May 22, 2018
Dear Campus Community,
This past weekend we celebrated our largest graduating class in Sonoma State history—2,076 graduates—with six commencement ceremonies. These two days could not have happened without your efforts. I wish that each of you could have experienced the excitement, pride and joy as the graduates crossed the stage in the Green Music Center. When each graduate said, “Thank you” to me, I accepted it on behalf of all of us.
I sincerely want to thank the Commencement Logistics Team, the faculty participants and everyone who came out to help on Saturday and Sunday. The ceremonies required months of planning, so I also want to thank those of you from across campus who helped prepare for the weekend’s festivities and all who helped our students make it to graduation. What you do, day in and day out, played a role in each of our student’s success. I received numerous compliments about how meaningful the ceremonies were, how friendly, welcoming and helpful everyone was, and how beautiful our campus – our facilities and grounds – were. I told our graduates that they were diamonds – true gems. But actually you are. You made us sparkle.
After an especially challenging week and year, I am appreciative of how we came together to make our Commencement and graduation celebrations a huge success. Thank you for your support, hard work and resilience. I could not be prouder of our campus community for helping the members of the class of 2018 make their academic dreams a reality. Together, we did it!
With gratitude,
Judy K. Sakaki
President