California State University, Fullerton

Founding

In 1957, Orange County State College became the 12th state college in California to be authorized by the state legislature as a degree-granting institution. The following year, a site was designated for the campus to be established in northeast Fullerton. The property was purchased in 1959. The same year, William B. Langsdorf was appointed as founding president of the school.

Classes began with 452 students in September 1959. The name of the school was changed to Orange State College in July 1962. In 1964, its name was changed to California State College at Fullerton. In June 1972, the final name change occurred and the school became California State University, Fullerton.

Mascot

The choice of the elephant as the university's mascot, dubbed Tuffy the Titan, dates to 1962, when the campus hosted "The First Intercollegiate Elephant Race in Human History." The May 11 event attracted 10,000 spectators, 15 pachyderm entrants, and worldwide news coverage.^[14]

Campus violence

The campus has seen three significant instances of violence with people shot and killed. On July 12, 1976, Edward Charles Allaway, a campus janitor with paranoid schizophrenia, shot nine people, killing seven, in the University Library (now the Pollak Library) on the Cal State Fullerton campus. At the time, it was the worst mass shooting in Orange County history.^[15] On October 13, 1984, Edward Cooperman, a physics professor, was shot and killed by his former student, Minh Van Lam, in McCarthy Hall.^[16]

On August 19, 2019, Steven Shek Keung Chan, 57, of Hacienda Heights was found by police with multiple stab wounds. When the police arrived at the parking lot where Chan was assaulted, he was pronounced dead. Chan was a retired budget director working as a consultant in the international student affairs office. On August 22, 2019, the coworker who committed the violent act was arrested at his residence in Huntington Beach. Chuyen Vo, 51, was believed to have acted alone, but the motive was never identified. Chan and Vo worked in the same division and Cal State Fullerton spokeswoman Ellen Treanor stated:

"Of all the individuals that I talked to in that division, there didn't seem to be any concerns at all that anybody would ever hurt Steve at all. Not a single person said there were problems," Treanor said. "He wasn't known as a difficult boss. He was known as a very thoughtful man, very by-the book, a man of few words."^[17]

2000s: Modern growth

The university grew rapidly in the first decade of the 2000s. The Performing Arts Center was built in January 2006, and in the summer of 2008 the newly constructed Steven G. Mihaylo Hall and the new Student Recreation Center opened.^[18][19]

In fall 2008, the Performing Arts Center was renamed the Joseph A.W. Clayes III Performing Arts Center, in honor of a $5 million pledge made to the university by the trustees of the Joseph A.W. Clayes III Charitable Trust.^[20] Since 1963, the curriculum has expanded to include many graduate programs, including multiple doctorate degrees, as well as numerous credential and certificate programs.

In 2021, president of the university Framroze Virjee acknowledged the university's location on the lands of the Tongva and Acjachemen and pledged for the university to be more committed toward partnering with Indigenous peoples.^[21]

The campus is on the site of former citrus groves in northeast Fullerton. It is bordered on the east by the Orange Freeway (SR-57), on the west by State College Boulevard, on the north by Yorba Linda Boulevard, and on the south by Nutwood Avenue.

Although established in the late 1950s, much of the initial construction on campus took place in the late 1960s, under the supervision of artist and architect Howard van Heuklyn, who gave the campus a striking, futuristic architecture (buildings like Pollak Library South, Titan Shops, Humanities, McCarthy Hall). This was in response to the numerous Googie buildings in the Fullerton community.

The University Archives & Special Collections in the Pollak Library houses the Philip K. Dick papers and Frank Herbert papers as part of the Willis McNelly Science Fiction collection.^[22]

Since 1993, the campus has added the College Park Building, Steven G. Mihaylo Hall, University Hall, the Titan Student Union, the Student Recreation Center, the Nutwood Parking Structure, the State College Parking Structure, Dan Black Hall, Joseph A.W. Clayes III Performing Arts Center West, Phase III Housing, the Grand Central Art Center, and Pollak Library. In order to generate power for the university and become more sustainable, the campus installed solar panels on top of a number of buildings. The panels, which generate up to 7–8 percent of the electrical power used daily, are atop the Eastside Parking Structure, Clayes Performing Arts Center and the Kinesiology and Health Science Building.^{[citation needed]}

In August 2011, the university added a $143 million housing complex, which included five new residence halls, a convenience store and a 565-seat dining hall called the Gastronome.^[23]

El Dorado Ranch serves as the university president's residence.

