A Moment with President Tomás Morales

I am writing this month to thank you all for your incredible support of our ongoing comprehensive campaign, Our Defining Moment: The Campaign for CSUSB, with its two concurrent goals: to raise $130 million in sponsored research and $70 million in private support. 

I can report today that we currently stand at $217 million! Thanks to our faculty and staff, we have achieved our sponsored research goals. But we still need your support to get us over the top and reach our philanthropic goals—right now, we are at 69% of our goal.

Why? Because we want to keep the momentum going which enables us to build and strengthen student success. I can think of no better example than our fantastic spring Commencement celebration at the Toyota Arena in Ontario in mid-May. Over 3,100 graduates registered to participate in one of the five ceremonies. You can see, from the faces of our graduates and their families and close friends, that CSUSB is truly making a difference here in the Inland Empire. And we are making that difference thanks to all of you. I am profoundly grateful.

I want to take a couple of minutes to celebrate the two alumni who received honorary doctorates in humane letters this year.

Respondia, also known as “Dia,” Poole has spent a career in public service to the people of California, serving in all three branches of our state’s government. She has combined that work along with volunteer service on the CSU statewide Alumni Council, where she has twice led as president. She was named Cal State San Bernardino’s Alumni Advocate of the Year in 2008.  Dia is a two-time CSUSB graduate, with a BA in business administration and information management and an MA in communication studies.

Ellen Weisser is a philanthropist, one of our most distinguished graduates and the 2024 CSUSB Distinguished Alumna.  She is a tireless advocate for CSUSB’s students and the university. A strong supporter of performing arts at CSUSB, she established the Ellen Weisser Endowed Theatre Showcase, the first named sponsorship in the Department of Theatre Arts. Ellen is fully engaged in the community and, in 2017, was named the Redlands Chamber of Commerce Woman of the Year. She attended UCLA, UCR and earned her undergraduate degree as part of CSUSB’s second class, graduating with Academic Honors in English in 1968. She also attended graduate school at CSUSB for her teaching credential, and subsequently attended the University of Redlands for school administration.

I am further delighted this month to announce the appointment of the new associate vice president for philanthropic giving, Raymond Watts. Ray most recently served as the associate vice president for development at Claremont McKenna College. During his tenure, he led a team of fundraising professionals, collaborating closely with senior leadership. Notably, he spearheaded a comprehensive campaign that concluded with a remarkable $1.076 billion raised, surpassing the original goal of $800 million. He also managed a portfolio of approximately 200 alumni, parents and friends, ensuring sustained engagement and philanthropic investment.

Prior to his role at Claremont McKenna, Ray spent 17 years at the University of Redlands, where he held various leadership positions in advancement. As the senior associate vice president for advancement and senior philanthropic advisor, he successfully guided the $200 million Forever Yours campaign and contributed to the university’s Centennial Campaign. His innovative approaches in planned giving, annual giving strategies and marketing significantly bolstered the university’s fundraising capabilities.

Ray’s career in advancement began at Loyola Marymount University, where he managed annual and special campaigns, significantly increasing donor contributions and leading multiple teams to achieve substantial fundraising goals.

In addition to his professional achievements, Ray holds a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and an MBA from Loyola Marymount University. He is also a Certified Specialist in Planned Giving, and has been actively involved in teaching, professional organizations and community service, including serving on the board of directors for the National Association of Charitable Gift Planners.

My thanks, as always, for the stellar leadership of university advancement’s vice president, Robert Nava, which has resulted in us attracting and hiring such an outstanding person for this position!

Over the years since the pandemic began, we have learned how important growing CSUSB’s enrollment is and will be for the foreseeable future. With that understanding before us, I have moved our enrollment management and recruitment services to its own division—the “Office of Strategic Enrollment Management and Marketing”—where it will report directly to me.

We instituted a national search for an inaugural vice president for the new division this spring, and I am pleased to announce that Dr. David Dufault-Hunter will be joining us on September 3, 2024.  My thanks to the efforts of our hardworking search committee who helped us to secure such an exceptional candidate for the position!

David joins us from Cal State Northridge, where he has been the associate vice president for enrollment services since November 2020. As the inaugural holder of this CSUN position, he has worked to create a cohesive structure comprised of the offices of admission, student outreach and recruitment, financial aid and scholarships, university registrar, strategic communication for enrollment services, international exchange student center and enrollment services technology. He further facilitated the development and implementation of a strategic enrollment plan for CSUN.  Prior to assuming the AVP position, he served as director of admissions and records.

David has further experience serving at Azusa Pacific University, Oaks Christian School in Westlake Village and Fuller Theological Seminary, totaling over 30 years working with high school, undergraduate and graduate students in the areas of student recruitment and retention, marketing, academic partnerships and diversity initiatives.

He has his B.S. in Speech from the University of Texas at Austin; an M.A. in Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary; and a Ph.D. in Higher Education from Azusa Pacific University.

Furthermore, as part of this restructuring, we have realized the increased importance of messaging to support our efforts. Therefore, as of July 1, the Office of Strategic Communication—which has reported to the vice president for university advancement—will be moving to the new division with a new name: “Marketing and Communications.”  This office will still continue to support our university messaging as well as advancement and development efforts, but its new home will signify an additional focus in its responsibilities.

This is all a part of being a university which reviews the data, including trends, and uses that information to re-shape its actions while remaining true to our overall mission: to serve the people of the Inland Empire with access to a first-class education with topflight faculty on a campus offering state of the art facilities in which to learn and study.

So, yes, it is the summer here at CSUSB, but we continue to be an institution which is active and engaged. As we plan for the next academic year, I wish to thank you all for your continued support of CSUSB’s students along with its outstanding faculty and dedicated staff who continue to demonstrate what a public institution of higher education, dedicated to serving its community, can do for the Inland Empire and the future of our state of California.

My appreciation to you all. You are truly making a difference.

Tomás D. Morales

President