A letter from the Department Chair….

Dear SFSU Geographers,

Best wishes for a great 2008 to all of you from all of us in the SFSU Geography Department!

It's been a good year. With your help, we hosted the AAG Annual Meetings in April (thanks again to all who helped out!) and recruited three new faculty members:

• Jen Blecha (PhD Minnesota, agriculture & urban food systems)
• Leonhard Blesius (PhD Iowa, remote sensing & coastal hazards)
• Courtney Donovan (ABD Washington, health & health care, gender and ethnic geographies.)

We also graduated about a dozen Masters students and three times as many BA's, all of whom deserve your congratulations.

You'll be happy to hear that Max Kirkeberg and Hans Meihoefer continue to play their inimitable roles in the department, leading students and faculty on walking tours and agricultural expeditions, and that both are veritable pictures of health and well-being in their "extended youth" (as Max would call it.)

But as all of you public sector types know, the state budget is in a shambles as usual and we continue to rely on your support to offer a high-quality program.  Generous alumni contributions have helped us send students to conferences, offer grad assistantships, support faculty searches and maintain the department van for those fabulous field trips you all recall.  We are undertaking a special fund raising effort this year because our department van needs replacing soon.

We hope you'll consider a deductible donation to the Geography Department Fund.  It's easier than ever, via a special red "Donate to Geography" link on the left-hand side of our department homepage at http://bss.sfsu.edu/geog/

Thanks for considering, and have a great 2008!

Sincerely,
Nancy

-- 
Nancy Lee Wilkinson, Chair
Department of Geography & Human Environmental Studies
San Francisco State University
1600 Holloway Avenue
San Francisco CA 94132
415/338-1439  FAX 415/338-6243