Information about California State University, Northridge

California State University, Northridge
Established	1958
Type	Public university
President	Jolene Koester
Faculty	1,700
Undergraduates	26,854
Postgraduates	6,389
Location	Northridge (in Los Angeles), California, United States
Campus	Suburban, 353 acres
Nickname	Matadors
Mascot	Matty the Matador
Affiliations	California State University system
Website	www.csun.edu

California State University, Northridge (also known as CSUN, Cal State Northridge, or "C-Sun") is a public university in the San Fernando Valley, within the city limits of Los Angeles, California, USA. Part of the California State University system, CSUN was founded in 1958 as San Fernando Valley State College and adopted its current name in 1972. It has become one of the largest universities in California. CSUN offers a variety of programs leading to bachelor's degrees in 61 fields and master's degrees in 42 fields. The university has over 150,000 alumni. It's also home to a summer musical theater/theater program known as TADW (TeenAge Drama Workshop) that leads teenagers through an intensive 6-week training of the fine arts.

Cal State Northridge is home to the National Center on Deafness, and each year the university hosts the International Conference on Technology and Persons with Disabilities.

Envision 2035

California State University trustees on March 15, 2006 voted their unanimous approval of Envision 2035, the Cal State Northridge planning initiative that will help frame the university’s physical development for the next several decades. The vote approved the revised master plan as well as an increase in the campus’ master plan enrollment capacity from 25,000 to 35,000 fulltime equivalent students (FTEs). That growth is equivalent to 1.6 percent annual growth over 30 years. The trustees also certified the final environmental impact report on the plan.

Specifically, the plan defines sites for about 1.9 million square feet of future campus academic and support facilities to accommodate the increased FTE enrollment. Near-term projects will include a 1,700-seat performing arts center; a 163,000 square foot arts, media and communications complex; a parking structure for nearly 2,000 spaces and a centrally located mass transit hub for students, faculty, staff and community members. It also proposes the development of about 600 on-campus faculty/staff housing units, mostly on the North Campus, and allows for student housing, parking and transportation sufficient to handle enrollment growth while maintaining desirable open space.

Academics

Instruction at CSUN is offered through nine colleges:

• Mike Curb College of Arts, Media & Communication
• College of Business & Economics
• Michael D. Eisner College of Education
• College of Engineering & Computer Science
• College of Health & Human Development
• College of Humanities
• College of Science & Mathematics
• College of Social & Behavioral Sciences
• Roland Tseng College of Extended Learning

Cal State Northridge faculty have been recognized for their high quality. Eight faculty members have been awarded prestigious Guggenheim Fellowships for research and creative activity, while 59 have won Fulbright awards to conduct research or teach abroad.

The university draws its freshmen from the top one-third of California high school graduates. CSUN's admissions program is rated as "less selective" in most major fields, but admissions to "impacted" majors, such as accounting, finance, music, computer science and cinema and television are more selective. Nearly eight in 10 CSUN students rate the university's quality of instruction as good or excellent, and the same share say CSUN was their first choice of a university to attend.

Rankings

Recent rankings

According to the National Science Foundation's June 2006 Survey, Cal State Northridge ranks second in the nation, only behind Cal State Long Beach, among more than 550 master's-level colleges and universities in graduating students who went on to earn doctoral degrees (according to data of 1995-2004).

In its May 9, 2006 issue, Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education featured CSUN in its list of the nation's top 100 universities for awarding bachelor's degrees. CSUN was in the top 10 with second in the nation for awarding bachelor's degrees to Hispanics in Hispanic studies; fourth in psychology and home economics; fifth in social services; sixth in area studies, visual and performing arts and communications; eighth in English literature; and ninth in business and marketing.

U.S. News and World Report's 2005 "America's Best Colleges" list ranked CSUN's College of Engineering and Computer Science among the nation's best undergraduate engineering programs at 39th, tied with seven out-of-state institutions. This is an improvement as the same list ranked the college in 40th place the previous year. Northridge is one of only six California State University programs in the top ranked tier of engineering programs accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology. ^[1]

In recent times its college of business and economics was ranked a top tier business school ranked 31st between public institutions nationwide in the U.S. NEWS Nov. 2006 edition.

Open Doors 2006, an annual report on international educational exchange, records CSUN’s climb from sixth to second place among U.S. master’s level institutions hosting students from foreign countries. ^[2]

The Music Department is ranked amongst the top 25 accredited university programs in the nation^[3], boasting an array of options beyond the typical "music major", such as music therapy, music industry, music performance, and jazz studies. In June of 2003 the university's acclaimed choral group, the Northridge Singers, took the top prize in the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod and the title "Choir of the World"^[4].

The Political Science Department's Model United Nations received first-place honors at the National Model United Nations Conference of 2007 in New York.

