Everything about California State University Long Beach totally explained
California State University, Long Beach (also known as
Cal State Long Beach,
CSU Long Beach,
Long Beach State,
CSULB,
LBSU, or
The Beach) is the second largest
campus of the
California State University system and the third largest
university in the state of
California in terms of enrollment. The University is located at the southeastern coastal tip of
Los Angeles County, less than a mile from the border with
Orange County. (
Map
)
It has been ranked as one of the top five public masters universities in the
West by
U.S. News and World Report's "America's Best Colleges Guide" for 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008.
CSULB was also ranked as the No. 3 best value public college in the nation by
The Princeton Review. The campus is featured in the "Top 10 Best Value Public Colleges" list in the 2007 edition of its book America's Best Value Colleges, released in March, 2006. More than 30 factors were considered to rate the colleges in four categories: academics, tuition GPA (the sticker price minus average amount students receive in gift aid scholarships and grants), financial aid (how well colleges meet students' financial need) and student borrowing.
In addition, Long Beach State is one of the
West Coast's top universities/masters institutions in student body diversity and is home to the largest publicly funded art school west of the
Mississippi. The university currently operates with one of the lowest student fees in the country at
US $3,116 per year.
History
Established in 1949 by California Governor
Earl Warren to serve the rapidly expanding post
World War II population of
Orange and Southern
Los Angeles counties, Cal State Long Beach hasn't always been held in the same esteem as it's today. But over the years, CSULB has overcome its exceedingly humble beginnings and grown to be one of the state's largest and most well-respected universities.
At its inception, the institution was known as Los Angeles-Orange County State College. It consisted of 25 courses taught by 13 faculty members in two apartment buildings at 5381 Anaheim Road in
Long Beach. In June 1950, the citizens of Long Beach voted overwhelmingly to purchase 320 acres as a permanent campus for the college, now known as Long Beach State College. The purchase price was nearly $1,000,000. Utilizing the new location, the school began to establish itself as a permanent presence in the area, and as a result its student enrollment grew rapidly.
By 1960, the student body had skyrocketed to more than 10,000 students, and by 1966 that number would reach 20,000. In 1964, LBSC changed its name to California State College at Long Beach in an effort to unify with the state system and enhance its prestige (it was renamed California State College, Long Beach in 1968).
In 1965, CSCLB hosted the first
International Sculpture Symposium to be held in the
United States and the first at a college or university. Six sculptors from around the world and two from the United States created many of the monumental sculptures seen today on the campus. The event received national media attention from newspapers around the country including the
New York Times,
Los Angeles Times Magazine,
Art in America and a six-page color spread in
Fortune Magazine.
The school acquired
university status in 1972 along with 12 other state college campuses. The promotion was decided by the Board of Trustees of the
California State University system, according to total enrollment, size of graduate programs, complexity and diversity of majors and number of doctorates held by faculty at each college. CSCLB became CSULB.
Also in 1972, the campus became the home of the largest library facility in the then 19-campus
CSU system: a modern six-story building with a
seating capacity of nearly 4,000 students.
In 1995, President Robert Maxson initiated the privately funded President's Scholars Program providing selected qualified California high school
valedictorians and
National Merit finalists and semi-finalists with a full four-year scholarship package which includes tuition, a book stipend, and housing. Since the program's inception more than 600 students have accepted the scholarship.
As of Fall 2006, CSULB had 35,574 students in attendance, making it the second most populous campus of the CSU system (after
CSU Fullerton with 35,921).
Puvunga
The campus is believed to be the location of an ancient
Tongva village and burial site known as
Puvunga and is listed on the
National Register of Historic Places as such. CSULB has challenged this designation, claiming they were not consulted when the application was filed. From 1992 to 1995, when the university attempted to build a
strip mall on the last undeveloped portion of the campus, the Tongva people filed a lawsuit and initiated protest which involved physically occupying the land day and night to stave off
bulldozers.
There were also lawsuits between Dr. Keith Dixon, professor
emeritus of
anthropology, the university, and the Tongva people concerning the improper storage of
aboriginal remains and artifacts. All matters were put to rest when President Maxson promised that as long as he was president no development would occur at the site. He further stated he didn't wish to make a more permanent agreement because he didn't want to tie the hands of future administrations. To date, no development has occurred on this portion of the campus; however, in 2006 President Maxon retired as University President, leaving the topic open for further discussion.
Academics
CSULB comprises seven academic colleges:
Together, the colleges offer a total of 81
baccalaureate degrees, 67
master's degrees, 16 education-related
credential programs, and three
doctoral degrees (two joint and one free-standing).
The University's educational goals reflect its large population of students and faculty. Among the numerous classes and majors,
Liberal Arts and
Sciences represent the
General Education (GE) core, while a variety of classes make up GE electives; students rarely study the same subjects as each other, but all GE classes focus on the development of writing and critical thinking skills.
