Commendation in Honor of Dr. Sue V. Rosser, SF State Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs

Dr. Sue Rosser has been an active member of the San Francisco State University (SF State) community for seven years since her appointment as Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs in August 2009; and

Dr. Rosser arrived at SF State with a Ph.D. in Zoology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison; and

Dr. Rosser has served for three decades both in the faculty ranks and in management as: 1) Director of Women's Studies at the University of South Carolina, where she also was a Professor of Family and Preventive Medicine in the Medical School from 1986-1995; 2) Senior Program Officer for Women's Programs at the National Science Foundation in 1995; 3) Director for the Center for Women's Studies and Gender Research and Professor of Anthropology at the University of Florida-Gainesville from 1995-1999; and 4) Dean of Ivan Allen College, the liberal arts college at Georgia Institute of Technology, where she held the endowed Ivan Allen Dean's Chair of Liberal Arts and Technology and was also Professor of Public Policy and of History, Technology, and Society from July 1999-2009; and

Professor Rosser has established, and continues to cultivate, a solid scholarly reputation as: 1) author of thirteen books and about 130 journal articles on the theoretical and applied problems of women and science and women's health; 2) principal investigator on several large, successful grants from the National Science Foundation and other reputable funding agencies; and 3) effective leader on several editorial boards, the American Association for the Advancement of Science Executive Board, and many other community-based organizations and professional societies with strong commitment to educational equity and social justice; and

Dr. Rosser’s career and family eventually brought her to SF State and the position of Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs for which President Les Wong recently commended her many accomplishments including but not limited to: • Successful 10-year reaccreditation from WASC, representing the maximum time period for which WASC issues reaccreditation; • Hiring of five College deans; • Hiring of two deans of College of Extended Learning, one dean of Faculty Affairs, one dean of Undergraduate Studies, one associate vice president of the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs, one associate vice president of Academic Affairs Operations; • Hiring of more than 209 tenure and tenure-track faculty; • Initiating hires of clusters of faculty to increase interdisciplinary approaches to scholarship across the University; • The tenure and promotion of more than 400 faculty; and • Managing the Academic Affairs budget during the Great Recession, which represented the worst cuts in California and California State University (CSU) history; and

as Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs, Dr. Rosser has demonstrated an uncommon talent for evidence-based research and data-driven analysis when it came to subjects such as course bottlenecks, facilitating graduation, and student success; and

Focus on the academic mission of our university has been at the heart of the Division of Academic Affairs under the leadership of Provost Rosser, who has worked diligently and with considerable success, often outside public view, to provide vibrant support for each of our six academic colleges; and

equally importantly, Provost Rosser established a close working relationship with the Academic Senate by attending and participating during its plenary deliberations; breakfast meetings with its Executive Committee, serving as liaison to its Academic Policies Committee, and by playing a critical role in helping the faculty at SF State and in the CSU access much needed Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity (RSCA) funding for faculty development and professional growth opportunities from the CSU Chancellor’s Office; and