California State University

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California State University

The California State University (CSU) is one of three public higher education systems in the state of California, the other two being the University of California system and the California Community College system. It is incorporated as The Trustees of the California State University.

The CSU system is composed of 23 campuses and has over 450,000 students supported by 47,000 faculty members and staff. It is the largest university system in the United States.

CSU prepares about 60 percent of the teachers in the state, 40 percent of the engineering graduates, and more graduates in business, agriculture, communications, health, education and public administration than all other California universities and colleges combined. Altogether, about half the bachelor's degrees and a third of the master's degrees awarded annually in California are from the CSU.

Since 1961 nearly 2.5 million alumni have received a bachelor's, master's or doctoral degree from the university system. CSU offers more than 1,800 degree programs in some 240-subject areas.

History

Today's California State University system is the direct descendant of the California State Normal School (now San José State University), a normal school established by the California Legislature on May 2, 1862. The California State Normal School was itself derived from the City of San Francisco's Minns Evening Normal School (founded in 1857) a normal school that educated San Francisco teachers in association with that city's high school system. The system now considers its founding date to be that of the Minns School. A second California State Normal School campus was created in Los Angeles in 1882.

In 1887, the California legislature dropped the word "California" from the name of the San Jose and Los Angeles schools, renaming them "State Normal Schools." Later Chico (1887), San Diego (1897), and other schools became part of the State Normal School system. In 1919, the State Normal School at Los Angeles became the Southern Branch of the University of California (now the University of California, Los Angeles). In 1921, the State Normal Schools became the State Teachers Colleges. By this time most of the campuses started to become identified by their city names plus the word "state" (e.g, "San Jose State," "San Diego State," "San Francisco State").

In 1935, the State Teachers Colleges became the California State Colleges and were administered by the California State Department of Education in Sacramento. The Donahoe Higher Education Act of 1960 gave the system greater autonomy from the State of California.

The postwar period brought a great expansion in the number of colleges in the system. Campuses in Los Angeles, Sacramento, and Long Beach were added between 1947 and 1949. Then seven more were authorized to be built between 1957 and 1960. Six more campuses joined the system after the establishment of the Donohoe Higher Education Act in 1960 bringing the total number to 23.

In 1972 the system became The California State University and Colleges, and all of the campuses were renamed with the words "California State University" in their names. Former San Diego State University student body president Calvin Robinson wrote the bill, signed into law by Ronald Reagan, that allowed every California State University the option to revert the schools back to their pre-1972 names: San Jose State, San Diego State, San Francisco State, etc. In 1982, the CSU system dropped the word "colleges" from its name.

Today the campuses of the CSU include comprehensive and polytechnic universities and the only Maritime Academy in the western United States that receives aid from the federal Maritime Administration.

Governance

Responsibility for the California State University is vested in the 25 member Board of Trustees, whose members are appointed by the Governor of the State of California. There are 5 ex officio Trustees; the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Speaker of the Assembly, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, and the CSU Chancellor. There are 4 special Trustees. The CSU Statewide Alumni Council appoints an Alumni Trustee. The Governor appoints a Faculty Trustee from nominees proposed by the Statewide Academic Senate. The Governor appoints two Student Trustees from nominees proposed by the California State Student Association. The Alumni and Faculty Trustees serve for two years. The Student Trustees serve staggered two-year terms. The sixteen remaining Trustees are appointed by the Governor, confirmed by the State Senate, and serve for eight years.. The Trustees appoint the Chancellor, who is the chief executive officer of the system, and the Presidents, who are the chief executive officers of their respective campuses.

The Academic Senate of the California State University, made up of elected representatives of the faculty from each campus, recommends academic policy to the Board of Trustees through the Chancellor.

Chancellors of the CSU

Buell Gallagher (1961-1962)
Glenn S. Dumke (1962-1982)
W. Ann Reynolds (1982-1990)
Ellis E. McCune [Acting] (1990-1991)
Barry Munitz (1991-1998)
Charles B. Reed (1998-current)

Endowment

The California State University's permanent, collective endowment has grown to $874 million U.S. dollars as of the close of the 2006-2007 academic year. In addition, each of the 23 campuses of the CSU raise their own funds through donations and other external funding, and each campus controls its own separate endowment funds not counted in the above endowment amount.

Link to CSU Endowment & Fundraising webpage

Faculty

During the fall 2004 semester the system employed 11,069 full-time faculty members. The vast majority, 68.3% were tenured or tenure tracked with 59.2% having tenure. Professors comprised 86.6% of faculty members with a plurality, 43.6% being full professors. Associate professors consitituted 18.6% and Assistant professors 24.4% of faculty members while 13.4% were instructors and lecturers. The percentage of full professors declined 31.4% since fall of 1999, while that of assistant professors has risen 57.4%.

