Colleagues,

Women’s History Month is an excellent opportunity to listen and reflect upon some of our campus and community’s strong voices. It’s significant for those of us working in technology, as IT has historically been a challenging field for women to receive the access, opportunity, and recognition they deserve. We are always striving to achieve equity, and it’s a top priority for all of us. 

Listening and learning have always been integral to equity and inclusion. WIRED magazine has an excellent curated listing of articles about womens’ experience in technology written by women. On campus, the Gender Equity Center hosts a series of events every year. This year’s 2022 Womxn’s Herstory Month series culminates with a 50th anniversary Zoom event for Title IX, focusing on how we can protect women and girls’ access to equal education. 

We also want to encourage you to look into organizations that support education and access for women in technology at all levels. Techbridge Girls provides after-school STEM programs for girls from low-income communities right here in the Bay Area. Women In Technology is an organization that provides resources and programming to empower women from youth to professional career to board involvement. Girls Who STEM has a great list of even more STEM- and technology-focused organizations. Lastly, SJSU’s own Center for STEM Education has a number of programs to encourage girls’ engagement in technology.

Thank you to all of the women working at SJSU IT. Your voices are valued and we’re glad you’ve chosen our campus as a place to build your success. 

Best Regards,
The SJSU IT Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee

Greetings Colleagues,

I hope this email finds you well.

February is Black History Month, and this has special importance for the DEI team and all of our communities – as higher education employees, as Bay Area residents, and as Spartans. We have the privilege and opportunity to help elevate our students and expand their access to higher education and ongoing opportunities so they and their families can forge new frontiers in our ever-changing workforce and community landscapes. Being named the most transformative university in the country should not merely be a tagline. Instead, it’s the meaning behind our work and the work of all those who have contributed before us, especially those in our black community.

The history of black achievement in the Bay Area is rich, diverse, and valuable, especially so for all sectors of higher education. The first African American Studies department was founded here in the Bay Area in 1968 following the longest student strike in U.S. history. The article below demonstrates an incredible story of how black students fought for what they worked for and deserved. If you’re unfamiliar with those events, here’s some excellent storytelling from a 2019 NPR article.

San Jose State University has a proud history of black excellence and activism. The Olympic Black Power Statue between Clark Hall and Dwight Bentel Hall commemorates the bold salutes of “Speed City” alumni Tommie Smith and John Carlos. Our university’s legacy of black achievement includes incredible stories from James Jones, Dr. Lee P. Brown, and Dr. Harry Edwards.

There are many opportunities on campus and in the community where you can be involved in celebrating Black History Month. The MOSAIC Cross-Cultural Center has curated a calendar of Black History Month events, both in-person and via Zoom, for your convenience. If you’re selecting dining options or spending time on campus looking for activities, you may want to consider supporting local, black-owned businesses. You’ll find some of the best restaurants in the Bay Area on this list. I also want to encourage you to take the month of February as an opportunity to look into non-profit organizations that support and uplift our nation’s black community. I want to highlight two that focus on access to technology and higher education opportunities: Black Girls Code and the Thurgood Marshall College Fund.

Thank you,

The SJSU IT Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee

We started the Sparta Awards in 2018 to recognize staff members who bring out the best in each other through their collaborative spirit, commitment to innovation, and everyday leadership. Our division navigated so much throughout the COVID-19 lockdown: shifts in modality, supporting the university while working from home, and preparations for future pedagogies. The entire division stepped up. There are dozens and dozens of folks in SJSU IT who deserve recognition and whose work merits an award. We could only pick one individual and one team to win. To say the choice was difficult this year would be a huge understatement.

It’s my pleasure to share this year’s winners with you. These folks dedicated themselves to helping our university community during a challenging year in SJSU’s history. They put in the work, led by example, and upheld SJSU IT’s core values of partnership and collaboration with their peers throughout the university.

The 2021 Individual Award went to Marco Scardina. This past year, Marco performed his duties with distinction and commitment to the campus community and his impact has been profound. He took it upon himself to perform some of the most essential behind-the-scenes duties on a digital campus such as SJSU. One of which was the complete digitization and modernization of security administration across multiple platforms. He also initiated and drove an automation project to grant access and permissions based on role. This streamlined access management for over 470 chairs, faculty, and staff transitioning in and out of the Advisory Role every semester, reducing processing time from weeks to hours and eliminating paper forms. 

The 2021 Team Award goes to Debu Basak, Tristan Orlino, Cuong Doan, An Nguyen, Lor Vang, Kirk Nguyen, Norma Brown, Anthony Mays, Sree Gandikota, Natasha Jones, Belinda Nguyen, Kenny Gong, Suzanne Austin, Toby Shaw,  Coe Tran,  Bruce Kelbert, Steve Chang, Sean Davis, Kelly Deaver, Tam Vu, Prasad Meka, Sam Zhang, Nolan Liu, Paul Leung, Rigo Vargas, Jerry Darrell, Jeffory Toone, Steven Boring, Yue Wang, Danny Ta. This team successfully managed the Windows 2008 Upgrade Project.

With the increased onslaught of security issues across the globe, we wanted to mitigate vulnerability by retiring our servers running Windows 2008. Most of these servers were running legacy applications with very little or no support and many of the applications on them were homegrown with little or no documentation. In total, 132 servers were identified to be retired or upgraded. This was a large, collaborative effort working with many different colleges and departments. Thanks to their work, our university’s server infrastructure is more secure. 

Thank you to the winners of both categories for your tremendous work. Thank you to everyone who sent in nominations – we had so many! And lastly, thank you to the SJSU IT Peer Consultation Group for discussing each nomination with me, giving me their feedback and input. 

Please join me in congratulating this year’s winners!

Best regards,
Bob-

Colleagues,

Happy Lunar New Year! February 1 marks the Lunar New Year and the first day of the year of the Tiger. The Lunar New Year is a major holiday in many Asian cultures and coincides with the start of a new semester and the beginning of spring. It’s the perfect time to reach out to your colleagues with some kind words and wishes for longevity, health, and wealth in the coming year. If you and your family celebrate, I encourage you to take some time off and spend the holiday together.

Sincerely,
Bob Lim

Dear Valued Colleagues,