CSUB’s first student leader on CSU Board of Trustees reflects on two extraordinary years

From COVID to Castro resignation, Krystal Raynes ‘honored’ to have served

By California State University, Bakersfield

May 20^th, 2022

For her first duty as a California State University trustee, the pressure couldn’t have been more intense for Krystal Raynes, the only student from CSU Bakersfield ever to sit on the powerful systemwide board.

It was September of 2020, and the trustees were conducting interviews with finalists to succeed Chancellor Timothy P. White, who was set to retire as leader of the nation’s largest public university system by the end of the year.

“We were interviewing the next chancellor, who ended up being Dr. (Joseph) Castro," Raynes said. "It was such an important meeting for me because I was representing students. I knew choosing a chancellor was a really big deal, and I didn’t want to let the students down.”

But just a few months into Chancellor Castro’s leadership of the CSU, reports emerged of a hostile work environment at Fresno State while he was president. The resulting call for accountability and healing led to Castro’s resignation.

Students, faculty, staff and the communities throughout the region had invested such hope that Castro, raised in Hanford, would represent a part of the state that often feels overshadowed.

“My heart just broke," Raynes said. "Besides me, there are two other trustees from the Valley on the board, and there was a shared pain that I don’t think the other trustees could feel. But I think even with the setbacks, the governor still believes in the Valley. There just may be another student trustee from Bakersfield soon.”

If so, Raynes’ experiences on the board over the course of the last two extraordinary years would make her an invaluable resource for any student leader who follows in her footsteps, which have taken her to all 23 CSU campuses.

As she prepares to graduate from CSUB with a degree in computer science, she has her eye on the clock to see how much she still can get done on behalf of the nearly half-million CSU students she represents. Her last day as a trustee is June 30, and she’s made some promises to students at San Jose State and Cal Poly Humboldt that she intends to keep.

“Some people say, ‘If you want something done, talk to Krystal,” Raynes said. “I feel really honored to have made some lasting changes.”

CSUB President Lynnette Zelezny said that every student, faculty and staff member should be proud of the leadership and professionalism Raynes demonstrated in representing the university in such an important role.

“The entire education landscape has changed over the course of the last two years,” Zelezny said. “The pandemic required innovative thinking and incredible urgency. Add to that the fact that the CSU has led the conversation about social justice, diversity, equity and inclusion, among many other pressing issues. Krystal jumped in right away, and let her compassion and ingenuity guide her. She is fearless!”

CSUB’s first student leader on CSU Board of Trustees reflects on two extraordinary years

Krystal Raynes with California State University, San Francisco President Lynn Mahoney and her cabinet.

‘Hopefully someday in the governor’s office’

While Raynes was navigating the responsibility that comes with being a CSU trustee and confronting the unprecedented pressures of the past two years, she also was finishing up her degree at CSUB.

On Saturday, she will sit among campus leaders and a few of her fellow CSU trustees on the CSUB commencement stage, where she will receive her bachelor’s degree in computer science, with a minor in political science. But it is politics where she is doubling down when she leaves CSUB.

She has been accepted to Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh to study public policy and management. But first she will head to Sacramento for the Jesse M. Unruh Assembly Fellowship program, a highly competitive opportunity that will allow her to spend nearly a year working on the staff of an Assembly member or legislative committee.

“The fellowship shows what it looks like to be a public servant in California,” Raynes said. “It’s 100 percent what I want to do. When I first began the position (of trustee) I knew I wanted to work in government in some capacity in California, but after interacting with the vice chancellors and their staff, I realized that people who advise boards, governors, legislators and other leaders — how critical their role is, how on the ground they are in advocacy or creating a narrative with proper data. It cemented my desire and hope to be an adviser, hopefully someday in the governor’s office, but I plan to begin my career as a legislative analyst.”

Raynes interviewed for her position on the Board of Trustees in March of 2020, two days after CSUB — as well as the other CSU campuses — transitioned to virtual instruction and remote work. It was during that 18-month period of remote instruction that the painful disparity between rural and urban areas — and disadvantaged and wealthy California — became clear, she said.

“Past 7 p.m. in rural California, you just don’t have Wi-Fi. It’s hard to succeed if you don’t have an internet connection, and that is a big problem here in the Central Valley," she said. "I applaud CSUB for handing out resources like hot spots and laptops. The CSU still needs to bridge the gap in broadband and basic needs. I’m really excited to see what the CSU will produce in terms of scholarship and teaching pedagogy around the pandemic.”