The CSU system requires faculty to sign a loyalty oath dating from the Cold War. Some campuses (most recently CSU Fullerton) have refused to hire academics who have refused to sign one, although others have provided for accommodations such as signing statements. Quakers have been particular victims of this policy.

Salary

The average faculty salary was roughly $74,000 as of Spring 2007. As of April 2007, the faculty union and CSU have reached an agreement increasing faculty base salaries by 20.7%, boosting the average faculty salary from $74,000 to $91,000 by 2011. Salaries for full-professors will increase from $86,000 to $105,000. While this pay increase will provide a plurality of faculty members with six figure salaries, current CSU faculty salaries remain roughly 15% below the average for "comparable schools." Meanwhile salaries for all presidents have been raised above $300,000 in order to remain competitive with similar schools. As of Fall 2004 average salaries were as follows:

Data	Lecturer	Instructor	Assistant Professor	Associate Professor	Full Professor
Average salary	$52,987	$52,078	$55,788	$67,306	$83,502
Minimum salary	$34,356	$40,656	$48,720	$55,944	$70,680
Maximum salary	$125,820	$54,708	$109,272	$120,060	$125,820
Percent of faculty	13.28%	0.10%	24.45%	18.62%	43.55%

Enrollment

Campuses

The CSU is composed of the following 23 campuses listed here by order of the year founded:

Campus	a.k.a.	Location	Founded	Campus Area in Acres	Enrollment (Fall 2007)	Budget 2006-2007	Athletics Affiliation	Athletics Nickname
San José State University	SJSU or San Jose State	San Jose	1857	154	31,906	247,292,042	NCAA Division I	Spartans (WAC) (see San Jose State Spartans)
California State University, Chico	Chico State	Chico	1887	119	17,034	163,699,267	NCAA Division II	Wildcats (CCAA)
San Diego State University	SDSU or San Diego State	San Diego	1897	270	36,559	313,860,901	NCAA Division I	Aztecs (MWC) (see San Diego State Aztecs)
San Francisco State University	San Francisco State, SF State, SFSU	San Francisco	1899	134	30,125	248,490,280	NCAA Division II	Gators (CCAA)
California Polytechnic State University	Cal Poly	San Luis Obispo	1901	9,678	19,777	198,041,319	NCAA Division I	Mustangs (Big West)
California State University, Fresno	Fresno State	Fresno	1911	327	22,383	199,868,440	NCAA Division I	Bulldogs (WAC) (see Fresno State Bulldogs)
Humboldt State University	Humboldt or HSU	Arcata	1913	144	7,773	95,417,349	NCAA Division II	Lumberjacks (CCAA)
California Maritime Academy	Cal Maritime	Vallejo	1929	87	858	18,928,425	NAIA	Keelhaulers
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona	Cal Poly Pomona	Pomona	1938	1,438	21,477	198,917,543	NCAA Division II	Broncos (CCAA) (see Cal Poly Pomona Broncos)
California State University, Los Angeles	Cal State LA	Los Angeles	1947	175	21,051	185,469,589	NCAA Division II	Golden Eagles (CCAA)
California State University, Sacramento	Sacramento State, Sac State	Sacramento	1947	580	28,829	230,802,377	NCAA Division I	Hornets (Big Sky)
California State University, Long Beach	Long Beach State or 'The Beach', CSULB	Long Beach	1949	323	36,868	300,837,800	NCAA Division I	"49ers", "Dirtbags" in baseball only (Big West)
California State University, East Bay	Formerly CSU Hayward	Hayward	1957	341	13,124	131,724,259	NCAA Division III	Pioneers
California State University, Fullerton	Cal State Fullerton	Fullerton	1957	236	37,130	261,349,127	NCAA Division I	Titans (Big West)
California State University, Northridge	CSUN ("see-sun") or Cal State Northridge	Northridge	1957	353	35,446	275,687,073	NCAA Division I	Matadors (Big West)
California State University, Stanislaus	Cal State Stanislaus, Stan State	Turlock	1957	220	8,836	81,052,209	NCAA Division II	Warriors (CCAA)
California State University, Dominguez Hills	Cal State Dominguez Hills, Dominguez Hills, CSUDH	Carson	1960	346	12,082	105,947,348	NCAA Division II	Toros (CCAA)
Sonoma State University	Sonoma State or Sonoma	Rohnert Park	1960	269	8,770	81,076,854	NCAA Division II	Seawolves (CCAA)
California State University, San Bernardino	Cal State San Bernardino	San Bernardino	1965	441	17,066	147,737,249	NCAA Division II	Coyotes (CCAA)
California State University, Bakersfield	CSUB	Bakersfield	1965	375	7,700	77,360,795	NCAA Division I	Roadrunners
California State University, San Marcos	Cal State San Marcos	San Marcos	1988	304	9,159	79,882,615	NAIA	Cougars
California State University, Monterey Bay	CSUMB	Seaside (formerly Fort Ord)	1994	1,387	4,080	60,577,008	NCAA Division II	Otters (CCAA)
California State University, Channel Islands	CSUCI	Camarillo	2002	670	3,599	41,477,343	None	Dolphins

