allow us to address needs on campus without relying on money from the state. As I’m sure you know, drastic state cuts to public higher education have placed a growing burden on everyone associated with Sacramento State.

The most obvious and personal is the effect on students, who are forced to pay higher fees and compete for fewer seats under decreased enrollments. If these trends continue, public universities will not be able to supply the educated graduates who power our economy and ensure that California can succeed in the global marketplace.

As a University, we are doing everything we can to increase the value of a Sacramento State education to the two groups who supply the lion’s share of our funding &- the taxpayers and our students.

For instance, we raised private funding to support initiatives such as our new Honors Program and One Book. The former just graduated its first class of students in May, and the latter is in its third year on our campus.

This year’s One Book selection is The Devil’s Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea. Once again, we are planning a full slate of community events around the One Book to build on the popularity the program has enjoyed in its first two years.

Other recent changes to campus include “smart” classrooms that have been upgraded with the latest teaching technologies. Renovations in our library are designed to allow for increased and more efficient services, and beginning with the Spring 2011 semester, our Division of Nursing will move into its new facilities in Folsom Hall.

Destination 2010 was designed as a point where we could reflect on what we have accomplished and assess what we need to do going forward. Now that we have arrived at that point, we will be asking people from all sectors of the campus community to help us determine what Sacramento State should look like in the decades to come.

I encourage you to join us in this endeavor, and I wish you all the best in the academic year.