Past rankings

In 1997,the National Science Foundation ranked Cal State Northridge first in the nation among 529 master's colleges and universities for producing undergraduates who go on to obtain doctoral degrees in science and engineering fields. ^[5]

Library

The California State University, Northridge's Oviatt Library provides educational, cultural and information services and resources to the students and faculty. Its primary mission is to support and supplement classroom and independent learning; facilitate student and faculty research; and provide students with lifelong skills in identifying, locating, evaluating and synchronizing information.

All library materials are housed in the Delmar T. Oviatt Library, a 234,712 square foot state-of-the-art facility. There are over 1,600 seats for in-house study. Of note are the Collaboratory with its 170 multipurpose computer workstations, 3 computer equipped library instruction labs, and 200 computer workstations devoted to library information resources. Specially equipped computer workstations are located throughout the Library for individuals with disabilities, including four assistive technology equipped study rooms for students. During Fall and Spring semesters, the building is open 90 hours a week. The Library maintains its own server and web pages providing access to electronic information 24 hours a day. The library also maintains its own AS/RS (Automatic Storage and Retrieval System).

The Oviatt Library has a physical collection containing 1.3 million volumes, of which over one million are books, and over 245,000 bound periodical volumes.^[6] The Library subscribes to 25,000 online journals, 1,779 print journals, 200 online databases and more than 13,000 ebooks. The microform collection contains 3.1 million pieces. There are over 12,500 sound recordings, 10,000 film and video recordings and nearly 60,000 pictures and other graphic materials. The Special Collections & Archives' holdings exceed 4,000 linear feet of materials. The library has a large collection of materials on Human Sexuality, which is frequently simplified as "pornography" by students. There is a very rampant "urban legend" on campus that the library contains "one of the largest collections of pornography", though it is unclear against what metric this is measured. In addition, the Teacher's Curriculum Center provides a circulating collection of curricular materials for education students and local educators.

The Library is heavily used with 8.2 million uses of its web pages annually, an annual gate count of 1.4 million, and over a half a million interactions per year with Library personnel.

Other campus departments and centers with collections:

• The Aronstam Library, devoted to communication studies research and scholarship for Communications Department undergraduate, graduate, and faculty members
• The National Center on Deafness Library, housed in Chisolm Hall
• The Geography Department's Map Library, housed in Sierra Hall

Groups and Organizations

United Campus Ministries

The United Campus Ministries,UCM, is the governing body over the campus ministries on the CSUN campus. The groups include Campus Crusade for Christ, Intervasity, Hope Fellowship and many other. Every spring the UCM and the other Christian ministries host Jesus Week on the campus. These ministries are on campus to allow for students on campus to come together in fellowship as well as spreading the gospel to the campus.

Traditional festivities

Native Americans have used the campus to converge on for ceremonies, on a yearly basis.

The drama department celebrates year-end by staging the local version of Yosemite's Bracebridge Dinner. The artistic events that occur on the campus are often very distinguished and popular. Also, the university has a highly regarded music department with an assortment of acclaimed performance ensembles, among which notably is the jazz band. "Matador Nights" are hosted throughout the school year, during this event there is music, food and games. The Associated Students holds an annual full-scale headlining concert known as the Big Show. The headlining acts have been as follows:

2007 - Neyo 2006 - Common 2005 - Jimmy Eat World 2004 - The Ataris 2003 - Unwritten Law 2002 - 2001 -

CSUN Jazz Studies

As part of its Jazz Studies curriculum, CSUN's Department of Music features a world-class jazz band. The Jazz 'A' Band, led by Sophomore guitarist James Peterson as of 2007, has garnered a reputation as one of the more prominent university jazz bands in the country. In recent years, the Jazz 'A' Band has made several overseas tours, including appearances in Europe and China, and has built an eclectic international following.

Alex Iles was the jazz and trombone instructor in this department but retired the beginning of the 2007 fall semester. He was replaced with Bob McChesney who also plays trombone and is the author of the most popular exercise book to learn the technique of "doodle tonging."

Community services

• KCSN radio
• Daily Sundial - college newspaper

The Daily Sundial is the university's financially independent and student-run newspaper publication. Staff writers and editors of the 8,000-circulation daily publication are typically juniors and seniors in the school's Journalism Department, and the staff is generally around 50 people during the fall and spring semesters. The Sundial competes annually in the Society of Professional Journalists and Hearst journalism award competitions, where it has won several awards. The newspaper is criticized by some members of the campus population, and one of the school's most famous professors once called it the "Scumdial" — and the name stuck. An underground paper, "The Moondial", circulated briefly in 1995.

• Communicating Common Ground

The Communicating Common Ground project is designed to alleviate tensions between the Latino and Armenian student populations. The community service learning project represents a coordinated effort between CSUN's Communication Studies department and Grant High School.

