Our identity for the next decade and beyond
Simultaneously honoring the foundational work and values of those who envisioned and developed CSUCI while leading the evolution of the University’s institutional and academic identity into the campus’s third decade is a responsibility I welcome. My vision for achieving this balance – a challenge aptly named in our 20th Anniversary tagline last year, “Honoring the Past, Building the Future” – was described in my Convocation Address from August of this year. Ensuring that this evolutionary process remains rooted in our history while ensuring responsiveness to the changing needs of our times is a central responsibility for all of us at CSUCI as we work in service to the diverse region and communities that provide the University's reason for being.
“One Health for 2030+,” in short, is an aspirational and strategic approach to CSUCI’s third decade of being, unambiguously identifying the University’s ultimate purpose as contributing to the overall wellness of the region’s communities, environments, and economies. Increasingly becoming known as “CSUCI for 2030+,” this vision amplifies and builds on our unique sense of place as a Central Coast university, located in one of the most resource- and culturally-rich environments in the nation. It combines our historic strengths in providing liberal arts education (i.e., focusing on the knowledge and skills required for self-governance) and experiential education (e.g., undergraduate research, internships, service learning, field placements, study abroad) with an invigorated emphasis on our unique place-based assets for teaching and learning.
In this context, understanding what distinguishes CSUCI from other universities becomes clear. At CSUCI, students do not just have hands-on learning opportunities. Regardless of a student’s major, they can have powerful placed-based learning experiences on the Oxnard Plain, on the beach and along the coast, at our Santa Rosa Island Research Station, at our Boating Center, on sacred Chumash land, and throughout a region that is teeming with activity of so many different kinds – agricultural, biotechnical, for-profit, nonprofit, educational, environmental, social services, health-related, and more – given the unique combination of rural, suburban, and urban areas that are ours to serve.
Through this “One Health”/“CSUCI for 2030+” lens – by taking more focused and comprehensive advantage of our incredibly unique place-based assets and opportunities to better serve the environmental-, economic-, and community-wellness needs of our region – I see so very clearly a solution to the problems of depressed enrollment in the only public comprehensive university in Ventura County and the ensuing regional deficits that enrollment pattern foretells if not reversed.
Over the past two years we have taken several steps to study, clarify, and communicate CSUCI’s identity for the purpose of positioning the University as a destination campus. These efforts began through the creation and implementation of an integrated marketing communication plan (IMC) – a multi-phased action plan of conducting and using market research to establish a new brand foundation and message strategy, and a visual rebranding and website redesign to ensure that our most visible and consistently accessed marketing communication tools can also serve as effective strategies for capturing the attention of prospective students and their families and publicizing the achievements of our outstanding faculty and staff. We anticipate completion of these rebranding efforts by Fall 2025 through a consultative process involving our campus community, alumni, donors, and other partners in the community.
We have much work ahead of us, but with your continued participation and support, we can ensure CSUCI’s future as a destination campus, providing a transformative education for students from our region and elsewhere in California, from other states in the nation, and from around the world.
Sincerely,
Richard Yao, Ph.D.
President