As the spring semester comes to a close, I am eagerly looking forward to an awesome week of commencement ceremonies. It’s a great week to be a Spartan!

We’re so excited and grateful to be able to share this incredible time with our 2022 graduating class as well as with their families, friends and other loved ones. These amazing students have shown what can happen when you mix talent and intellect with hard work and determination — a college degree. 

Beginning on Wednesday, we’ll start to honor and celebrate their achievements with the first of 12 ceremonies. Commencement is truly one of the best community-building opportunities we have as a university, so I hope many of you will be able to share in the experience and magic of seeing our students’ excitement and pride along with the joy of their family and supporters.

One of our themes for commencement this semester is “the bucket list.” It’s likely that earning a college degree was one of the most important things on our students’ bucket lists. And soon they’ll be able to say, “I did it!” They’ll be graduates of this great institution, San José State University, (recently named by Money magazine as one of the top colleges in the nation!).

Including those who graduated in fall 2021, more than 10,000 SJSU students are earning their degrees this year! They now join more than 250,000 members of our alumni community, an incredible group of people who have changed their communities, our region, our state, our nation and the world. I hope the newest members of our alumni community take some time to revel in their accomplishment before starting the next chapter in their lives. I’m certain these graduates are going to do great things that we can only imagine, and we can’t wait to witness it.

Whatever they do, I know these new members of the Spartan alumni community will become mentors and supporters of those around them, showing what it takes to be successful and demonstrating how to care for others as they lift up their communities … exactly what it means to be a part of the Spartan community.

It’s been a terrific semester at San José State, and I plan on sharing some of the highlights while looking to the future in another campus message next month. In the meantime, I hope the campus community will join me in congratulating our spring graduates. I appreciate all of the volunteers who have given their time to help make this moment special for our students and their families. It’s going to be a great week!

Try to find some time to stroll the paseo; extend your well wishes to our graduates, their families and supporters; and enjoy the color, joy and excitement of commencement. You’ll be glad you did!

With warm regards,

Steve Perez

Interim President