In the summer of 2021, the Chancellor’s Office announced that members of the CSU community who access campus must be vaccinated against COVID-19 for the return to in-person instruction that fall.

“Across the CSU, I applaud the campuses because in some ways they were left on their own to figure out how to roll out the vaccine mandate. How do we reopen our classrooms? How do we require masking? How do we require social distancing, etc.

“The next steps as we go forward on COVID is learning what we did right and what we did wrong. But we need to emphasize making a better classroom for everybody, especially student parents. Also, the pandemic really showed how dire the housing crisis is in California. How do we house students and how do we house faculty and staff so they can afford to live in California - and how to support them salary-wise.”

Though COVID was the central focus of the board during Raynes’ entire tenure, she is proud that she made traction on issues that are important to her. At the top of the list? The CSU listened to students and did not increase tuition during the pandemic.

Raynes also took a leadership role in the CSU’s decision to add caste to the ancestry portion of its anti-discrimination policy. She said she didn’t know anything about the caste system when the issue came to the attention of the board but educated herself and helped lead the charge to end caste oppression in the CSU.

“You’re born into this system and you’re cut off from certain opportunities and with that comes discrimination,” she said. “In my work with activists across the CSU, we were able to add to the anti-discrimination policy. It was a huge win. I can’t believe I was part of that conversation!”

Also working with activists, Raynes advocated that the CSU divest from fossil fuels as part of the conversation over climate change and sustainability.

“They had the data to say that it’s unethical to keep investing in fossil fuels when we’re going through a global warming crisis," she said. "Over the summer, we strategized with them and got them contacts in Chancellor’s Office to get it going. I was very involved behind the scenes.”

Ethan Quaranta, a student at CSU Monterey Bay, worked closely with Raynes on the fossil fuel issue, having met her years ago when the two were student leaders from their respective campuses. During the height of their advocacy on fossil fuel divestment, they would talk for hours on the phone and text and email frequently, becoming friends in the process.

“It’s an interesting dynamic for me and Krystal because she is from the Bakersfield area, the heart of the California oil industry, and she had an understanding of what divestiture might mean for the region," Quaranta said. "I grew up in Napa, then lived in Palo Alto and Fremont and now I’m going to school in Monterey Bay. So we had a different upbringing. That’s what made our duo so great. She would be like, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa, you need to adjust your arguments.’ So I think she was helpful in that regard.”

Krystal Raynes with the San Diego State economic crisis team.

'My story's done yet. It's just starting'

Raynes still has one final CSU Board of Trustees meeting, on May 26, before her term officially ends on June 30. Instead of winding down, she has a long list of last-minute topics she’d like to button up, including helping Cal Poly Humboldt with its Project Rebound program and the hurdles that formerly incarcerated students face when they return to college.

“In June, I’m going to be focusing on more diversity issues," she said. "I promised the Latinx and Black cultural center at San Jose State that I would connect the cultural centers before I leave. I’m thinking of creative ways to support students of color.”

Beyond what she has accomplished for her fellow students, Raynes is filled with gratitude for what this incredible leadership opportunity has done for her personally.

“I think I’m definitely more mature," she said. "I came into the position really feeling like a kid still, a little bit too small for my shoes. I often fumbled over my words, didn’t know what to say. I can speak in public now and I feel more confident in my leadership skills.”

Quaranta praised Raynes’ “down-to-earth” personality for building bridges.

“She’s very open about who she is as a person, which makes her really approachable, and I think she’s also super-strategic," Quaranta said. "She brings people together who otherwise wouldn’t talk to each other. But she also knows when not to pull her punches and be brutally honest. That takes judgement, to know when to go which way.”

Quaranta said the friends have made a promise to each other:

“A month ago, when we hung out, we said we’re going to be on each other’s campaigns. We’ll both be running for office,” she said.

With her bachelor’s degree in hand, a fellowship to look forward to and Carnegie Mellon awaiting, Raynes said this is an exciting time to contemplate the future.

“I’m going to try to get done things I would like to get done," she said. "I’ll continue being able to make change in that way. I don’t think my story’s done yet. It’s just starting.”