Academic department reputations
CSULB is perhaps most well-known for its
Engineering program.
U.S. News and World Report has rated it as one of the Top 50 undergraduate programs in the nation, and even commended the University's programs for first-year students as "stellar examples of academic programs that lead to student success." Long Beach's programs in
Accounting,
Business Administration,
Nursing, and
Art are also well-respected in the industry.
In addition, according to the
National Science Foundation, CSULB is the number one campus in the nation amongst Master's level universities for producing students who go on to earn
doctoral degrees in
the Sciences.
In March of 2008, the music department was renamed the
Bob Cole Conservatory of Music in honor of an endowment gift of $16.4 million dollars from his estate. Cole, a Long Beach real estate investor, long-time music lover, and amateur pianist, died in 2004. The gift will benefit the students of the conservatory in the form of scholarships and other awards.
Admissions
Fall Admissions Statistics The average high school GPA of incoming freshmen for Fall 2007 was 3.34, and the average SAT score was 1010.
Impaction
Cal State Long Beach itself is an impacted campus as designated by the
CSU system. As such, the University currently receives more eligible
applications than the campus can accommodate, and therefore must restrict admissions beyond initial eligibility requirements. Most CSUs are not impacted in this manner.
Moreover, the university has several impacted majors, for example majors in which the university receives more applications than there's space to accommodate. Impacted majors are authorized to use supplementary admission criteria and/or higher admission standards than the CSU minimum requirements in considering applicants to the program. These criteria are applied equally to continuing CSULB students and entering upper-division transfer students.
List of Currently Impacted Majors
Student life
CSULB hosts over 350 events annually, welcoming more than 150,000 patrons to its performance halls, conferences centers, and exhibit venues.
Associated Students
Associated Students Incorporated is the student government of the campus. ASI is a non profit corporation which represents the interest of the student body and operates the University Student Union (USU), the Isabel Paterson Child Development Center, and the campus Recycling Center. In addition, ASI sponsors a number of campus events and activities through mandatory student fees.
ASI Official Website
BeachBoard
BeachBoard is the campus eLearning Environment. Currently powered by BlackBoard, the BeachBoard "brand" was created in a lunchtime brainstorming session by staff members David Bradley (1948-2007), Crista Copp and Dan Olsen as members of Academic Computing Services at the University during 2001. The surfboard with hibiscus logo was created shortly thereafter in consultation with student graphic designer Nupur Shah of the Technology Help Desk. BeachBoard has grown to become an integral part of the academic fabric of CSULB and continues to grow as technology becomes further integrated into academic life.
BeachBoard Official Website
The Union Weekly and The Daily 49er
The university has two student publications:
The Union Weekly (formerly The Long Beach Union Newspaper) and the
Daily 49er. The first issue of the Daily 49er, the campus newspaper, was published November 11, 1949. The Daily 49er currently publishes Monday through Thursday during the fall and spring semesters, and once a week during the summer sessions. It was one of the first college newspapers in the country to have an Internet edition, starting back in August of 1994. The Daily 49er was previously affiliated with the CSULB's Journalism Department, though it's now independent of the department. It has always been, however, a student-run publication.
The Union Weekly, which is partially student-funded, and affiliated with the associated student body organization (and not with any academic college, school, or university discipline), publishes every Wednesday during fall and spring semesters, and has been a part of the Cal State Long Beach campus since the debut of its first issue on April 22, 1977, when it was formed in response to the Daily 49er. It has recently renamed itself to the "students' magazine." The student-run Union Weekly focuses on being an alternative voice on campus and features a satirical section called The Grunion. At one time in the early 80's, The Union was a daily newspaper giving heavy competition to the Daily 49er. However, a massive deficit brought on by daily publication nearly caused the Union to fold. It has been a source of term papers and external studies by other publications that in spite of at times heavy deficits, huge internal battles and editorials that angered the Associated Students that had at times tried hard to close the paper, that it still exists and just celebrated its 30th anniversary on April 26, 2007.
Housing
Cal State Long Beach operates eighteen residence halls which are divided into five communities: Parkside, Residence, Los Alamitos, Los Cerritos, and the International House. The unique International House pairs international students with U.S. residents. In August 2007, the CSULB Foundation announced that it had purchased the property leased to nearby
Brooks College for future use as CSULB student housing.
KKJZ 88.1 FM
The California State University Long Beach Foundation owns the
KKJZ non-commercial broadcast license of 88.1 FM, a Jazz and Blues radio station. Global Jazz, Inc., an affiliate of
Mount Wilson FM Broadcasters, Inc., programs and manages the radio station.