Gallery

Off Campus Branches

A handful of universities have off campus branches that make education accessible in a vast state. Unlike the typical university extension courses, they are degree-granting and students have the same status as other California State University students. The newest campus, the California State University, Channel Islands, was formerly an off campus branch of CSUN. Riverside and Contra Costa counties, which have 3 million residents between them, have lobbied for their off campus branches to be freestanding California State University campuses. Total enrollment for all branches in Fall 2005 is 9,163 students, the equivalent of 2.2% of systemwide enrollment. The following are schools and their respective off campus branches:

California State University, Bakersfield

Antelope Valley (in Lancaster, California)

California State University, Chico

Redding (affiliated with Shasta College)

California State University, Fullerton

Irvine
Garden Grove

California State University, East Bay

Concord

California State University, Fresno

Lancaster

California State University, San Bernardino

Palm Desert

California State University, San Marcos

Southwest Riverside County

San Diego State University

Imperial Valley (in Brawley, California and Calexico, California)

San Francisco State University

Cañada College (in Redwood City, California)
Downtown Center (in San Francisco, California)

California State University, Stanislaus

Stockton, California

Sonoma State University

Ukiah, California

Laboratories and Observatories

Research facilities owned and operated by units of the CSU:

Desert Studies Center (managed by California State University, Fullerton)

Research consortium and field site
official website

Moss Landing Marine Laboratories (managed by San José State University)

Oceanographic laboratory
official website

Mount Laguna Observatory (part of the Astronomy Department of San Diego State University)

Astronomical observatory
official website

T.S. Golden Bear

The training ship of the California Maritime Academy

Former Campuses

Former units and campuses of the CSU:

Los Angeles State Normal School (aka State Normal School at Los Angeles) (founded 1882)

By state law, converted to UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) in 1919

Santa Barbara State College (founded 1909)

By state law, converted to UCSB (University of California, Santa Barbara) in 1944

Differences between the CSU and UC systems

Both university systems are California publicly funded higher education institutions. Despite having fewer students, some individual UC campuses, as a result of their research emphasis and medical centers, have larger budgets than the entire CSU system. CSU's Chancellor, Dr Charles B Reed, pointed out when delivering his Pullias Lecture at USC, that California was big enough to afford two world-class systems of public higher education, one that supports research (UC) and one that supports teaching (CSU). However, student per capita spending is stretched far thinner at the CSU, and the lack of a research mission or independent doctoral programs under the California Master Plan leads to a perceived lack of prestige among some academics. State Librarian Emeritus Kevin Starr has described the CSU as "in so many ways the Rodney Dangerfield of public higher education.

According to the California Master Plan for Higher Education (1960), both university systems may confer Bachelors or Master's degrees as well as professional certifications, however only the University of California has the authority to issue Ph.D degrees (Doctor of Philosophy) and professional degrees in the fields of law, medicine, veterinary, and dentistry. As a result of recent legislation (SB 724), the California State University may now offer the Ed.D degree (also known as the Doctor of Education or "education doctorate degree") to its graduate students as well as certain types of professional doctorate degrees (for instance, audiology (Au.D), etc.). Additionally, the California State University (CSU) offers Ph.D degrees as a "joint degree" in combination with other institutions of higher education, including "joint degrees" with the University of California (UC) and accredited private universities. This is why, for instance, San Diego State can qualify as a "Research University with high research activity" (Carnegie Foundation link) by offering 16 doctoral degrees.

There are 23 CSU campuses and 10 UC campuses representing 414,000 and 191,000 students respectively. The cost of CSU tuition is approximately half that of UC. Thus, the CSU system has been referred to by former California State University authorities as "The People's University.

CSU and UC use the terms "president" and "chancellor" internally in exactly opposite ways: At CSU, the campuses are headed by "presidents" who report to a systemwide "chancellor"; but at UC, they are headed by "chancellors" who report to a systemwide "president".

CSU has traditionally been more accommodating to the older student than UC, by offering more degree programs in the evenings and, more recently, online. In addition, CSU schools, especially in more urban areas, have traditionally catered to the commuter, enrolling most of its students from the surrounding area. This has changed as CSU schools increase enrollment and some of the more prestigious urban campuses attract a wider demographic.

