Members of the STAR staff went to Sacramenton on Wednesday to speak with state Sen. Mike McGuire, D-Healdsburg, a Sonoma State University graduate, about a number of issues such as immigration, tuition hikes and his time at Sonoma State. What follows is an edited transcript of that discussion.
It has been a little over a year since former Sonoma State professor Thomas Sargent filed a lawsuit against the university citing its “willful ignorance” regarding the asbestos contamination in Stevenson Hall.
A few years ago, a group of concerned students began a journey to make Sonoma State University a more sustainable campus. Fast forward two years later and the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education is recognizing the efforts started by those students by granting the university a Bronze Award for sustainability.
According to a study done by the Public Policy Institute of California, by 2025 California will need one million more college educated workers. For the California Faculty Association (CFA), the endorsement of Proposition 55 is seen as a major advantage if these findings do in fact become reality.
During the spring 2016 semester, it was first reported by the Sonoma State STAR that, according to allegations contained in a civil lawsuit, Stevenson Hall, completed in 1966, contained hazardous levels of asbestos.
As Sonoma State University welcomed President Judy K. Sakaki to campus over the summer, the school also bid farewell to several top administrators who were replaced by interim administrators with extensive backgrounds in the every-day operations of running a university.
For the second consecutive year, the Princeton Review has selected Sonoma State University as not only one of the best colleges in the Western United States, but one of the best colleges in the entire nation.
A 1.18 million dollar grant has been given to the Latino Service Providers (LSP), in collaboration with Sonoma State University, to help with Latino mental and behavioral health.
On Aug. 22 Sonoma State University’s annual fall convocation was held at Weill Hall. But for the first time in over two decades a new president would take the podium to address her faculty, staff and students.
Dr. Judy K. Sakaki is now in her eighth week as Sonoma State’s president and she was the first to address those in attendance, but not before an enormous amount of applause on her way to the stage.
Tucked away on the first floor in the corner of Sonoma State University’s Stevenson Hall sits room 1062. Accommodating Sonoma State’s president’s office, as well as vice president and university affairs, the space hasbeen home to one man for 24 years. By July 1, President Ruben Armiñana will no longer be occupying the office he has had for over two decades.
![[Both photos courtesy of sonoma.edu]
Ming-Ting Mike Lee stepped in as the new SSU president following Sakakis resignation in July 2022](https://sonomastatestar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/CC4520AB-22A7-41B2-9F6F-2A2D5F76A28C-1200x1200.jpeg)
