Whew! We made it through another semester (and year)! 🥳

With Fall 2025 in the books, it's time to give yourself a pat on the back and be proud of all the hard work you've put in throughout the year to help ensure Student Success.

As faculty work to file final grades and Sac State's newest alumni journey out into the world to begin their next chapter, we hope the staff of Student Affairs - the backbone of everything we do here - will take some time to rest, relax and reset.

❄️⛄ Stingers Up, best wishes, and here's to a wonderful and happy holiday season with family, food and lots of cheer!🎄🍾

"It’s worth remembering that it is often the small steps, not the giant leaps, that bring about the most lasting change." – Queen Elizabeth II

The Buzz hits your inbox once a month. Your partnership is the heartbeat of this newsletter. We’re eager to hear how we can elevate it for you. Please share your thoughts, feedback and ideas with us. 💌

Don’t forget to connect with us on Instagram for a peek into campus life! 📸

Greetings,

As the weather shifts, the semester concludes, and the holiday season approaches, I’m reminded of William Arthur Ward’s words: “Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.”

In this season of reflection, I hope you find moments to acknowledge and thank your team members for their dedication to our students and their unwavering commitment to student-centered services.

We also welcome your continued partnership with Student Success and Academic Excellence (SSAE), home to our 10 Cultural Academic Resource Centers (CARC). Each center is supported by a thriving team committed to cultivating a vibrant, inclusive community—providing affirming spaces that celebrate student experiences and foster a deep sense of belonging.

Wishing you a safe, restful and reflective winter break, and meaningful time with your loved ones and communities.

Dr. Chao Vang

Associate Vice President

Student Success and Academic Excellence

Read below to learn a bit about each of our current Student Assistants. 

Full Name: Moses Mackabee
Major: Film
Expected Graduation: Fall 2028
Career Goal: A career goal is to work on a major production movie and have my own film company.
Favorite Thing About Sac State: The people and how everyone is so quick to help if you have any questions.
Fun Fact: I wrestled for nine years and was top 50 in the state of California.

Full Name: Nohemy Garcia 
Major: CHAD (educational contexts); Minor in Counseling
Expected Graduation: Spring 2028 
Career Goal: Be first generation to obtain a professional certificate and become a great leader in my field. 
Favorite Thing About Sac State: The positivity with students and professors, the diversity and opportunity everyone gets for help. 
Fun Fact: I love traveling!

Full Name: Roberto Barela-Gonzalez
Major: Design Studies
Expected Graduation: Fall 2029
Career Goal: To become a graphic designer. 
Favorite Thing About Sac State: The squirrels.
Fun Fact About You: I'm a sculpture artist.

Jasmeen Bangar, Student Affairs Business Resources, in less than one year in her current role, has exemplified exceptional professionalism, dedication, and pride in her work. During the summer, she played a pivotal role in the successful on-boarding of 17 new staff members, served as a key member of the California Gubernatorial Forum planning team that hosted 8 candidates, and contributed significantly to the relocation of 5 campus centers. Her initiative in anticipating needs, executing high-profile events, and providing steadfast support to her team reflects the attributes of a future leader in higher education administration.

Click the button below to read more about Jasmeen. Congratulations, Jasmeen! 

The Staff Talent Appreciation & Retention (STAR) Awards program acknowledges the exemplary performance and contributions of staff members within the division.

Head to our submission form below to NOMINATE the next STAR of the Month!

Welcome to Honey, Wings & Stings!

The Buzz highlights members of the Student Affairs family who have been promoted (Honey 🍯), newly hired (Wings 🦋), and those who are leaving our division, including retirees (Stings 🐝).

Join us in celebration as we congratulate these extraordinary employees! Please give them a shout out if you see them around!

Honey 🍯recognizes our staff who have been promoted to new roles, including details on their current role and new position.

Wings recognizes new hires, with a list of names, titles and start dates. We welcome our newest division members, who started this fall!

Stings recognizes members of the Hornet Family who are departing the division, including our retirees.

With family and friends packing the stands of Golden 1 Center, Sacramento State celebrated more than 3,000 graduates this past weekend at Winter Commencement. Excitement was in the air as grads sported their decked-out caps and wore their gowns, sashes and other honors with Hornet pride.

Faculty, staff and dozens of volunteers from across campus, including Student Affairs, helped make it all happen as the new alumni walked the stage across two ceremonies on the way to their next adventure.

Congrats, grads, and Stingers Up!

Our 2025 Student Affairs Holiday Party on Friday, Dec. 12, was a huge success as we came together to celebrate the season and our hard work throughout the year. Our staff competed for prizes in games like bingo, Jeopardy, snowman building and present wrapping. Other games and activities included the left-right game, "Never have I ever," an ugly sweater competition, and a game that asked participants to guess how many ornaments were inside of a fish tank.

Attendees enjoyed brownies, cookies, cupcakes and more. We also celebrated our STAR Awards winners, networked and caught up with members of the division, and enjoyed time away from our computer screens. 