CSUN Speech & Debate

The CSUN Speech and Debate Society is an intercollegiate forensics program committed to excellence. The team is comprised of both Inter-Collegiate policy debate and individual events and travels throughout the state and country.

Athletics

CSUN fields 18 sports at the NCAA Division I level. The mascot for CSUN is the Matador, which was suggested in 1958 by student submissions. The Matador was chosen over the other four finalists, the Apollos, Falcons, Rancheros and Titans. The Matador is said to reflect the region's Hispanic heritage. CSUN fields both men's and women's teams in basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, swimming, track and field, and volleyball. CSUN has a men's baseball team, and women's softball, tennis, and water polo teams. Currently, Men's Soccer is the powerhouse of the school, reaching the NCAA 3rd Round in the 2005-2006 season, knocking out Big West Conference rival UC Santa Barbara in the 2nd Round. However, both the men's and women's Track & Field teams won Big West titles in 2007.

CSUN was a member of the Big Sky Conference until 2001. The men's basketball team won the Big Sky in its final season. there. CSUN joined the Big West Conference in 2001. It also dropped football in 2001. The football team played at the North Campus Stadium.

The Matadome, which has a capacity of 1,600 seats, is where the men's and women's basketball and volleyball teams play.

CSUN also has several sports clubs [1] including ice hockey, water skiing, karate, spirit squad and the CSUN Hip Hop Dance Team.

Student Organizations

CSUN is a very multicultural university, which is evident in the multitude of ethnic and cultural student organizations that have formed root nearly a quarter century ago. Some of them are the CSUN Armenian Student Association, founded in 1976; CSUN Movimiento Estudiantil Chicana/o de Aztlan, founded in 1968; and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Alliance (LGBTA), founded in 1972.

The University is also home to many fraternal organizations including eleven North-American Interfraternity Conference members and six National Panhellenic Conference members. The campus also has seven United Sorority and Fraternity Council members, two Armenian Greek Council members, and seven National Pan-Hellenic Council members.

The eleven North-American Interfraternity Conference houses at CSUN are:

• Alpha Epsilon Pi
• Lambda Chi Alpha
• Phi Delta Theta
• Phi Sigma Kappa
• Pi Kappa Alpha
• Pi Kappa Phi
• Sigma Chi
• Sigma Nu
• Sigma Phi Epsilon
• Tau Kappa Epsilon
• Zeta Beta Tau

The six National Panhellenic Conference houses at CSUN are:

• Alpha Omicron Pi
• Alpha Phi
• Alpha Xi Delta
• Delta Delta Delta
• Delta Zeta
• Kappa Kappa Gamma

United Sorority & Fraternity Council

• Lambda Theta Nu
• Gamma Alpha Omega
• Sigma Lambda Gamma
• Lambda Sigma Gamma
• Gamma Zeta Alpha
• Nu Alpha Kappa
• Sigma Lambda Beta

Roland Tseng College of Extended Learning

A division within the university aimed at addressing the educational needs of mid career professionals. The college develops and offers study opportunities which are designed to ensure that the individuals, communities and organizations served by the university achieve their lifelong learning goals.

Northridge earthquake

This campus was heavily damaged by the 1994 earthquake, including entire sections of the main library, art building, etc., but classes continued in alternative structures. The art courtyard survived. Among the structures that were considered too heavily damaged for repair were the Fine Arts building, which was designed by Richard Neutra, and the South Library, which was the oldest permanent building on campus. The parking structure next to the Matadome was completely destroyed, and is currently a grass field used for kinesiology instruction, though the driveway formerly used to enter the structure is still visible from Zelzah Avenue. As of August 22, 2007, the University has completed the rebuilding project.

CSUN sculpture

The sculpture was designed by John Banks while attending the school in 1976. It was designed so that travelers approaching the campus from the east, (via the San Diego (405) Freeway, for example) will see an abstract sculpture at the edge of the orange grove at the northwest corner of Nordhoff St. and Zelzah Ave, which can be read from several directions as an acronym for the university. This sculpture is an impossible shape, and does not read as CSUN from a northwest view, although that area is covered with trees and is not often walked upon.

Points of interest

• California State University Northridge Botanic Garden
• One of the few remaining orange groves in the San Fernando Valley is found on campus. The large eucalyptus trees at the edge of the campus have survived development attempts by campus designers.
• The Robotics program features a FIRST robot designed by Team 599, the Robot Doctors or RoboDox of nearby Granada Hills High School known as the D.O.C.T.O.R.

