June 2025
Since the formal approval from the Board of Trustees of the California State University System, President Emily Cutrer of Sonoma State University, President Lynn Mahoney of San Francisco State University, and President Cathy Sandeen of California State University, East Bay met in June 2025. This official kick-off meeting brought together leaders from the three universities to set the Network vision and guiding principles, discuss implementation priorities, finalize governance, and map out project timeline. As more updates become available, we will prepare to share them through the Network website and will continue to keep all stakeholders informed of progress and new developments.
May 2025
Following the initial Network proposal from the three university presidents in March 2025 to Chancellor García, the Network was officially presented to the Board of Trustees of the California State University System in May 2025. At this meeting, the Network received formal approval to move forward. The Network item, beginning on page 27, outlines the rationale for creating a single effective and cost-efficient organization of administration and finance functions and describes a timeline for the first four functional operations (human resources, procurement, financial aid, and IT help desk, IT project management, and IT applications support) to be completed by January 2026. In addition, it names all three presidents as equal executive sponsors and SFSU Chief Financial Officer, Jeff Wilson, as the Network project lead. In the coming months, Jeff Wilson will convene a communications team to develop a website and share continuous updates so stakeholders across the three universities will have synchronous access to information.
March 2025
The San Francisco Bay Region Network comprises of Sonoma State University, San Francisco State University, and California State University, East Bay. The Network was initially shared by the three Network university presidents in March 2025 as a written commitment to the Chancellor García to create single administrative network integrating a range of transaction operations. The Network represents a creative and innovative collective response to the current landscape where urgent budget conditions and persistent demographic declines similarly and negatively impact the three campuses.