CSU East Bay has three locations: the main campus in Hayward, the Oakland Professional Development and Conference Center, and the less populated CSUEB in Concord.

“The Hayward campus is made up of 11,000 to 12,000 students, while the Concord campus has 2,000 students,” said Rafae Khan, Executive Vice President and Chief of Staff.

The Concord site started in 1981, but the current Concord campus came into existence in 1992 due to the increase in degree options and the growing number of students, according to the CSUEB Concord campus website.

“One accomplishment is the ‘Clothing Swap,’ where students give old or unwanted clothes and in return they receive an ASI shirt,” said Khan. I started that program last year with the Hayward campus and Chris [Caldwell] is keeping it going at the Concord campus.”

Chris Caldwell is the Director of the Concord Campus for the ASI Student Government. Caldwell has worked with ASI since January 2010, starting in the Diversity Center before being elected to his current position.

As the Director of Concord, Caldwell is responsible for being the head of activities and events for ASI there.

“At Concord, people come to class and leave. The ‘Clothing Swap’ is ongoing and I am getting a good response from students, but I still have lots of merchandise to give away,” Caldwell said.

“I have several goals for Concord campus,” said Caldwell. “My main goals are to keep the connection open between the Hayward and Concord campuses,” he said. “We want to implement the same stuff from the Hayward campus to Concord, but at the same time I want to see what will benefit students here.”

ASI is looking into getting digital textbooks as an alternative for students on the Hayward campus. Instead of students paying $400 or $500 a quarter for books, ASI is looking into what courses and books to get as well as how much money would that involve, according to Caldwell.

“Digital textbooks may be something I look into doing for Concord campus as well,” Caldwell said.

The Concord campus has programs for people who are seeking a master’s degree such as Educational Leadership and Social Work.

There are also baccalaureate programs sought out at this location, such as health science, recreation and nursing.

“Whenever Chris wants to do something at Concord, he talks to Mohammed Beig (ASI President at CSUEB Hayward campus) or myself,” said Khan.

“Chris has an advisory committee of five people, where they discuss issues students face and things they would like to see done to better help their campus,” he said.

Caldwell plans to meet once every two weeks with his committee.

“I’m trying to get a form of public transportation from the Concord BART to the campus also,” Caldwell said. “Parking passes have gone up in Concord like in Hayward.”

“Even if I look at another form of transportation like a 15-passenger van, that could work for public transportation now,” said Caldwell. “There are literally people parking downhill and walking up the long hill to the campus because they can’t pay for parking.
“I don’t like that,” he added.