Q&A with Sacramento State President Luke Wood

Portrait by Andrea Price/Sacramento State

I’m reaching you in Washington, D.C., in June. What’s the occasion?

There is a Juneteenth celebration at the White House. We’ve been doing some work with President Biden’s director for public engagement [Stephen Benjamin, the former mayor of Columbia, South Carolina]. He’s coming out to give remarks at the opening of the Black Honors College. [The ceremony was Aug. 8.]

From your perspective, how is the White House reacting to what’s happening at the university?

They’re very impressed. It is not just the Honors College. It’s bigger than that. Sacramento State has the largest population of Black students in the Cal State system. We got the California Assembly to designate Sacramento State as a Black Serving Institution, which basically is laying the foundation for a statewide code for other institutions to have a similar designation. We also have just been awarded the CSU system’s Black student success center [formally known as the California State University system’s Office for the Advancement of Black Excellence], which means that we’ll support the implementation of all Black student success efforts across the whole Cal State system.

We’re talking around your one-year anniversary as university president. What were some unexpected challenges or obstacles you encountered in that year?

One unexpected challenge was Capital Public Radio. [The station, which is headquartered on campus and runs under Sacramento State’s broadcasting license, was the subject of a scathing audit in 2023 that revealed years of fiscal and organizational mismanagement.] We brought all of their finances under our internal controls. They significantly  lacked internal controls. And then there was the budget: They had expenses that far outweighed their revenue. We went from that to essentially stabilizing CapRadio this year, which is a significant feat. Listenership is up, donations are up. We’ve been able to right-size the budget so that it has the ability to continue on. We’re just figuring out how to manage the sizable debt that was incurred, and we’re working on a plan for how we’ll basically manage that over a long period of time. That was an unexpected challenge, but I also feel that we’ve managed that well.

We also had an encampment on campus with students expressing support for lives being lost in Palestine. Managing an encampment—when that’s not what we’re really designed to do as an institution—was a significant undertaking and a lot of pressure.

You’re the first Sacramento State alum to become president, which is unique enough. But your origin story prior to that is also unique.

I was born while my biological mother was in prison. She gave birth to me and my twin brother. We became wards of the court and grew up in a foster home in McCloud, California—a town of 1,600 people nestled at the base of Mount Shasta. High school of a hundred kids. No stoplights. One gas station. My brother and I ended up being adopted into that home. Our parents had over 350 children in their home throughout the many years that they did foster care. So I’m just one of 350.

You stayed in Northern California for college and attended Sacramento State at the same time I did, in the early aughts. As a student there, in what ways did you develop yourself as a leader?

It started out with the [new student] orientation that they do. [The orientation leader] said: “Look to your left, look to your right. Only one of you will graduate.” That was actually the first time that I had come to realize, “Wait, people go to college and don’t graduate?” That had never crossed my mind before. I just assumed you go to college, and you get a degree. That’s what then got me interested in leadership: We had to do more to make sure that students are graduating. And then, to find out that there are gaps that go even further depending upon a student’s background and identity—whether they’re low income or first generation or a student of color or undocumented, or any of those categories. The passion around diversity and inclusion is what brought me into it.

My twin brother [Joshua Wood, CEO of the Sacramento Region Business Association] was going to attend Chico State, and at the very last minute, he changed his mind and he came to Sacramento State. We lived in the residence halls together for our first year. He ended up becoming the student body president, and I became the student body vice president. Some of the most influential people in our region were not just made at Sac State, but made through Sac State student government. [Yolo County District 5 supervisor] Angel Barajas was in student government with us. [Sacramento City Councilmember] Eric Guerra was in student government with us. [Folsom Lake College president] Art Pimentel was in student government with us.

Fast-forward two decades, and you’ve led a lot of unique and ambitious initiatives as the university’s president. Most notable, perhaps, is the aforementioned Black Honors College, which is the first of its kind in the nation. Can you tell us about it?

It’s an honors college specifically designed for students who are interested in Black history, life and culture. We have a dean of students, our own outreach folks, our own academic advisers and therapists. It’s an entire team set up to support the students. They have over 6,000 square feet of space—their own seminar room, their own office suite, even their own student center. It’s a significant institutional investment, and the California State University system gave us a quarter-million dollars to help get it off the ground and running.

It has a 3.5 GPA requirement, there’s an application process, and then you have a uniquely tailored academic experience. Students take their entire general education in the Honors College. So you take [classes covering subjects like] sociology, mathematics, writing—all these different areas—with every single one of those classes being taught from a perspective of focusing on Black history, life, culture, and contributions. I’ve taught statistics for years, and I might talk about some Black statisticians, [for example]. We’ll also do research, and I’ll have students find a problem that is directly facing [the Black] community and collect data on that problem, and then analyze that through a critical lens.

Are you going to teach in the Black Honors College?

Not in year one. Believe me, we went back and forth on this. We decided that I shouldn’t probably do it year one because I’m still transitioning as president. But I do plan to teach in it at some point.

How big is the inaugural cohort of students?