Admission standards

Historically the requirements for admission to the CSU have been less stringent than the UC system. The CSU attempts to accept applicants from the top one-third (1/3) of California high school graduates. In contrast, the UC attempts to accept the top 12.5%. In an effort to maintain a 60/40 ratio of upper division students to lower division students and to encourage students to attend a California community college first, both university systems give priority to California community college transfer students.

However, as of 2008 the following CSU campuses use higher standards than the basic admission standards because of the number of qualified students who apply to those campuses as first-time freshmen during the initial application filing period:

Cal Poly
Cal Poly Pomona
Fullerton
Long Beach
San Diego

Impaction

An impacted campus or major is one which has more CSU-qualified students than capacity permits. As of 2006, Long Beach, San Diego, and Cal Poly are impacted for both freshmen and transfers, while Fullerton, Cal Poly Pomona, and Sonoma are impacted for freshmen. Thus, these campuses have higher admission standards than the CSU minimum. In addition, some programs at other campuses are similarly impacted. Despite this, CSU undergraduate admissions are quantitatively based and generally do not include items such as personal statements, SAT Subject Test scores, letters of recommendation, or portfolios. In addition, there is geographic preference given to those residing within the commute area of the school.

Special admissions process for the California Maritime Academy

The California Maritime Academy uses a different admissions process from other CSU schools. Because of the nature of its programs, the California Maritime Academy requires all applicants to complete a physical examination prior to enrollment.

Campus Naming Conventions

The UC system follows a consistent style in the naming of campuses, using the words University of California followed by a comma and the name of its declared home city. Most CSU campuses follow a similar pattern, though several are named only for their home city, such as San José State University. A few schools follow neither pattern, in particular the California Maritime Academy (Cal Maritime) and California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly), the only campuses whose official names do not reference their location in California. Some critics, including former California State University, Sacramento president Donald Gerth, have claimed that the weak California State University identity has contributed to the CSU's perceived lack of prestige when compared to the University of California.

Research and Academics

AAU and AASCU

The University of California and most of its campuses are members of the Association of American Universities (AAU), while the California State University (CSU) and several of its campuses (including San Diego and San Jose) are members of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU).

CENIC

The CSU is a founding and charter member of CENIC, the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California, the nonprofit organization which provides extremely high-performance Internet-based networking to California's K-20 research and education community.

NASULGC

The CSU is a member of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges.

Statewide University Programs

Agricultural Research Initiative

California State University Agricultural Research Initiative (ARI)

A comprehensive applied agricultural and environmental research program joining the CSU's four colleges of agriculture (at San Luis Obispo, Pomona, Chico and Fresno) and the state's agriculture and natural resources industries and allied business communities.

Biotechnology

California State University Program for Education and Research in Biotechnology

Managed by the San Diego and Chico campuses, the California State University Program for Education and Research in Biotechnology (CSUPERB) provides vision, leadership, and support for biotechnology education and research throughout the CSU to promote biotechnology in California. CSUPERB was created in 1987 and designed to channel CSU system-wide resources and catalyze interdisciplinary, inter-campus, synergistic endeavors involving Biology and Chemistry departments as well as Engineering, Agriculture and Computer Science. The interdisciplinary nature of biotechnology includes areas such as bioengineering; agricultural biotechnology; human pharmaceutical and health applications; environmental and natural resource biotechnology; molecular ecology; marine biotechnology; and bioinformatics and computational biology as they are applied to molecular questions. CSUPERB also recognizes basic research in the molecular and cellular life sciences as contributing to biotechnology, and serves as the official liaison between the CSU system and industry, government, the Congressional Biotechnology Caucus, and the public arena in all biotechnological matters.

Nursing

Statewide Nursing Program

Headquartered and administered at the Dominguez Hills campus, the CSU Statewide Nursing Program offers registered nurses courses available throughout California that lead to Bachelors' and Masters' of Science degree in Nursing (awarded by the closest participating CSU campus). See also California Postsecondary Education Committee (CPEC) Reports on CSU Statewide Nursing Program for more information.

Pre-Doctoral Program

California Pre-Doctoral Program

Designed to increase the pool of potential faculty by supporting the doctoral aspirations of California State University students who have experienced economic and educational disadvantages.

Chancellor's Doctoral Incentive Program (CDIP)

Provides financial and other assistance to individuals pursuing doctoral degrees. The program seeks to provide loans to doctoral students who are interested in applying and competing for California State University instructional faculty positions after completion of the doctoral degree.

Professional Science Master's Degree

''See PSM degree

The CSU intends to expand its post-graduate education focus to establish and encourage Professional Science Master's degree (PSM) programs using the Sloan model (see link for further discussion).