SECTION B: An Academically Excellent University

Providing an education which affirms excellence in a collaborative, learning-centered, academic experience

As was clearly articulated in the university strategic plan, at San Francisco State academic excellence is both a guiding principle and a dynamic process—our common goal and each step we take toward realizing that goal. Central to the university's commitment to academic excellence is a set of high, mutually agreed-upon standards dedicated to bringing out the best in all students and faculty. In its strategic plan, SFSU addresses these shared standards of excellence as they are specifically embodied in its undergraduate and graduate programs. Although student profiles, delivery systems, and learning outcomes differ among programs, the overarching goal and the university's standards remain the same.

Since the continual striving to maintain and improve academic excellence is the university’s foremost endeavor, it is only appropriate that this self-study begin with a set of chapters which attempt to describe our activities and depict our successes in its regard. We begin, therefore, with an overview chapter on curricular content and quality and then turn to more specific chapters dealing with undergraduate education—focusing here especially on university requirements above and beyond the major—and with graduate education. The section concludes with two chapters focusing attention on the support we provide students as they negotiate their way through the university. The first concentrates on orientation and advising services and the second on all other support services—from admission, to retention and progress, to graduation.