As I reflect back on my first six months of experience as Chief of Police, I am grateful and thankful for the opportunity to join the Seawolf community. The gracious welcome I received from the many faculty, staff, and students that I have had the pleasure to meet, albeit mostly through Zoom, have been nothing short of amazing. It is evident that Sonoma State University, and its police department, is such a special place with a dedicated and committed community.
As I continue to learn more about the campus and its operations, I am eager for the fall semester repopulation efforts to begin so that I may meet and spend time with you in person. This will provide me with more opportunities to build relationships and partnerships, provide training and education, and most of all engage in dialogue to find long-lasting mechanisms to support programs, maintain readiness, find innovative ways to keep the community safe, and reduce barriers to success. All this with an eye towards increasing the police department’s effectiveness in contributing to the Seawolf strategic priorities -- Student Success, Academic Excellence, Leadership Cultivation, and Transformative Impact.
With the semester starting soon, I encourage you to watch the new police department Welcome Video, which includes every police department member, including our newly hired Police Student Ambassadors, highlighting some of our programs. I also want to introduce you to a new program we are rolling out -- Meet The Chief. This program has three features:
- Allows anyone to set up an appointment to meet me one on one via Zoom, on a walk, for coffee, or in the office;
- Encourages you to invite me to events, special gatherings, organization meetings, neighborhood associations, department or division meetings to answer questions or to provide training and education either via Zoom or in person; and,
- Provides me an opportunity to meet with various community members in person to spotlight their programs in monthly videos.
More about Meet The Chief and other programs will be posted on our website. In the meantime, please contact me at nader.oweis@sonoma.edu if you have any questions, want to meet with me or anyone from my staff, or want to invite us to engage with you.
Be safe and well,
Nader Oweis
Chief of Police