Congratulations to the prize winners and thank you to everyone who participated! We appreciate you all and hope you all have a wonderful holiday season!

Check out our photo gallery from the 2025 Student Affairs Holiday Party below. More photos will be added next week, so bookmark the gallery and check back later! 

Volunteers passed out delicious snacks (which were donated by campus partners), shared energetic vibes and provided words of encouragement during this year's Finals Friends event. Each evening on Dec. 8-10, students in the AIRC were greeted with smiles and joy as well as goodies while they studied for final exams.

The program is presented by our Dean of Students Dr. Bill Hèbert, Jr. (pictured, second from left), and the Division of Student Affairs. Its purpose is to remind students we're rooting for them and that it's important (and OK) to take breaks and breathe during stressful times.

Thank you to those who volunteered and donated snacks! 

Learning & Development offers a wide variety of employee professional development trainings, events, and activities each month. See the full calendar below for events, additional information, and to request accommodations and register.

📖 If you missed the division-wide meeting and session one of Title IX, sexual harassment prevention, and the reporting responsibilities of staff training, we'll have another session in February 2026. Details about the training, including the to-be-determined date, will be shared in the near future. In compliance with federal Title IX regulations, state law, and University policy, all University employees are required to complete annual training. This training helps ensure our community remains safe, respectful, and equitable for all students and colleagues.

🧠 In case you missed the SacSend from HR, we want to point out the Employee Wellness Resources at Sac State. It’s a one-stop spot for Sac State staff, faculty, and managers to find helpful University resources and trainings that support your well-being. Resources include the Employee Assistance Program (EAP), financial wellness, disability support and more. Head to the links below for more information and to access these valuable tools. 

“Higher education is now in position to build the infrastructure that connects learners to opportunity—guided by real-time data and regional labor demand."

Artificial intelligence is restructuring the labor market faster than colleges can update a syllabus. The traditional degree-to-job pipeline—once a reliable proxy for workforce readiness—is no longer aligned with how skills emerge, how roles evolve, or how people actually enter the AI economy. Across research labs, labor-market analytics firms, and impact-investment portfolios, a new reality is coming into focus: The future of work may run on pathways; not credentials.

More recent stories about AI in education: 

If you currently have SA-IT equipment checked out, this is a friendly reminder that many loan periods are ending this month. To help us keep devices available for the whole division, please plan to return your equipment by the listed due date or reach out to request a renewal if you need a little more time.

Returning or renewing on schedule helps us support upcoming events, trainings, and new staff needs across Student Affairs. As always, our team is here to help!

As of December 1, Student Affairs Business Resources has moved from Lassen Hall 2304 to Lassen Hall 2205. Our team will be working hybrid and are available in-person on select days and via Teams Monday-Friday. For more information, visit here.

P2P Update - It is incredibly important for staff and managers to be ready for the Procure to Pay (P2P) go-live date in late January. Please sign up for one, or both, of these trainings:

Training for users who are responsible for procuring goods and services for your department. Covers Shopper vs. Requester roles, suppliers, punchouts, forms, cart management, persona/business unit selection, chartfield usage, and the full workflow.

Training for users identified as being responsible for fiscal authority. Covers: key approval roles and processes, how financial workflows function, handling approval substitutions, approval actions (return, reject, comment, approve), managing shared folders, and reviewing forms and attachments.

Training materials and session recordings will be posted to the P2P webpage.

Once we are live, our campus project team will conduct hands-on, progressive training sessions to further support your learning and successful adoption of the new system.

Questions? Email Campus Change Champions Sarah Hansen and Sebastian Head.

Hornet Weekly – Sac State's digest email newsletter for students – launched in September 2025 in an effort to reduce the number of emails in students' inboxes while keeping them better informed. It is sent on Tuesdays and includes news, events, resources and more.

Hornet Weekly is not sent during regular academic year breaks. Our final Fall 2025 edition was sent on Dec. 9 and we'll resume on Jan. 27, 2026. The next deadline for submissions is 1 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. 

Recent newsletters:

We appreciate your support, as we cannot produce Hornet Weekly without submissions from our Student Affairs staff and all of our campus partners.

Want to keep up with the latest editions of Hornet Weekly? Have items to include? Click the buttons below to learn more, submit your items and visit the archive.

Upload your events to Trumba, Sac State's event management platform (campus events calendar). It's designed to help organize, share and promote campus events with ease. Uploading to Trumba only takes a few minutes and is an easy and efficient way to keep students up-to-date on all the exciting events we have planned!

Have you heard? We have a brand new way to request campaigns, emails and more. Use our new forms to request graphics, photos, videos and targeted SacSends!

We are here to help. Let us guide you on the best practices and platforms for reaching students. Planning ahead streamlines communication pathways, helping you connect with your target audience. Contact us today!

Thanks for reading the December 2025 edition of The Buzz Around Student Affairs!

The Buzz is usually sent the first week of the month. Please submit updates for the next newsletter by 5 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. 🐝

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