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California State University, Northridge (CSUN or Cal State Northridge) is a
public university A public university or public college is a university or college that is in owned by the state or receives significant public funds through a national or subnational government, as opposed to a private university. Whether a national universit ...
in the Northridge neighborhood of
Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
,
California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
. With a total enrollment of 38,551 students (as of Fall 2021), it has the second largest undergraduate population as well as the third largest total student body of the 23-campus
California State University The California State University (Cal State or CSU) is a public university system in California. With 23 campuses and eight off-campus centers enrolling 485,550 students with 55,909 faculty and staff, CSU is the largest four-year public univers ...
system, making it one of the largest comprehensive universities in the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
in terms of enrollment size. The size of CSUN also has a major impact on the California economy, with an estimated $1.9 billion in
economic output Output in economics is the "quantity of goods or services produced in a given time period, by a firm, industry, or country", whether consumed or used for further production. The concept of national output is essential in the field of macroecono ...
generated by CSUN on a yearly basis. As of Fall 2021, the university has 2,187 faculty, of which 794 (or about 36%) were
tenure Tenure is a category of academic appointment existing in some countries. A tenured post is an indefinite academic appointment that can be terminated only for cause or under extraordinary circumstances, such as financial exigency or program disco ...
d or on the tenure track. California State University, Northridge was founded first as the Valley satellite campus of
California State University, Los Angeles California State University, Los Angeles (Cal State LA) is a public university in Los Angeles, California. It is part of the 23-campus California State University (CSU) system. Cal State LA offers 142 bachelor's degrees, 122 master's degrees, ...
. It then became an independent college in 1958 as San Fernando Valley State College, with major campus master planning and construction. The university adopted its current name of California State University, Northridge in 1972. The
1994 Northridge earthquake The 1994 Northridge earthquake was a moment 6.7 (), blind thrust earthquake that occurred on January 17, 1994, at 4:30:55 a.m. PST in the San Fernando Valley region of the City of Los Angeles. The quake had a duration of approximately ...
caused $400 million in damage to the campus, the heaviest damage ever sustained by an American college campus. The university offers 134 different
bachelor's degrees A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ye ...
and
master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.
programs in 70 different fields, as well as four
doctoral degrees A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...
(two
Doctor of Education The Doctor of Education (Ed.D. or D.Ed.; Latin ''Educationis Doctor'' or ''Doctor Educationis'') is (depending on region and university) a research or professional doctoral degree that focuses on the field of education. It prepares the holder for a ...
degrees, a
Doctor of Audiology The Doctor of Audiology (AuD) is a professional degree for an audiologist. The AuD program is designed to produce audiologists who are skilled in providing diagnostic, rehabilitative, and other services associated with hearing, balance, tinnitus ...
degree, and a Doctor of Physical Therapy degree) and 24
teaching credential A United States teaching credential is a basic multiple or single subject credential obtained upon completion of a bachelor's degree, from a college or university that holds regional accreditation, and prescribed professional education requirement ...
s. It is classified among "Master's Colleges & Universities: Larger Programs". CSUN is considered to be one of the most diverse universities in the nation and currently has over 350,000 alumni. Additionally, CSUN has been consistently recognized as having one of the best film schools as well as music schools in the U.S. and in the world. It is also home to the
National Center on Deafness The National Center on Deafness is an American educational institution aimed at facilitating the education of deaf students. The facilities of the National Center on Deafness are located on the campus of California State University, Northridge, Lo ...
and the university hosts the annual International Conference on Technology and Persons with Disabilities, more commonly known as the CSUN Conference. Cal State Northridge is a
Hispanic-serving institution A Hispanic-serving institution (HSI) is defined in federal law as an accredited, degree-granting, public or private nonprofit institution of higher education with 25% or more total undergraduate Hispanic or Latino full-time equivalent (FTE) stude ...
.