Satellite campus

The university opened a satellite campus in Irvine, California in 1989, approximately 20 miles (32 km) south of the original Fullerton location.^[24] Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the satellite campus closed in July 2021.^[25]

Proposed expansion

CSUF announced plans in May 2010 to buy the lot occupied by Hope International University, but this deal fell through.^[26]

CSUF also announced plans in September 2010 to expand into the area south of Nutwood Avenue to construct a project called CollegeTown, which would integrate the surrounding residential areas and retail spaces into the campus.^[27] After community opposition, the Fullerton planning commission indefinitely postponed any action on the project in February 2016.^[28]

Desert Studies Center

The Desert Studies Center is a field station of the California State University located in Zzyzx, California in the Mojave Desert. The purpose of the center is to provide opportunities to conduct research, receive instruction and experience the Mojave Desert environment. It is officially operated by the California Desert Studies Consortium, a consortium of 7 CSU campuses: Fullerton, Cal Poly Pomona, Long Beach, San Bernardino, Northridge, Dominguez Hills and Los Angeles.^{[citation needed]}

Admissions and enrollment

As of the fall 2013 semester, CSUF is the third most applied to CSU out of all 23 campuses receiving nearly 65,000 applications, including over 40,000 for incoming freshmen and nearly 23,000 transfer applications, the second highest in the CSU.^[31]

Rankings and distinctions

• The 2024 edition of U.S. News & World Report ranked Fullerton tied for 2nd "Performers on Social Mobility," tied 70 in top public schools, tied 31 for best undergraduate teaching, 211 for best value schools, and the undergraduate engineering program tied for 40, tied 8 in computer engineering, tied 8 in civil engineering and tied 9 in electrical/electronic/communications, tied 201 in economics, and tied 154 for Nursing.^[34]
• Money magazine ranked Cal State Fullerton 34th in the country out of 739 schools evaluated for its 2020 "Best Colleges for Your Money" edition^[39] and 22nd in its list of the 50 best public schools in the U.S.^[40]

CSUF participates in the NCAA Division I Big West Conference and MPSF. Cal State Fullerton Athletics boasts 31 national championships covering 11 sports and dating back to its first in 1967. There are 12 team national titles and 19 individual championships. The Titans became an NCAA Div. I program for the 1974-75 academic year and have since produced 11 (6 team and 5 individual) national titles, four of them by the Titans' baseball team. Eighteen of the titles come from men's sports, 12 from women's. 12 team national championships in eight different sports. (1970, women's basketball (CIAW); 1971, 1972, 1974 men's gymnastics; 1971 cross country team; 1973 women's fencing; 1979, women's gymnastics; 1979, 1984, 1995, 2004 baseball; 1986 softball). Their baseball team is a perennial national powerhouse with four national titles and dozens of players playing Major League Baseball. The CSUF Dance Team currently holds the most national titles at the school, with 15 national titles from UDA Division 1 Jazz; 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017; and one national title from UDAs in Division 1 Hip Hop. The Dance Team also holds multiple titles from United Spirit Association.

CSUF holds the Ben Brown Invitational every track and field season. CSUF currently supports 21 club sports on top of its Division I varsity teams, which are archery, baseball, cycling, equestrian, grappling and jiu jitsu, ice hockey, men's lacrosse, women's lacrosse, nazara Bollywood dance, men's rugby, women's rugby, roller hockey, salsa team, men's soccer, women's soccer, table tennis, tennis, ultimate Frisbee, men's volleyball, women's volleyball, skiing, and wushu.^[41]

Because of the proximity to Long Beach State, the schools are considered rivals. The rivalry is especially heated in baseball with the Long Beach State baseball team also having a competitive college baseball program.^[42]

CSUF was the first college in Orange County to have a Greek system, with its first fraternity founded in 1960.^[43] The Daily Titan, the official student newspaper of the university, also started in 1960.^[44] Other official student media includes Titan Radio.^[45]

On April 23, 2014, Cal State Fullerton opened the Titan Dreamers Resource Center. The center was the first resource center for undocumented students in the CSU system.^[46][47]

CSUF alumni include an astronaut who has made two trips to space; a speaker of the California Assembly;^[48] other politicians and Academy Award-winning directors, actors, producers, and cinematographers; award-winning journalists, authors, and screenwriters; nationally recognized teachers; presidents and CEOs of leading corporations; international opera stars, musicians, and Broadway stars; and professional athletes, Olympians, doctors, scientists, researchers, and social activists.

Titan alumni number more than 210,000. An active alumni association keeps them connected through numerous networking and social events, and also sponsors nationwide chapters.

• 
  Actor and filmmaker Kevin Costner (BA 1978)
• 
  Astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson (BS 1993)
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  Speaker of the California State Assembly and former professor Anthony Rendon (BA 1992 & MA 1994)
• 
  U.S. representative Ed Royce (BA 1977)
• 
  U.S. representative Lou Correa (BA 1980)
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  No Doubt lead singer Gwen Stefani
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  Desperate Housewives creator Marc Cherry (BA 1995)
• 
  Actor David Castañeda (BA 2015)
• 
  Singer Adam Lambert
• 
  MLB player and manager Gabe Kapler
• 
  NBA player Bruce Bowen (BA 2006)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to California State University, Fullerton.

• Official website
• Cal State Fullerton Athletics website