We said 75 students, but it looks like we’re at 80. [Laughs] We have a hard time turning away such highly talented students. I would say within the next five years, I want to [fundraise] enough scholarship dollars to be able to have 1,000 to 2,000 students in the Honors College.

There’s a lot of interest in what you’re doing—not just in Sacramento, but nationwide. You mentioned the White House. Where else have you seen this broader response?

The focus has been really getting national attention for what Sacramento State’s doing. We had a segment [about the Black Honors College in April] on The Jennifer Hudson Show.  We also had a segment on Good Morning America  that highlighted our [Guardian Scholars] foster youth program. We’re being intentional about sharing the story, because our story’s worth sharing.

Meanwhile, in January, ESPN helped break the news about Combat U, another singular university program, which you announced with UFC Hall of Famer Urijah Faber. Can you elaborate on what that is and what inspired it?

Combat U has multiple levels. One level is for anybody who wants to just come and work out. Another level is for those who want to compete at the amateur level. They’ll be on amateur cards for A1 Combat Sports, Urijah Faber’s group; we agreed on at least three cards a year. We will then fly in competitors from other colleges and universities across the country. And for those who are interested in going pro, based upon their performance, they’ll be selected by Urijah to join the pro-prep class. In the pro-prep class, they’ll work in a smaller setting with his elite team of professional trainers. The partnership with Urijah really came out of proximity. His gym [on Folsom Boulevard near 67th Street] is one of the top MMA gyms in the world and is only three blocks from campus.

This comes from my own background: I’ve spent a lot of time in boxing gyms, and I see young men and women who are training hard. I want to be able to go to every one of those students and say to them, “You have college potential”—and give them a scholarship to be able to come and do what they love while they’re attending Sacramento State. So they’ll be fighting for Sacramento State, and we’ll be fighting for them to cross the [graduation] stage.

Speaking of fights, how excited are you for the Hornets-Aggies boxing match coming up on Nov. 22?

I mean, imagine the night before the Causeway Classic football game, a boxing match between Sac State and UC Davis—the Battle of the Causeway—at the Nest [gymnasium] or at the new facility that we’re opening up. We’ll be able to have several thousand people there cheering on students. It’s going to be epic.

That’s another big development—the new facility, which is scheduled to open in late November or early December. What can you tell us about that?

It’s going to be a great event center for the campus. In December, [it’s set to host] commencement for students who are graduating in the fall, and a special graduation for students who [due to Covid] did not get to walk across the stage. [The 2020 commencement ceremony was held online. The 2021 “Car”mencement ceremony was a parade through campus.] And then from there, we’ll transition to the heart of basketball season—men’s and women’s. Some volleyball, some gymnastics, and some Combat U stuff will also be in there. [November 2024 update: Construction of the event center has been delayed, so the December commencement will be held at the Golden 1 Center.]

On Sept. 26, Sacramento State also announced plans to replace Hornet Stadium with a new multiuse facility that is expected to open in time for the 2028 football season. (Rendering by Populous, Courtesy of California State University, Sacramento)

As Sacramento State and Sacramento continue to evolve together, what role should the university play in the greater region?

One of our roles should be an engine for economic development. A lot of companies don’t want to come to California because it’s more expensive to operate [here], so you have to be able to offer them something that is attractive that helps to counterbalance that. As part of my transition, we’ve been going and meeting with companies—not just in our local region, but those who have a national reach—to understand their workforce needs. We’re aligning our curriculum with those workforce needs so that they’re not just getting a student, but they’re getting somebody who has been trained in those areas.

Also, once the pandemic hit, state workers left downtown, and they have not [fully] returned. I look at all these relatively empty buildings downtown, and then I think about the fact that we’ve got 30,000 students and we don’t have enough space on campus to serve them. We can benefit the city by having a footprint—and I mean a sizable and significant footprint—in the downtown region.

So you want a downtown campus?

Yes. Think about it. We have programs in criminal justice, international relations, political science, public policy… There are so many opportunities for our students to benefit from being closer to downtown. I would love to see a School of Public Affairs downtown so that our students have quick access to the [political and governmental] organizations and companies that they’re going to be working for. The goal would be not just a single building. It would be a downtown campus with residential living and classrooms.

What are your longer-term goals for your school? What do you think Jennifer Hudson might invite you back to speak about in five or 10 years?

Obviously, I want to be in a position where Sacramento State is talked about as a national university—or international, even, where people from all over the world and all over California are clamoring to get here because we provide something that’s categorically different.

In more aspirational terms, our vision is that we provide hope and dignity to those who’ve been disaffected and downtrodden. That’s what we do. That’s our special sauce. We provide upward socioeconomic mobility for people who never saw themselves as college material—who never saw that vision for their future. And we take them—former foster youths, formerly incarcerated students, low-income students, students of color, first-generation college students—and we transform their lives in a way that nobody else does. I’m a personal testament to how Sacramento State can do that. And I want to make sure that these students have the same opportunities that I had, and more. 

This interview has been edited for length, flow and clarity.

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