History


Establishment

The establishment of CSUN began in 1952 with the proposal of a new satellite campus for Los Angeles State College (now known as
California State University, Los Angeles California State University, Los Angeles (Cal State LA) is a public university in Los Angeles, California. It is part of the 23-campus California State University (CSU) system. Cal State LA offers 142 bachelor's degrees, 122 master's degrees, ...
), to be established in Baldwin Hills. However, San Fernando Valley advocates persuaded state officials to change the location to Northridge after a meeting at the
Brown Derby Brown Derby was a chain of restaurants in Los Angeles, California. The first and best known was shaped like a derby hat, an iconic image that became synonymous with the Golden Age of Hollywood. It was opened by Wilson Mizner in 1926. The chain ...
restaurant on
Wilshire Boulevard Wilshire Boulevard is a prominent boulevard in the Los Angeles area of Southern California, extending from Ocean Avenue in the city of Santa Monica east to Grand Avenue in the Financial District of downtown Los Angeles. One of the principal ...
. The official groundbreaking of the university occurred on January 4, 1956, and was performed by, among others, the
Governor of California The governor of California is the head of government of the U.S. state of California. The governor is the commander-in-chief of the California National Guard and the California State Guard. Established in the Constitution of California, the g ...
Goodwin Knight Goodwin Jess "Goodie" Knight (December 9, 1896 – May 22, 1970) was an American politician who served as the 31st governor of California from 1953 until 1959. A member of the Republican Party, he previously was the 35th lieutenant governor ...
and Los Angeles State College President Howard S. McDonald. While it is situated in a suburban location nowadays, it was a rural location during its founding with several agricultural lands having to be cleared to start construction.


1956–1965

Classes started on September 24, 1956, in temporary buildings, with an enrollment of 1,500 students. Delmar Oviatt, the former namesake of the current campus library, was the dean of the satellite campus until July 1, 1958, when the campus separated from Los Angeles State College and was renamed San Fernando Valley State College (popularly abbreviated to Valley State College, Valley State, or SFVSC) after the California Legislature passed Assembly Bill No. 971.
Ralph Prator Ralph Prator (November 16, 1907 – July 25, 2005) was an American college administrator. He served as the first president of San Fernando Valley State College—now known as California State University, Northridge—from 1958 to 1968. Academic ...
was assigned as the first president of the university and enrollment reached 2,525 with a tuition of $29 per semester. During that same year, the first graduation ceremony was held for around 100 students at the
Hollywood Bowl The Hollywood Bowl is an amphitheatre in the Hollywood Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. It was named one of the 10 best live music venues in America by ''Rolling Stone'' magazine in 2018. The Hollywood Bowl is known for its distin ...
before being moved to campus during subsequent years. In 1959, the university became the first State College to have its own computer. In 1964, the pioneering computer lab was moved into new quarters in the recently completed Sierra Hall building complex, and student enrollment reached nearly 12,000. Other buildings were also swiftly constructed during the early 1960s to accommodate this rapidly growing student population. Additionally, in November 1963 the university established its own radio station, which continues operation to this day as
KCSN KCSN (88.5 FM, "The SoCal Sound") is a non-commercial educational radio station licensed to Northridge, California and owned by California State University, Northridge. The station simulcasts with KSBR from Saddleback College in Mission Viejo. ...
. On October 25, 1960, then vice presidential nominee
Lyndon B. Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. He had previously served as the 37th vice ...
visited the campus accompanied by Governor Pat Brown to hold a rally in front of approximately 3,500 students. While some attending students were holding banners in support of his opponents, Johnson used the opportunity to criticize the opposing Republican Party and their candidate
Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...
. Four years later, then Republican candidate
Nelson Rockefeller Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller (July 8, 1908 – January 26, 1979), sometimes referred to by his nickname Rocky, was an American businessman and politician who served as the 41st vice president of the United States from 1974 to 1977. A member of t ...
held a rally at the university in front of around 6,000 students, which was organized by the university's Republican Club. Having just won the primary in Oregon, California would be crucial in deciding the Republican nominee for the 1964 presidential election. Rockefeller held the lead coming into California but nonetheless lost its primary to
Barry Goldwater Barry Morris Goldwater (January 2, 1909 – May 29, 1998) was an American politician and United States Air Force officer who was a five-term U.S. Senator from Arizona (1953–1965, 1969–1987) and the Republican Party nominee for presiden ...
, effectively handing him the Republican nomination. In December 1965, with increasing conversation and tension on the topic of civil rights in the country, the university hosted a debate on the subject between conservative author and commentator
William F. Buckley Jr. William Frank Buckley Jr. (born William Francis Buckley; November 24, 1925 – February 27, 2008) was an American public intellectual, conservative author and political commentator. In 1955, he founded ''National Review'', the magazine that stim ...
and liberal
African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...
Louis Lomax Louis Emanuel Lomax (August 16, 1922 – July 30, 1970) was an African-American journalist and author. He was also the first African-American television journalist. Early years Lomax was born in Valdosta, Georgia. His parents were Emanuel C. Smi ...
.


