After serving almost one month as San Jose State’s interim president, Steve Perez said he aspires to continue university and student success.
Joseph L. Castro, California State University chancellor, said he appointed Perez because of his passion for faculty-student collaboration and student wellbeing, according to a Nov. 22, 2021 CSU news release.
“Dr. Perez is a bold leader with a long-standing commitment to improving student achievement demonstrated through his many years of service at Sacramento State,” Castro stated. “His passion for increasing opportunity for all students and his track record of building collaborative relationships with students, faculty and staff will ensure that SJSU continues on its upward trajectory during this time of transition.”
Perez assumed his interim position two weeks after former SJSU president Mary Papazian ended her almost 6-year tenure on Dec. 21, 2021.
Perez said he plans to prioritize student success by increasing graduation rates, eliminating and reducing opportunity gaps and addressing basic needs including housing and food security.
He most recently served as Sac State’s provost and vice president of academic affairs since November 2018, where he decreased the average time to degree completion by one year and increased the four-year graduation rate to 21.9% in 2020, compared to 8.5% in 2015, according to his curriculum vitae.
“It’s impossible for us to hope and expect for [students] to be able to come to school and do what we want [students] to do, which is learn and grow and develop, if [they’re] experiencing food insecurity or housing insecurity,” Perez said. “Those are the things that we need to try to help support and we’ve got an SJSU Cares office that I know is dedicated to it.”
SJSU Cares is a division of student affairs which provides assistance to students, including food, housing, medical and emergency, and disaster aid, according to its webpage.
Perez said serving in multiple leadership levels at Sac State provided relevant experience for his interim president role.
“The experiences that I have coming from a CSU . . . does prepare me for the questions that we’re facing and the things that we need to be able to accomplish here,” he said.
Perez said he hopes to rebuild and bring the SJSU community back together, some of which he said was lost during the coronavirus pandemic.
Before joining the SJSU community on Jan. 3, Perez held various positions at Sac State since 2001, including economics professor, kinesiology interim department chair and National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) faculty athletic representative, according to Perez’s curriculum vitae.
The NCAA is an organization dedicated to student-athlete success and wellbeing, according to its website.
From 2016-18, he held a position on NCAA Board of Governors Commission to Combat Campus Sexual Violence, according to his curriculum vitae.
Perez said he’ll strive to create an inclusive environment in which students feel safe.
“We want to be a place [where] people feel safe, people feel welcome, people feel included, and people feel like they have the opportunity to be successful at what they want to be able to do,” he said.
Perez said while he doesn’t know how long he will be interim president, he intends to do the best he can for the campus community.
Mike Uhlenkamp, CSU senior director of public affairs, stated in a Nov. 23, 2021 email that the 31st SJSU president will be chosen by university advisory and CSU trustee committees.
Perez said he has a “huge amount” of pride working at the university and enjoys working to ensure students succeed in “every way.”
“If given the opportunity, this is a job I would love to be able to pursue,” Perez said.
