Building on a Tradition

Stan State Stockton Campus is Expanding Programming as it Awaits Completion of New Building

By Lori Gilbert

Alexander Countryman is 27, the son of a father in the military who moved 26 times during his childhood.

He’s found a home, he said, at the Stanislaus State Stockton Campus.

“I spend more time on campus than I do at home,” said Countryman, a business administration major.

Between pursuing his degree and working with Stockton Campus Information Technology Consultant Michael Tablett, Countryman puts in full days at University Park, where he’s surrounded by likeminded students.

“Students tend to be older or have more maturity than someone straight out of high school,” Countryman said. “You can tell they are here with a purpose. They understand where they want to be. They understand who they want to be, and they are trying to be that.”

Meeting the needs of students in Stockton and San Joaquin County has become a bigger ambition for Stan State.

Six full-time dedicated Stockton Campus faculty were added in the fall as was a full-time counselor from Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) and full-time Basic Needs coordinator.

More classes are offered to students transferring as traditional college juniors, and to those interested in accelerated bachelor and certificate programs offered through the Office of Extended Education. Those include the Accelerated Second Bachelor of Science in Nursing and a hybrid-modality Master of Social Work, both offered only at Stockton.

The Teacher Education program, a longtime fixture in Stockton, recently reached an agreement to have student teachers placed in Stockton Unified School District schools.

Additionally, the Stockton Campus at University Park is getting a facelift.

A new $54 million classroom building is set to open in fall 2025 and will follow the scheduled summer 2025 completion of the renovation of the Magnolia Mansion.

In the meantime, the venerable Acacia Building has been given a fresh look.

The interior has numerous new study spaces with computers and charging stations. Comfortable lounge areas resemble spaces in the Student Center in Turlock, the outdoor courtyard has a colorful mural, and interior walls feature graphics portraying Warrior Spirit.

Everyone wants to make a change for the better. That’s the reason I love coming to the campus. I want to help support that.

ALEXANDER COUNTRYMAN, BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION MAJOR

Old-fashioned wooden schoolroom desks have been replaced by modern furniture, including tabletops with white boards.

The building also houses a permanent Warrior Food Pantry, fitness center and expanded Library. There’s a new service space, the Canteen, with fresh food similar to that found in the J. Burton Vasché Library in Turlock, and a game room with darts and a pool table.

The Community Equity Research Center is based in Stockton, as is the new Innovation and Workforce Hub, which, as of February, has an executive director in Aubrey Priest.

“The overarching idea is about evolving our comprehensive branch campus into an intellectual and cultural hub for Stockton and San Joaquin County,” Provost Richard Ogle said. “We want to ensure that we have programs there that serve the specific needs and demands of the region.”

A marketing study and ongoing work with deans and faculty to assess regional needs have helped determine courses and programs being offered, Ogle said.

Dean of Extended and International Education Kari Knutson Miller came to Stan State in mid-2021 with an edict to expand programming in Stockton.

“Our demographics skew more to professional working adults who are working at a particular firm or industry or school,” Miller said. “They have complex lives, with childcare and eldercare responsibilities. We work with them where they are.

“We have good degree programs and are working on partnerships to expand our capacity to serve more students in these programs, to add to the program portfolio and to fill out these spaces that tend to be part of a continuing education.” It takes some adults time to settle on higher education as the right path.

“I graduated from high school in 2014, and it’s like night and day,” Countryman said. “The level of ambition is something different. I definitely feel like people going to college now are tired of the chaos in the world, and everyone wants to make a change for the better. That’s the reason I love coming to the campus. I want to help support that.”

The Stockton Campus is dedicated to making lives better and is poised to make an impact with its planned stateof-the-art building.

“It really is accelerating the evolution of the Stockton Campus to become more than a place where we simply teach,” Ogle said.

Stan State has had a Stockton presence since 1974, moving from night classes in a state building to classroom space at San Joaquin Delta College to acquiring the grounds of the former state hospital and rebranding it University Park in 1998.

Soon, it will make its first physical addition to the Stockton landscape.

“We remain immensely grateful to the state, legislators and the California State University for investing in our Stockton Campus,” President Ellen Junn said. “The growth of the Stockton Campus is an expression of our deep commitment to expanding educational access and opportunities to students in Stockton and San Joaquin County. The enhancements to the campus will provide broader access to programs that drive increasing levels of college degree achievement, professional opportunities and overall economic growth for Stockton, the region and the Central Valley.”