Staff Advancement, Leadership and Development

Principles of Supervision: an 8-session certificate where managers, leads, and staff who aspire to managerial roles can learn about their own management styles, the resources available to support them and the teams they will supervise, and build community with colleagues across campus. People interested in being considered for the next cohort can indicate their interest here. Participants who finish the certificate will also be asked to join a monthly community of practice to review content, discuss emerging questions, and sustain community connections.

Staff Professional Development Conference: The SDSU Staff Professional Development Conference is an annual, day-long, educational conference for and by SDSU staff. The conference features educational workshops about campus resources and promising practices, a resource fair featuring campus and community vendors, professional headshots, and engaging keynote speakers. More information about the conference is available on the Staff Professional Development Conference Sharepoint.

Employee B.R.E.A.K. Lounge: SDSU’s Employee Breathe, Recharge, Engage, Appreciate, and Kick back (B.R.E.A.K.) lounge room is located in PSFA 110 and open on Mondays - Thursdays from 9:30 AM - 3:30 PM to all SDSU Employees. The space features beverages, snacks, de-stressing opportunities, tables at which work can happen, and communal space for engaging with other members of the campus community.  

Creating an Equity-Minded Campus Community: This asynchronous learning opportunity builds foundational knowledge about implicit bias, microaggressions, and strategies for addressing their impact on classrooms and workspaces. Staff interested in completing the course can register here. 

CIE Staff- and Workplace-Focused Workshops: every semester the CIE offers a variety of workshops focusing on enhancing staff capacity and sustaining inclusive workplaces. These workshops include “Responding to Microaggressions”, “Providing Developmental Evaluations" “Recognizing the Impact of World Events on the Workplace”, “De-Escalating Difficult Situations”, “Practicing Leadership In Hectic Times”, and many more. You can view the current offerings for this semester here.

ASA/ASC Competence Curriculum: The CIE staff have identified the core competencies for successful work in the ASA/ASC classification and collected a curriculum of asynchronous resources to support the onboarding and ongoing professional development of staff in those positions. All courses are hosted through CSULearn, free of charge, and can be completed at each learner’s own pace. The full curriculum, with links to individual modules, can be found here. This is one of the pilot initiatives of the larger Career Pathways program in which SDSU staff can gain the necessary professional skills to be eligible for jobs across bargaining units.

Customized Workshops and Retreats: Staff from the CIE are also able work directly with divisions, departments, and teams to create customized and tailored training experiences to meet the specific needs of groups. Whether it is an team building experience, facilitating the development of an office mission statement, or an opportunity to practice addressing common issues, each experience is guided by an expert facilitator and tailored to meet the specific goals of each client. Interested offices can request a workshop here.

Global Campus: SDSU Global Campus offers a wide variety of classes, certifications, and degrees in service of ongoing professional development. Eligible Full-time SDSU employees (including State, Research Foundation, KPBS, and auxiliaries) receive a 20% individual discount on the following programs:

• Professional Certificate in Project Management
• Professional Certificate in Contract Management
• Professional Certificate in Grant Writing
• Professional Certificates in Lean Six Sigma

Discounts may also be available for departments enrolling large groups of employees. 

Additionally, SDSU Employees can receive Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) Membership Discounts, including:

• $30 discount on annual membership for SDSU Retirement Association Members
• $10 discount on annual membership for SDSU Alumni Association Lifetime Members
• $10 discount on annual membership for each additional member residing in the same household (must share the same address linked to member account)

Interested employees are encouraged to reach out for more information.

Employee Resource Groups: Employee Resource Groups (ERG’s) are designed to build an inclusive environment for SDSU employees from various employment groups, with particular attention to employees from historically underrepresented and underserved backgrounds. ERG’s are established and operated by employees with modest support from the Division of Student Affairs and Campus Diversity. Information on each of the ERGs as well as the process for establishing a new ERG can be found here.

JEDI Tool Kit: The Justice Equity Diversity and Inclusive (JEDI) toolkit provides guidance and links to resources to support your own learning and reflection, wherever you are along this journey. It is a companion to the Faculty and Staff Resource Guide, which provides information on the many campus offices, programs and departments that provide services to students, staff and faculty.

Faculty and Staff Resource Guide: The Faculty and Staff Resource Guide tries to help make the search for resources, information, and support a bit easier. It provides overviews and links to relevant departments and programs, it also provides answers to some of the most frequently asked “Who do I call for…” and “What is the policy on…” questions. The Guide was created primarily for faculty and staff who are new to the university but will hopefully be useful to employees at every stage of their careers.