Film and television shoots

Because of its proximity to Hollywood, the campus has been featured in dozens of films and television shows, including Commander in Chief, Van Wilder, Six Feet Under, The Karate Kid, Battlestar Galactica, The Office, McMillan and Wife, Son In Law, Bring It On Again, The Glass Bottom Boat, Legally Blonde 2, The Nick Cannon Show, Quincy, M.E., Georgia Rule, and Sky High (where the Oviatt Library is prominently featured). Recently, the Barry Levinson directed What Just Happened (2008) filmed at the Oviatt Library and featured Robert DeNiro and Sean Penn.

Notable alumni and former students

• Paula Abdul - singer, dancer and American Idol judge
• Richard Alarcon - California state senator
• Todd Baker - Producer
• Mark Balderas - Musician, keyboardist and songwriter with the rock band Human Drama on RCA Records
• Stephen Bollenbach - Co-Chairman & CEO of Hilton Hotels
• Sherdrick Bonner - Quarterback for the Arizona Rattlers of the Arena Football League
• Lyman Bostock - star outfielder for the Minnesota Twins and California Angels
• Deanne Bray - Actress
• Taylor Canel- Midfielder, Los Angeles Galaxy
• Joan Chen - Actress and filmmaker
• Kevin Corcoran - Actor and producer-director
• Jamshid "Jimmy" Delshad - Mayor of Beverly Hills
• John Densmore - Former Drummer of The Doors
• Richard Dreyfuss - Actor
• Jenna Elfman - Actress
• Robert Englund - Actor best known for his role as Freddy Krueger
• Greg Evans - Cartoonist
• Robert Fick - Catcher and first baseman for the Washington Nationals
• Shannon Fill - Ensign Sito Jaxa on
• James Fortune - Gospel singer
• Teri Garr - Actress
• David Gerrold - Science fiction author and screenwriter
• Tod Goldberg - Author and journalist
• Gordon Goodwin - Big band composer, arranger, and saxophonist
• Bill Griffeth, Sue Herera, and Ron Insana - all from the cable TV network CNBC
• Florence Griffith Joyner - Olympic track and field champion
• Gene Haas - President, Haas Automation, Inc. and NASCAR team owner
• D.J. Hackett - Wide receiver for the Seattle Seahawks
• Bill Handel - KFI morning talk show host, attorney
• Alyson Hannigan - Actress
• Phil Hartman - Actor
• Jeffrey Henderson - Pharmaceutical Tester
• Steven Hoefflin - World-renown Plastic Surgeon, did Michael Jackson's nose.
• Scott Horowitz - Space shuttle astronaut
• Helen Hunt - Actress
• Ron Insana - CNBC Analyst
• Adam Kennedy - Second baseman for the St. Louis Cardinals
• Linda Lingle - Governor of Hawaii
• Kameron Loe - Pitcher for the Texas Rangers
• Ken Lubas - Photographer, Photojournalist
• Andy Luckey -- Television Producer Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Children's Book Author & Illustrator
• Cheech Marin - Actor (Cheech and Chong)
• Charles Martin Smith - Actor
• Eva Mendes -- actress
• Zeus Mendoza - Adventurer
• David Mullich - Game designer and producer
• Kevin Murray - former California State Assemblyman and Senator
• Charles Noski - AT&T CFO
• Cubby O'Brien - Drummer, original member ("Mouseketeer") of The Mickey Mouse Club (1955-59)
• Chuck Pfarrer - Screenwriter, Author, former SEAL Team commander
• Eve Plumb - Actress, "Jan" from The Brady Bunch
• Jim Pons - Bass guitarist and singer for The Leaves, The Turtles, and The Mothers of Invention
• Erasmo Ramirez - Pitcher for the Florida Marlins
• Daniel Ramos - Graffiti Artist better known as Chaka
• Christopher Reyes, Annual Southern California Classic Steal the Pack champion five years running and Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority employee.
• Colin Rivas - Artist
• Rick Rollens - former Secretary, California State Senate, autism activist
• Kentaro Sato - Composer
• Scott Shaw - Author, actor, filmmaker
• Willie Sims - Forward, New England Revolution
• Leland Sklar - Renowned Session Bassist
• Andy Summers - Musician
• James Taranto - Columnist for the Wall Street Journal
• Jeri Taylor - Co-creator of
• Brian J. Terwilliger - Producer/Director of One Six Right: The Romance of Flying
• Jason Thompson - star first baseman for the Detroit Tigers, California Angels, Pittsburgh Pirates & Montreal Expos
• Tim Toyama - Playwright, producer
• Carol Vaness - Opera singer
• Ron Walker - Noted philanthropist and originator of the "Matadome"
• Frank K. Wheaton - Sports agent and personal manager
• Debra Winger - Actor
• Alex Yemenidjian - Chairman/CEO of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc.

Notes

External links

• Official site
• University Library Portal
• Daily Sundial campus newspaper
• Official Northridge athletics site
• President's Vision Statement for the University
• Tseng College of Extended Learning

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