A rainy afternoon brought a group of students to the Salazar building on campus, rain-soaked and wearing SSU jackets, each with an umbrella. They walked in with motivation and grit – determined to get some answers about the future of the school. As they sat down ready to bombard the president with their many questions, a tall man walked in wearing a suit, tie, dress shoes, a bright blue Sonoma State jacket, and a smile. Surprising all of them, the mystery man walked around the room, visiting each staff member, shaking their hand and saying, “Hi, I’m Mike! What’s your name?”
SSU President Michael Spagna visited the Star Staff on Monday to be interviewed by the staff. Shocked to see a president so lax, we continued to ask the hard-hitting questions.
Spagna discussed his busy week in full detail – busy as in, having attended 4 community festivals. He attended two crab feeds in Sonoma County and visited The Iron Horse Vineyards to see how climate change has affected their grapes.
The staff quickly realized that this wouldn’t be the interview they were expecting.
As Spagna sat in an average student chair, discussing his time being the provost at CSU Dominguez Hills and interim president at Cal Poly Humboldt, he opened the floor to the staff to ask him questions. Though we asked plenty of hard-hitting ones about the possibility of the athletics coming back and his goals for enrollment, one thing that stood out from the interview was that he’s a man who wants to be there for students and staff.
Spagna talked about how he has admired the campus for a long time. He noticed when SSU hit a high of 9,500 students. “It did give me a little heartburn to see it drop to 5,000,” Spagna said.
“I’m excited to be here to resuscitate enrollment, to make sure that we go north, that we wind up reaching the former prestige of this university on that front,” said Spagna.
As our interview concluded with the new president, the staff was left with an incredible impression from him – we would finally have a president who would listen to our concerns, answer the students/faculty, and not ignore us.
While we, the students in the class, huddled in groups to share our thoughts, Spagna stayed in the classroom for a group photo and showed off his dance moves from a recent TikTok video he posted. His moves were so persuasive that our social media team collaborated with him on a video, and he happily obliged.
Moments like this are a reminder that Sonoma State is in the hands of someone passionate about this school as we are. Though the Star reports on stories that may show the bad on campus, it is safe to say that it feels good to have a bright light at the end of this tunnel.
One moment that really stuck with me throughout this positive experience was when Spagna highlighted the importance of the free press and education to the importance of democracy with a quote:
“We live in a safe democratic society where we have a free press, and we have strong public education.” -Thomas Jefferson
With the dark times we now live in, it is incredible to see some positivity and a future for Sonoma State. Education, after all, is the future of our democracy, and having a president that cherishes it here at SSU means the world.
