Dean's Welcome
Dear incoming graduate students:
Some 2,000 of you will join 5,500 incoming undergraduate students to form the newest cohort in the SDSU community. You come with an extensive array of goals, some as specific as seeking the credentials to teach in public schools, many seeking career advancement by earning one of SDSU’s twelve degrees, and others eager to fulfill a passion for exploration through research. In serving each of these desires, SDSU is satisfying its tripartite commitment to engage with its community (credentialing teachers), create an educated workforce (advanced degrees), and explore the unknown (original research).
It is this last category that binds the two divisions of our office of Research and Graduate Affairs. Graduate students are the engines of scholarship: nearly half the research papers our faculty publish each year include authorship by a graduate student. And the products of that research are substantial. SDSU has been rated America's top small research university based on the scholarly productivity of the faculty in its doctoral programs in each of the three years that this national evaluation has been done by Academic Analytics. This is a remarkable achievement for a university operating in a CSU system that is characterized by a teaching agenda.
Those who have preceded you are largely responsible for such success, and their legacy is now passing to you. If paper credentials are an indication, you are well prepared both to develop your own professional skills and to advance the reputation of the institution whose degree you will carry through life.
In the coming years, you will be pressed to achieve and be paid less than you are worth. But you will also set the context for a fulfilling career, make lifelong friendships, and, I trust, develop a fondness for this place. We welcome you with an eagerness to guide your growth from students to colleagues.
Stephen C. Welter
Vice President for Research
Dean of Graduate Affairs