1966–1972

The campus's quiet, moderately conservative and overwhelmingly white suburban setting did not shield it from a share of the noise, strife and social upheavals of the
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
era. As on many college campuses, there were increasingly large antiwar demonstrations and occasional
draft card Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day un ...
burnings. In September 1966,
Vice President A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on t ...
Hubert Humphrey Hubert Horatio Humphrey Jr. (May 27, 1911 – January 13, 1978) was an American pharmacist and politician who served as the 38th vice president of the United States from 1965 to 1969. He twice served in the United States Senate, representing Mi ...
visited the campus, where he was met by student protest and opposition to the
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
. On March 25, 1968, a presidential primary campaign speech on campus by
Robert F. Kennedy Robert Francis Kennedy (November 20, 1925June 6, 1968), also known by his initials RFK and by the nickname Bobby, was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 64th United States Attorney General from January 1961 to September 1964, ...
drew an orderly crowd of 10,000 and mainly focused on his opposition to the
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
. Shortly thereafter, his opponent
Eugene McCarthy Eugene Joseph McCarthy (March 29, 1916December 10, 2005) was an American politician, writer, and academic from Minnesota. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1949 to 1959 and the United States Senate from 1959 to 1971. ...
also held a rally at the university which drew a crowd of 7,000 spectators; surprisingly smaller than the crowd of Robert Kennedy as campus polling indicated McCarthy was more popular. However, 1968 would not end quite so peacefully on the campus. The April assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in
Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...
, soon followed by the June
assassination of Robert F. Kennedy On June 5, 1968, Robert F. Kennedy was shot by Sirhan Sirhan shortly after midnight at the Ambassador Hotel, Los Angeles. He was pronounced dead at 1:44 a.m. PDT the following day. Kennedy was a senator from New York and a candidate ...
in Los Angeles, then the August
1968 Democratic National Convention The 1968 Democratic National Convention was held August 26–29 at the International Amphitheatre in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Earlier that year incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson had announced he would not seek reelection, thus making ...
in
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
, had led to a series of riots throughout the nation. On November 4, the assault of an
African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
student athlete by his white coach on the CSUN campus led a group of African American students to hold the acting college president and more than 30 staff members
hostage A hostage is a person seized by an abductor in order to compel another party, one which places a high value on the liberty, well-being and safety of the person seized, such as a relative, employer, law enforcement or government to act, or ref ...
in the Administration Building for several hours, pressing demands for greater outreach in minority enrollment and employment and the establishment of minority studies departments. No one was hurt and, under duress, the president agreed to their demands. After subsequent negotiations, minority enrollment was increased and both the Africana and Chicano/a departments were established. Despite an assurance of amnesty, 28 of the students involved were later charged with kidnapping, assault, conspiracy, and false imprisonment,Pamela Moreland
"Legacy of Turmoil: CSUN Looks Back at Years of Activism at Former Valley State College"
''Los Angeles Times'', April 22, 1988. Retrieved June 4, 2016.
John Chandler,
Professor's Chronicle Takes a Hard Look at History of CSUN
" ''Los Angeles Times'' (December 12, 1993)
according to scholar
Martha Biondi Martha Biondi is an American historian. She is the Lorraine H. Morton Professor of African American Studies and Professor of History at Northwestern University. Biography Biondi was raised in Connecticut. She received her B.A. from Barnard Coll ...
"the most serious crimes ever in the history of campus protest." 19 were convicted and 3 served time in state prison. Almost one month later, a fire started by an arsonist gutted the president's office. Furthermore, several massive antiwar demonstrations took place during 1969–1970, variously resulting in campus shutdowns, heavy police responses, violent clashes, hundreds of arrests, and in a few cases serious injuries to demonstrators. The last such demonstration was in May 1971, on the first anniversary of the
Kent State shootings The Kent State shootings, also known as the May 4 massacre and the Kent State massacre,"These would be the first of many probes into what soon became known as the Kent State Massacre. Like the Boston Massacre almost exactly two hundred years bef ...
.Neelofer Lodhy

