San Jose State President Cynthia Teniente-Matson introduced and discussed her vision and goals to the Associated Student Board of Directors during a meeting in the Student Union, on Wednesday.
Teniente-Matson, former president of Texas A&M University, San Antonio, was inaugurated as President of SJSU in January 2023, replacing Interim President Steve Perez.
Teniente-Matson said she plans to partner with student leaders and share governance to engage with student involvement around campus.
“Shared governance is a critical foundation for any university,” Teniente-Matson said. “I think this is a place where students should be part of our overall governance and how we think about the university. And that you bring problems forward or challenges because if someone in this room is having a challenge, it’s likely that someone else is as well.”
She said using their collective voices is critical to move the institution forward.
Teniente-Matson emphasized the importance of how tradition creates community by referring to her time with Texas A&M.
“I’m not familiar with all of the traditions in existence in San Jose State because I came in the middle of the year. But when I was in Texas, the traditions are what lived on and the students lifted those and moved them forward,” Teniente-Matson said. “Being connected with students is really important to me and everything that I do.”
She said the A.S. board has her support to help enable traditions on campus.
Teniente-Matson said one area where SJSU has room for improvement is campus safety. “I think one of the areas where we need to work together on is campus safety,” Teniente-Matson said. “I’ve heard this from some of the students and I talked to the mayor about this because the mayor has a real focus on San Jose being a very safe community.”
She said she is working together with San Jose’s mayor Matt Mahan and the San Jose Police Department to coordinate strategies to keep the campus safe.
“We need to coordinate so that we’ve got all of our arrows pointing in the same direction towards campus safety,” Teniente-Matson said.
Teniene-Matson also talked about academics during the meeting. When asked about how she plans to enable marginalized groups who are struggling and underperforming without lowering education standards, she said she wants to keep common practices in place.
“I’m not a proponent of lowering standards because it doesn’t send the right signal to anybody,” Teniente-Matson said. “We embrace what is known as high impact practices, and student success initiatives in the most affirmative way.”
She discussed the California State University Graduation Initiative 2025, which is CSU’s effort to ensure all students have an equal opportunity to earn a degree, according to the CSU webpage.
“A very elaborate system is being built to look at this evidence in San Jose State as part of a six-campus collaboration,” Teniente-Matson said. “To build the system directly for faculty – not for students or administrators – to be able to evaluate their course over time, and see how those grades are playing out by race, ethnicity and gender.”
A.S. President Nina Chuang said she is excited to work alongside Teniente-Matson this year.
“There’s a sense of professionalism and also this new face is refreshing, so I'm looking forward to this collaboration,” Chuang said.
She said she hopes that A.S. and the president can maintain their voice and shared governance when it comes to representation.
Chuang meets with Vice President of Student Affairs Patrick Day and Teniente-Matson every other week.
“After [Interim President Steve Perez] left, I only talked with VP Day. I think this is a really great start to this new partnership and collaboration,” Chuang said. “I’m hoping that the president really involves students in our advocacy because in the past they haven’t been including students in the conversation.”
Magnus Herrlin, director of internal affairs for A.S., said he was impressed with Teniente-Matson.
“It was really excellent. I was glad to see that the new president is willing to work with students and we’re able to directly work with the school administration as student leaders,” Herrlin said.
He said Teniente-Matson’s effort is evident by how she engages on social media with students. “I’m really excited to work with the administration and see how they take this more hands-on approach and listen to students,” Herrlin said.
He said he is looking forward to working with the school administration on improving public safety.
“I’m glad our new president and administration brought these issues to the table and are willing to hear students out to empower their success,” Herrlin said.
Herrlin said anything A.S. would like to do with the president relies on communication.
“I think we’re off to a great start with the president taking her initiative and showing up to our A.S. board meeting. It’s been pretty receptive as far as I can tell,” Herrlin said.
Dominic Treseler, political science junior, Director of Legislative Affairs for A.S. said he had a good first impression of President Teniente-Matson during today’s board meeting.
“She seems super student focused and ready to engage with students on campus which is very exciting,” Treseler said.
He said A.S. has a good relationship with the administration right now, which hasn’t always been the case with past presidents.
“President Teniente-Matson seems really interested in transparency, which is something we’ve been talking about for a long time, the transparency between the university administration and the students,” Treseler said. “She seems really interested in the failings of the university and communicating that information and she wants to change that.”
