Ah, another year at Sacramento State begins. Welcome, new Hornets, and welcome back, old Hornets. It’s still hot, there’s still construction, and Herky is still thicc.

But there are some new, exciting things that happened over summer break that all Sac State students should be excited about, and some others that weren’t so exciting.

First, the biggest and best news. In late June, Governor Jerry Brown approved more funding for the California State University system than was anticipated, shocking many who expected CSU tuition to raise for a second straight year or for budget cuts to the system’s operations.

Brown’s decision to fund the CSU system was a legitimate surprise, and was preceded by CSU Chancellor Timothy White’s decision in April to announce that no matter the amount of state funding approved by the legislators and executives in Sacramento, tuition would not be risen, despite an earlier rollout of a plan to do just that.

It is still unknown if White’s proclamation represented the chancellor playing hardball against state overseers with plenty of room to fulfill the CSU’s requested increase in budget, or White knew in advance somehow that the CSU’s request would be fulfilled but did not want to reveal so just yet.

To students, either answer is likely irrelevant; tuition didn’t go up and that’s what mattered.

Also in the good column of academics is the new CSU Fully Online program. Students interested in accelerating their graduation date who may be hampered by overcrowded general education and major courses can comb through a list of over 3,000 classes offered through the CSU and enroll in one per semester.

Graduation initiatives like CSU Fully Online are great additions to the multiple approaches being taken to speed up average graduation time for CSU students; Sac State in particular has one of the worst grades in getting students their degree. The state of California choosing to give the CSU more funding than ever before will hopefully help continue these creative strategies being implemented.

Before we move away from academics, a note on summer classes — the next big step to take in speeding up graduation is for state money to help fund the summer semester. Entire months are wasted for many students because they can’t afford to pay for summer classes that are way more expensive than the fall and spring equivalents.

Moving along, there’s a few new physical additions to campus that are bound to be popular — Parking Structure V and the new mural on the side of Shasta Hall.

Parking Structure V’s path to completion was delayed, over-budget and often ridiculed, mainly because of the weird green paint swatches meant to look like leaves. But the end result was exactly what Sac State students crave more than caffeine, easy professors and stress carbs — parking spots.

Construction at the University Union is slated to finish in October 2018, but we choose to believe it when we see it — Parking Structure V was supposed to open first in January 2018, then in Spring 2018, before eventually opening during finals. Though late, more spots will never be unwelcome.

Goodbye for now, Ramona Lot, and hopefully, goodbye forever.

And about that mural. It’s part of the Wide Open Walls Festival, and is kind of a big get for a campus that is very much mixed in terms of aesthetic. The finished product is immense and beautiful, and for once, seems to evoke actual pride and culture from a city and university always seeming to be desperate for both.

Overall, it could be a worse time to be a Sac State student, new or returning. The entire university seems like it is moving up, even if at a two-step-forward, one-step-backward pace. But it’s still going to be all the things Sac State always is, so buckle in and fingers crossed.