''The Sundial'', December 9, 2013. Retrieved June 4, 2016.
Aside from the demonstrations, the university also catered to
hippie A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to different countries around ...
culture when
Janis Joplin Janis Lyn Joplin (January 19, 1943 – October 4, 1970) was an American singer and musician. One of the most successful and widely known Rock music, rock stars of her era, she was noted for her powerful mezzo-soprano vocals and "electric" stage ...
performed with
Big Brother and the Holding Company Big Brother and the Holding Company is an American rock band that formed in San Francisco in 1965 as part of the same psychedelic music scene that produced the Grateful Dead, Quicksilver Messenger Service, and Jefferson Airplane. After som ...
at what is now the
Matadome Premier America Credit Union Arena, formerly Matador Gymnasium, and formerly known by its nickname the Matadome, is a 2,500 seat, indoor multi-purpose stadium on the campus of California State University, Northridge in Northridge, California. T ...
on May 12, 1968. Additionally, the
Newport Pop Festival The Newport Pop Festival, held in Costa Mesa, California, on August 3–4, 1968, was the first music concert ever to have more than 100,000 paid attendees. Its sequel, billed as Newport 69, was held in Northridge, California, on June 20–22, 196 ...
was held at the
Devonshire Downs Devonshire Downs, sometimes informally called The Downs, was a horse racing track and multipurpose event facility in Northridge, California. It was located at the southwest corner of Devonshire Street and Zelzah Avenue, east of Reseda Boulevard. The ...
, now CSUN's North Campus, in June 1969 and attracted 200,000 attendees to watch performances by
Jimi Hendrix James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. Although his mainstream career spanned only four years, he is widely regarded as one of the most ...
,
Ike & Tina Turner Ike & Tina Turner were an American musical duo consisting of husband and wife Ike Turner and Tina Turner. From 1960 to 1976, they performed live as the Ike & Tina Turner Revue, supported by Ike Turner's band the Kings of Rhythm and backing vocal ...
,
Marvin Gaye Marvin Pentz Gay Jr., who also spelled his surname as Gaye (April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984), was an American singer and songwriter. He helped to shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player and later as a solo ar ...
, Jethro Tull and various others. Despite the turmoil during this period, the university continued to grow and construction of the
Oviatt Library The University Library at California State University, Northridge (CSUN) is located in Northridge, in the northern San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles, California. History Construction for the original library began on November 14, 1957, marki ...
began on May 19, 1971. The college also officially renamed itself to California State University, Northridge on June 1, 1972, by action of the Legislature and the Board of Trustees of the California State University.


1973–1988

On October 24, 1973, the
Oviatt Library The University Library at California State University, Northridge (CSUN) is located in Northridge, in the northern San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles, California. History Construction for the original library began on November 14, 1957, marki ...
was completed and opened. In 1975, the construction of the CSUN sculpture began at the southeast corner of campus after the design by alumnus John T. Banks. By 1977, enrollment at the university was 28,023, with tuition at $95. In 1981, the campus officially established a foreign exchange student program with Japan, China, Ukraine, South Korea, Taiwan, Brazil and the Netherlands. In 1988, the campus had an enrollment of 31,575 and a $342 tuition fee. In 1974, in partnership with
UC Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduates and 2,983 graduate students enrolled in 2021–2022. It is part of the U ...
, CSUN opened the Ventura Learning Center in Ventura. This became the CSUN Ventura Campus in 1988 and was spun off into
California State University, Channel Islands California State University Channel Islands (CSUCI, CSU Channel Islands) is a public university in Camarillo, California. It opened in 2002 as the 23rd campus in the California State University system. CSUCI is located on the Central Coast of C ...
in 1998.