KJAZZ Official Website
KBeach internet radio
Kbeach is a student-run internet stream that has had a presence on campus in various forms since the 1970s. The independent and mainstream music channel is streamed over the internet and piped into the student union.
Shows currently include and have included Awesomer, Headbangers Beach, Sex at the Beach, Metal Top Hat Radio, Flashback Odyssey, The Powerfuse, Pop Secret, The Prime Spot, Brunch With Tiffany and Jessica, Lisa's Honest Show, and Doing it Wrong.
KBeach Official website Sex at the Beach was recently featured on MTV's True Life in the episode entitled 'I Work In The Sex Industry'
(External Link)
Pow Wow
During March of every year since 1970, the University has hosted the largest
pow-wow in
Southern California. This free two day event, which attracts more than 6,000 persons each year, features
Native American dancing,
arts,
craft and native foods.
Campus
The campus spans 323
acres (1.3 km²) across 84 buildings and is located 3 miles from the
Pacific Ocean. It has its own U.S. Postal
Zip code: 90840. CSULB is located at 1250 Bellflower Boulevard. It is bounded by East 7th Street to the south, East Atherton Street to the north, Bellflower Boulevard to the west, and Palo Verde Avenue to the east.
Architecture
The architecture of the campus is mostly of the
International style (designed primarily by noted architect
Edward Killingsworth) and is very minimalist, placing emphasis instead on the landscaping that surrounds it. This naturalistic, park-like layout has earned the campus numerous design awards, as well as other awards from gardening societies for its immaculately maintained grounds. Even the newer buildings are built in a very restrained glass-and-brick style. The integration of landscaping and architecture is perhaps most apparent at the school's theater complex, where a dense grove of
ficus trees is planted in such a way that it forms a continuation of the pillar-supported canopy at the theater's entrance. The University's registration offices are located in the open courtyard of Brotman Hall, which is "roofed" by a similar jungle-like canopy. The Psychology building is also notable for its soaring, airy courtyard planted with tall
Eucalyptus trees.
Campus landmarks
The University Student Union commons building, also known as "The U," is located at the center of campus and has the distinction of being one of the largest structures on any campus in California. Occupying roughly 180,000 square feet, The U is a sprawling three-story glass building that establishes itself as one of the main venues on campus. In addition to housing numerous classrooms and offices, The U offers many more casual attractions, including (but not limited to) a study lounge, a ballroom, a food court, a bowling alley, an arcade, and a movie theater.
49er basketball and volleyball games are currently played in the iconic, eighteen story
Walter Pyramid (formerly known as the Long Beach Pyramid) located on north campus. The Pyramid is a state of the art sporting complex that can accommodate over 5,000 fans when including temporary seating and standing room. Two sections of interior stands are fitted with large
hydraulic lifts which can lift the seating elements forty-five degrees into the air, creating room for five volleyball courts or three basketball courts. The Pyramid is also home to the
Southern California Summer Pro League, a noted showcase for current and prospective NBA basketball players.
CSULB is also distinguished as home to the renowned University Art Museum that ranks in the top 10% of the nation's 6,000 plus museums.
UAM official website.
The campus is also home to the
Carpenter Performing Arts Center, a 1,074 seat theater named after CSULB alumni
Richard and Karen Carpenter.
In addition, The University is home to the
Earl Burns Miller Japanese Garden, an artistic retreat of solitude and beauty. Among its many picturesque attractions, The Garden features a large pond populated with
Koi.
Earl Burns Miller Japanese Garden official website.
Future development
In the Spring of 2007, the student body voted overwhelmingly to approve the construction of a student recreation and wellness center on campus. Slated for completion by Fall 2010, the Rec and Wellness Center is to be an extensive all-purpose athletic center covering about 125,000 square feet on North Campus. Current plans include facilities for fitness programs and aerobics classes, courts for volleyball, basketball and badminton, rock climbing walls, an indoor track, a student lounge, and much more.
Campus sustainability
The University, in its push to support climate sustainability, installed solar panels on Brotman Hall and the Facilities Management canopy parking in 2007. The University has been taking steps in addressing the challenge of sustainability, with the support of its student government, student body, and organizations, such as the Environmental Science & Policy Club.
The
Environmental Science & Policy Club (ES&P Club) has brought support to environmental awareness and sustainability through club activities, such as coastal clean-ups, hikes, plant-restoration project, tabling, conferences, guest speakers, & Kaleidoscope. In 2006, the ES&P Club supported the installation of waterless urinals in the University's men's restrooms. One of the largest events the ES&P Club puts on every year is Earth Week in April with documentary screenings, discussions, speaker series, and much more.
The University "has a comprehensive energy management program incorporating real-time metering and energy-saving technologies such as the EnergySaver, which provides a more sophisticated alternative to turning off the lights by automatically varying the voltage to the ballasted fixtures and reducing the power consumed, while maintaining appropriate lighting levels."
