HISTORY OF CSUSM

Cal State San Marcos takes pride in building a university for the 21st Century. As far back as 1968, business and civic leaders in North San Diego County worked to interest state legislators and educational leaders in developing a state university in the region. The efforts were unsuccessful until 1978, when then-Assemblyman William A. Craven obtained state funds to begin a satellite facility for San Diego State University. The North County satellite began offering classes out of a portable classroom in Vista in 1979, and grew steadily through the 1980s in rented office facilities in San Marcos.

Legislative, educational, and business leaders continued to plan for a permanent state university in the region. The site of an old chicken ranch was chosen for the future campus. In 1988, two decades after local citizens had begun the process, a new state university – CSU San Marcos – was approved, through legislation (SB360) by then- Senator Craven and signed by then- Governor George Deukmejian. Initial academic planning and the first two years of classes took place at "Cal State Jerome's," nicknamed for the business park neighbors next to CSU San Marcos' shopping mall space, while the initial buildings were being constructed.

Cal State San Marcos is now a fully accredited state university, recognized for quality in undergraduate and graduate academic offerings, and appreciated for the small campus atmosphere. Built for the 21st Century, Cal State San Marcos gives its students the benefits of access to the newest science labs, the cutting-edge in multimedia computer technology, and the energy of some of the brightest and most enthusiastic faculty in the country. Those faculty members enforce a rigorous writing requirement across the curriculum, as well as computer and second language competencies that give students an advantage with graduate school training or the job market. The emphasis at Cal State San Marcos is on community-based learning opportunities that integrate the classroom with the "real world."

In the next few years, the campus will double in space as the Arts & Humanities and Science II buildings take shape and the Library Information Center breaks ground. Thanks to the students of Cal State San Marcos and the generosity of private donors from the community, the M. Gordon Clarke Field House and Student Union will also break ground in 2001, and student housing planning is rapidly closing in on reality.

But whether in the middle of a great building boom or the humble space rented next to a furniture store, Cal State San Marcos will always be a place where students, as the founding faculty wrote, "realize their potentialities as enlightened individuals and productive members of a society in a world of change."

FOUNDING MISSION STATEMENT

California State University San Marcos offers excellence in undergraduate and graduate education to a diverse citizenry in an increasingly interdependent world.

As the 20th campus in The California State System, CSU San Marcos provides an academic environment in which students, taught by active scholars, researchers, and artists, can achieve a foundation in the liberal arts and sciences and acquire specific competencies appropriate to major disciplines or graduate/professional study.

The University upholds a high level of academic scholarship in research and teaching, and protects academic freedom necessary for such scholarly pursuits. Moreover, the University demands fairness and decency of all persons in the University community. CSU San Marcos promotes a collegial relationship between students and faculty that encourages students’ excitement about the learning experience and process. This campus combines the academic strengths of a large university with the personal interaction characteristic of smaller institutions. The University provides an atmosphere in which students can experience a challenging education in a supportive environment, preparing them to live cooperatively and competitively in a world of cultural and ethnic diversity, economic and governmental differences, shared resources, ecological restraints, and technological change.

CSU San Marcos recognizes its special role in the North San Diego County area. In the spirit of partnership, the University initiates and offers programs to further intellectual, professional, and personal development within the diverse community which it serves. The University serves as a resource for books, computer-generated information, and ideas. The University stimulates research and development in collaboration with public and private organizations and, in conjunction with regional industry, participates in the development of science-based technology. The University offers cultural enrichment in an intellectually stimulating environment and acts as a focus for community social activities, music, athletics, and performing and visual arts.

CSU San Marcos endorses an international perspective that addresses the global community in its distinctive social, political, and economic terms. This multicultural outlook is reflected in our curriculum, extracurricular activities, international exchanges, and special programs that focus on world issues and problems. Consistent with its global orientation, this comprehensive University exposes students to the study of languages, to world literature and the fine arts, and to issues and traditions of the United States and other countries. The University’s definition of the liberal arts and sciences in these times includes basic skills in writing, critical and creative thinking, mathematics, fundamental computer competence, and an interdisciplinary approach.

In addition to the laboratory and classroom, the University provides a variety of educational experiences in an atmosphere that encourages students to examine moral and ethical issues central to their development as responsible men and women. Students investigate the historical past and its relationship to the present and future, and seek to understand human behavior, culture, values, and institutions. They explore the modern mathematical, biological and physical sciences, and technology; focus on international concerns of race, gender, and cultural diversity; and contribute to public services that enrich the local and international community. The University prepares students to take leadership roles in areas of work and society in the international community of the 21st Century.

The aim of CSU San Marcos is to instill in its students the enthusiasm and curiosity, the creativity and originality, the healthy skepticism, and the habit of continuing inquiry that are central to all truly educated men and women. The goal is to enable them to realize their potentialities as enlightened individuals and productive members of society in a world of change.

THE CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY

The individual California State Colleges were brought together as a system by the Donahoe Higher Education Act of 1960. In 1972, the system became The California State University and Colleges, and, in 1982, the system became The California State University. Today the campuses of the CSU include comprehensive and polytechnic universities and, since July 1995, the California Maritime Academy, a specialized campus.

The oldest campus – San José State University – was founded in 1857 and became the first institution of public higher education in California. The most recently opened campus – California State University, Monterey Bay – began admitting students in the fall of 1995. A new site has been conveyed and a 23rd campus, CSU Channel Islands, is being formally established in Ventura County with plans to open in 2002.

Responsibility for The California State University is vested in the Board of Trustees, whose members are appointed by the Governor. The Trustees appoint the Chancellor, who is the chief executive officer of the system, and the Presidents, who are the chief executive officers of the respective campuses.

The Trustees, the Chancellor, and the Presidents develop system-wide policy, with actual implementation at the campus level taking place through broadly based consultative procedures. 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.

Academic excellence has been achieved by The California State University through a distinguished faculty whose primary responsibility is superior teaching. While each campus in the system has its own unique geographic and curricular character, all campuses, as multipurpose institutions, offer undergraduate and graduate instruction for professional and occupational goals as well as a broad liberal education. All the campuses require for graduation a basic program of “General Education Requirements,” regardless of the type of bachelor’s degree or major field selected by the student.

The CSU offers more than 1,600 bachelor’s and master’s degree programs in some 240 subject areas. Many of these programs are offered so that students can complete all upper-division and graduation requirements by part-time, late afternoon, and evening study. In addition, a variety of teaching and school service credential programs are available. A limited number of doctoral degrees are offered jointly with the University of California and with private institutions in California.

Enrollments in fall 1999 totaled 339,719 students, who were taught by over 20,600 faculty. The system awards more than half of the bachelor’s degrees and 30 percent of the master’s degrees granted in California. Some 1.94 million persons have been graduated from CSU campuses since 1960.