1989–1997

In 1990, the Marilyn Magaram Center for Food Science, Nutrition and Dietetics was established; the
Oviatt Library The University Library at California State University, Northridge (CSUN) is located in Northridge, in the northern San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles, California. History Construction for the original library began on November 14, 1957, marki ...
east and west wings were added; and the campus could boast of having the California State University system's only fully established astronomy department with a planetarium. The
1994 Northridge earthquake The 1994 Northridge earthquake was a moment 6.7 (), blind thrust earthquake that occurred on January 17, 1994, at 4:30:55 a.m. PST in the San Fernando Valley region of the City of Los Angeles. The quake had a duration of approximately ...
struck on January 17 and caused $400 million in damage to the campus, the heaviest damage ever sustained by an American college campus. The epicenter was less than two miles (3 km) away on a previously undiscovered blind thrust fault. Later the same month, Vice President
Al Gore Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. Gore was the Democratic Part ...
visited with a promise of funds to help with the reconstruction. Entire sections of the main library, the art building and several other major structures were either physically unusable or too hazardous to occupy. Among the structures judged to be so seriously damaged that repair was not a practical option were the Fine Arts building, designed by noted modernist architect
Richard Neutra Richard Joseph Neutra ( ; April 8, 1892 – April 16, 1970) was an Austrian-American architect. Living and building for the majority of his career in Southern California, he came to be considered a prominent and important modernist architect. He ...
, and the South Library, the oldest permanent building on campus. The art courtyard survived. Due to inadequate earthquake engineering, the
parking structure A multistorey car park (British and Singapore English) or parking garage (American English), also called a multistory, parking building, parking structure, parkade (mainly Canadian), parking ramp, parking deck or indoor parking, is a build ...
next to the
Matadome Premier America Credit Union Arena, formerly Matador Gymnasium, and formerly known by its nickname the Matadome, is a 2,500 seat, indoor multi-purpose stadium on the campus of California State University, Northridge in Northridge, California. T ...
was completely destroyed. It is currently a grass field used for
kinesiology Kinesiology () is the scientific study of human body movement. Kinesiology addresses physiological, anatomical, biomechanical, pathological, neuropsychological principles and mechanisms of movement. Applications of kinesiology to human health ...
instruction, though the driveway formerly used to enter it is still visible from Zelzah Avenue. The large
American flag The national flag of the United States of America, often referred to as the ''American flag'' or the ''U.S. flag'', consists of thirteen equal horizontal stripes of red (top and bottom) alternating with white, with a blue rectangle in the c ...
atop the Oviatt Library was installed after the earthquake and has been flown ever since. In the aftermath of the 1994 earthquake, CSUN
civil engineering Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports, sewage ...
faculty and students took part in the research on earthquake protection of building structures, in particular, in the field of
seismic performance Seismic analysis is a subset of structural analysis and is the calculation of the response of a building (or nonbuilding) structure to earthquakes. It is part of the process of structural design, earthquake engineering or structural assessment ...
,
vibration control In earthquake engineering, vibration control is a set of technical means aimed to mitigate seismic impacts in building and non-building structures. All seismic vibration control devices may be classified as ''passive'', ''active'' or ''hybrid'' ...
, and
base isolation Seismic base isolation, also known as base isolation, or base isolation system, is one of the most popular means of protecting a structure against earthquake forces. It is a collection of structural elements which should substantially decoupl ...
. Despite the extensive damage, classes for the spring term started only two weeks late. The classes were held in rapidly constructed tents and temporary facilities, remaining campus buildings deemed safe for use, and local high schools, community colleges, and
UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...
while the campus was being rebuilt. On January 17, 1995, President
Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...
visited the campus to commemorate the first anniversary of the quake.


