Report to the Community: A Celebration of Inspiration, Innovation and Impact of Cal State San Marcos

Report to the Community:  A Celebration of Inspiration, Innovation and Impact of Cal State San MarcosAt her sixth annual Report to the Community, CSUSM President Haynes celebrates the inspiration, innovation and impact of Cal State San Marcos exclaiming, "Cal State San Marcos is your University. This is your celebration!"Speaking before an estimated 300 regional leaders from government, business, and service organization at the annual President's Report to the Community on February 4, California State University San Marcos (CSUSM) President Karen Haynes declared that the university had roared into its third decade of service to the region, realizing her 2010 vision for CSUSM to be an inspirational 21st century campus, committed to the economic growth of its region, while offering a best place to work and study for students, faculty and staff.At the Report, the President honored the City of San Marcos with the University's annual Community Engagement Award. The prestigious award recognizes a community partner that has demonstrated a collaborative spirit and community engagement in addressing regional issues of mutual or broad-reaching concern. The City of San Marcos was recognized for its role in the founding of CSUSM over twenty years ago and for continuing to partner with the campus on important initiatives."From CSUSM's earliest beginnings, the City of San Marcos has been one of our loudest and proudest champions, collaborating with us on a number of initiatives - more recently including the Student Neighborhood Relations Task Force, the University District Project, and the Mayor's Education Forums," commented Haynes. "The City includes Cal State San Marcos in City growth discussions and can be counted on for routinely promoting our initiatives and celebrating our accomplishments.""Now, more than ever, we are seeing students graduate and choose to stay here in San Marcos," said San Marcos Mayor Jim Desmond. "From my perspective, that fact makes collaboration between the City and the University all the more important as the line between student and resident is now blending instead of ending at graduation."During her remarks, Haynes celebrated the accomplishments of the university over the last two decades, noting that Cal State San Marcos continually pushes beyond traditional models to create lasting partnerships to meet regional needs."Last year over 2,800 students were engaged in 166,000 hours of regional community service or service learning projects - an increase of nearly sixty percent over last year and represents, at minimum wage, a value of 1.3 million dollars for their services."The University also fostered innovative partnerships with local leaders in Southwest Riverside County to open Cal State San Marcos Temecula in 2009.  Today, CSUSM Temecula is thriving and expanding thanks to $470,000 from private donors and another 3.2 million dollars from the Cities of Temecula and Murrieta. "Our students are this diverse region's future leaders and our students reflect our region - nearly 50 percent of our entire student body are students of color and 27 percent of our students are Hispanic," said Haynes. "We are in the application process for federal Hispanic Serving Institution status, an important designation because it opens up monies that can enrich and impact the educational experience of all of our students."In terms of faculty scholarship, this past year CSUSM faculty received nearly $10 million in National Institutes of Health (NIH) research grants and contracts - more than eleven other CSU campuses including the larger and more established San Jose State, Sacramento State, and Fresno State to name three.As the University kicks off an entire year of celebration in honor of its 20th anniversary, Haynes encouraged attendees to celebrate the inspiration, innovation, and impact of Cal State San Marcos exclaiming, "Cal State San Marcos is your University. This is your celebration!"