Diversity Councils: The SDSU Diversity Councils work to ensure effective shared governance, transparency and broad sharing of relevant information from all voices regarding diversity, inclusion, and equity. The Diversity Councils review, advise, and provide feedback to the unit’s leadership regarding matters related to students, staff and faculty diversity, equity, and inclusion, they provide guidance and support for the development, implementation and on-going assessment of unit diversity plans, and are often involved in coordinating DEI initiatives within and across units and contributing to campus DEI initiatives. More information about the various councils and their work can be found here.

Southern California Higher Education Recruitment Consortium: Southern California HERC is led by San Diego State University. The Southern California HERC website provides thousands of employment offerings. We list jobs from an impressive variety of member institutions that share an academic mission, including colleges, universities, community colleges, research institutes, and teaching hospitals in Southern California and Hawaii. As a member institution, all members of the SDSU community have full access to all HERC resources.

NCFDD (formerly the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity): NCFDD helps higher education institutions support faculty at scale, with customized, evidence based faculty development solutions. As a member institution, all members of SDSU can access resources and tools designed to support faculty and administrators in ongoing professional development.

EDUCAUSE: EDUCAUSE supports educational institutions to advance the strategic use of technology and data to further the promise of higher education. EDUCAUSE connects and empowers member communities through insights, advocacy, resources, and learning opportunities to anticipate trends and strengthen professional practice. As a member institution, the entire SDSU community can access member resources and opportunities offered by EDUCAUSE.

Cross Campus Collaboration: Cross-Campus Collaboration (CCC) is a free online Zoom program for CSU campuses to share their professional development resources across the CSU. Classes are offered by campus Learning & Development (L&D) teams who have volunteered to extend their classes to others in the CSU system. CCC is an easy way to extend the range of development opportunities at each campus.

CSU Learn: CSULearn is a learning management system with an extensive library of asynchronous courses, audio books, podcasts, and webinar recordings as well as mandatory compliance trainings. CSULearn also maintains a transcript for each user, meaning employees can access records of their professional development achievements across their time in the CSU. 

CSU Connect: CSU Connect is the California State University system-wide intranet. It is a repository of resources developed by all CSU Campuses and the Chancellor’s Office as well as a platform for collaborating across the CSU System. Resources and support can be found here.

In order to most clearly articulate the goals of this area, it is important to first define the concepts at the core. The functional definitions of staff, development, advancement, and leadership for the work of this area will be:

Staff: Staff will refer to all employees of SDSU whose primary job role is administrative or technical in nature and that falls outside the realms of faculty positions. This will include represented staff, part-time staff and managers.

Development: Development will refer to the process of growth, learning, and enhancement related to the values, perspectives, skills, and capacities needed for staff to perform their jobs at or above the articulated expectations of their positions.

Advancement: Advancement will refer to the opportunities for movement into new roles within SDSU and/or within each staff member’s chosen professional field; the opportunities to build upon the variety of skills and competencies employed to meet the changing nature of work at SDSU; and the organizational pathways that bring those opportunities to fruition for staff.

Leadership: Leadership will refer to the capacity each individual has to create positive change in the world around them. Leadership will be distinct from management or authority in that it can be exercised by anyone from anywhere in the organizational hierarchy rather than being innately tied to certain positions or roles.

In order to realize each of these concepts, Staff Development, Advancement, and Leadership Programs will deploy a robust suite of programs and opportunities for staff to experience, engage in, and contribute to their individual success, the success of the communities of which they see themselves as a part, and of SDSU.

The programming offered by the Staff Development, Advancement, and Leadership Programs area will cohere around a set of outcomes related to each of its areas of focus. Those outcomes are:

Development
Staff who participate in programs with this office will make progress toward:

• Identifying new skills and capacities as well as opportunities to enhance said skills and capacities in order to achieve excellence in their work.
• Articulating a clear connection between their work and the SDSU Principles of Community.
• Creating and/or adding to a professional development action plan.
• Meeting or exceeding all aspects of the evaluation criteria as their positions.

Advancement
Staff who participate in programs with this office will make progress toward:

• Articulating a clear set of career goals.
• Identifying the resources, learning, and opportunities needed to achieve any identified career goals.
• Developing the technical, interpersonal, and organizational skills needed to excel in the identified career goals.

Leadership
Staff who participate in programs with this office will make progress toward:

• Articulating a definition of leadership that is consistent with their personal and professional values as well as the SDSU Principles of Community.
• Developing the skills and capacities necessary to practice leadership on and off campus.
• Identifying opportunities to make positive change in their campus and San Diego communities.