Public transportation
The campus is currently serviced by:
Long Beach Transit (routes 81, 91, 92, 93, 94, 171, 173, 96 ZAP, and Passport D)
OCTA (routes 1, 50, and 60)
LACMTA Express (route 577X)
Athletics
An NCAA division 1 member, Long Beach State has 18 sports teams and plays competitively in baseball, cross country, softball, track and field, women's tennis, and women's soccer, as well as both men's and women's basketball, volleyball, water polo and golf teams. The university is a founding member of the Big West Conference and also competes in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.
In addition to NCAA-sanctioned sports, Long Beach State also fields numerous competitive club sports teams, such as rugby, ice hockey, ultimate, soccer, crew, and many others.
In the realm of sports the school is referred to as "Long Beach State." The official name of Long Beach State sports teams is "The 49ers" in honor of the year the university was founded and for the prospectors of the California Gold Rush one hundred years before then. Unofficially, "The Beach" is used to refer to Long Beach State and its sports teams as it's the only university on the West Coast with the word "Beach" in its name. One can see the cheer "Go Beach!" written on many CSULB products around campus and on the large water tower near the entrance to the campus.
The Beach has several rival schools when it comes to sports. In addition to being located in close proximity to each other, Long Beach State and Cal State Fullerton have competed heavily as conference rivals in baseball for nearly 20 years. More recently, specifically since 2006, Long Beach State and UC Irvine have participated in the annual "Black and Blue Rivalry Series." In this challenge, each school earns points for its collective conference championships and head-to-head victories against each other (across all NCAA sports in which both schools participate). The totals are added up at the end of the season and a winner is declared: Long Beach leads the all-time series 2-0. Finally, Long Beach State also has a long-standing "beach school" rivalry with UC Santa Barbara.
Unlike all other Long Beach State sports teams, the baseball team unofficially goes under the moniker "The Dirtbags." Since the hiring of Dave Snow as head coach in 1989, the LBSU baseball team has become one of the most successful teams in the school's athletic history. The Dirtbags are consistently ranked in the national top 30 and have appeared in 16 of the last 19 NCAA tournaments. Along the way, the team has won 8 Big West conference championships, hosted 3 NCAA regionals (plus 1 super regional), and appeared in 4 College World Series. The school has also produced a number of prominent professional players over the years, including former American League MVP Jason Giambi and former American League Rookie of the Year Bobby Crosby. Many more ex-Dirtbags have participated in the prestigious MLB All-Star Futures game, such as rookie phenomenons Jered Weaver and Troy Tulowitzki.
Long Beach State is home to one of the top women's volleyball teams in the nation. Seasonally ranked in the national top 25, the team plays one of the most competitive schedules in the nation year in and year out. Long Beach has won three national titles in women's volleyball in 1989, 1993 and 1998. In 1998 the women's team took the national #1 rank from Penn State and went on to win the NCAA finals as well as the World finals against China, claiming the #1 spot in the World.
Long Beach has also had a number of nationally prominent coaches, including Tex Winter, Jerry Tarkanian and Lute Olson in men's basketball, George Allen in football, Frances Schaafsma in women's volleyball and basketball, Joan Bonvicini in women's basketball, and Jon Urbanchek and Don Gambril in swimming.
Long Beach State competed in Division I football for a number of years (1969-91), producing a number of professional players, including Terrell Davis and Mike Horan, among others. George Allen, the famed Los Angeles Rams and Washington Redskins coach, had a short one-year tenure at Long Beach State. Long Beach State discontinued its football program after the 1991 season due to budget constraints. Prior to going Division I in 1969 the football team competed in the old "College Division" of the NCAA from 1955 through 1968.
Alumnus John "J.P." Calderon competed in the 13th edition of the hit reality television show Survivor. Calderon, who is now a professionally ranked AVP player, graduated from Cal State Long Beach in 2000 after playing on the nationally ranked Division I Men's Volleyball Team.
Fight Song
We’re the Forty-Niners,
Our colors way up high will shine.
Down the Field, We'll never yield,
Like the days of ’49 we’ll fight on.
We’re the Forty-Niners,
Our foe will know we’ve come to fight,
And just like the days of old…
We’ll Fight, Black and Gold!
See also the UC Irvine Anteaters fight song, The Big C, that mentions its rivalry with Long Beach State.
Alma Mater
Alma Mater Hail to Thee
And We Pledge Our Loyalty
To the College of Our Choice
Thee We Serve With Hand and Voice
Now and in the Future Bright
Citadel of Truth and Right
Honor, Glory and Renown
All are Thine Dear Gold and Brown*
*In the Spring of 2000, by student vote, the official school colors were changed from Gold and Brown to Gold and Black.
Notable people
Further Information
Get more info on 'California State University Long Beach'.
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