1997–2019

In April 1999, the Board of CSU trustees decided to give $27 million to construct post-earthquake projects. The university opened the first Central American Studies program in the nation in May 2000. In 2003, both University Hall and Manzanita Hall were opened, marking the completion of the earthquake recovery program. California State University trustees on March 15, 2006, voted their unanimous approval of Envision 2035, the Cal State Northridge planning initiative that framed 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 full-time equivalent students (FTEs). The trustees also certified the final environmental impact report on the plan. The university in 2007, with clean energy advocates, built the new 1 megawatt
fuel cell A fuel cell is an electrochemical cell that converts the chemical energy of a fuel (often hydrogen) and an oxidizing agent (often oxygen) into electricity through a pair of redox reactions. Fuel cells are different from most batteries in requ ...
power plant A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electrical grid. Many pow ...
which was the largest of its kind in any university in the world. The campus community maintained its legacy of activism when budget cuts and tuition fee hikes were announced during the
financial crisis of 2007–08 Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of fina ...
. Students formed the Students Against Rising Tuition group and protested while
Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...
Arnold Schwarzenegger Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger (born July 30, 1947) is an Austrian and American actor, film producer, businessman, retired professional bodybuilder and politician who served as the 38th governor of California between 2003 and 2011. ''Time'' ...
visited the campus in February 2008. Subsequently, students, staff and faculty protested further cuts introduced by the
Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...
later in the year. Protests against the budget cuts continued on March 4, 2010, when a statewide protest against the budget cuts was organized, with several professors cancelling class and large numbers of students leaving their classes to join the protests and march down
Reseda Boulevard Reseda Boulevard, named Reseda Avenue until May 1929, is a major north–south arterial road that runs through the western San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California. Reseda Boulevard runs approximately from the Santa Monica Mountai ...
. The protests resulted in several arrests, but in turn students raised allegations of abusive behavior from the police. Aside from the protests, politicians continued to visit the campus as in previous decades, this time with visits from 2008 Democratic presidential candidate
Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...
,
United States Senators The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and powe ...
Barbara Boxer Barbara Sue Boxer (née Levy; born November 11, 1940) is an American politician and lobbyist who served in the United States Senate, representing California from 1993 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, she previously served as the U.S. ...
and
Dianne Feinstein Dianne Goldman Berman Feinstein ( ; born Dianne Emiel Goldman; June 22, 1933) is an American politician who serves as the senior United States senator from California, a seat she has held since 1992. A member of the Democratic Party, she was ...
, and a visit in 2016 from future
Vice President A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on t ...
(then
Attorney General of California The attorney general of California is the state attorney general of the Government of California. The officer's duty is to ensure that "the laws of the state are uniformly and adequately enforced" (Constitution of California, Article V, Section ...
)
Kamala Harris Kamala Devi Harris ( ; born October 20, 1964) is an American politician and attorney who is the 49th vice president of the United States. She is the first female vice president and the highest-ranking female official in U.S. history, as well ...
. The turmoil and budget cuts did not prevent Envision 2035 from being executed. Projects completed as part of the plan included Chaparral Hall (completed in 2009), the Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts (opened in 2011), the Student Recreation Center (opened in 2012), the Transit Center (finished in 2012), the Extended University Commons building (completed in 2016), the AS Sustainability Center (finished in 2017), and Lilac Hall (opened in 2019). In the near future, CSUN also announced they were planning to build an on-campus hotel, to reconstruct the University Student Union, and to build a Center for Integrated Design & Manufacturing. It also extensively advocated for the planned North San Fernando Valley
Bus Rapid Transit Bus rapid transit (BRT), also called a busway or transitway, is a bus-based public transport system designed to have much more capacity, reliability and other quality features than a conventional bus system. Typically, a BRT system includes ...
project which would connect to CSUN. This period also saw increased donations to the university, with gift commitments reaching a record $31.7 million in 2018. Major donations included $7 million from
Michael Eisner Michael Dammann Eisner (born March 7, 1942) is an American businessman and former chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of The Walt Disney Company from September 1984 to September 2005. Prior to Disney, Eisner was president of rival film st ...
in 2002, $7.3 million from the Bayramian family estate in 2005, $10 million from
Mike Curb Michael Curb (born December 24, 1944) is an American musician, record company executive, motorsports car owner, philanthropist, and former politician. He is also the founder of Curb Records where he presently serves as the chairman. Curb also ...
in 2006, $10 million from
David Nazarian David Nazarian is an Iranian American businessman, investor and philanthropist. Early life David Nazarian was born circa 1961 in Iran.Dana BartholomewDavid Nazarian, 1982 CSUN graduate, gives university $10 million, aims to raise $15 million mor ...
in 2014, and a record $17 million from
Younes Nazarian Younes Nazarian (January 26, 1931 March 18, 2022) was a Jewish Iranian-American businessman, investor, and philanthropist. An early investor in Qualcomm, he was the Chairman of Nazarian Enterprises. He was also a major donor to charitable caus ...
in 2017. Various corporations like
Amazon Alexa Amazon Alexa, also known simply as Alexa, is a virtual assistant technology largely based on a Polish speech synthesiser named Ivona, bought by Amazon in 2013. It was first used in the Amazon Echo smart speaker and the Echo Dot, Echo Studio and ...
,
Autodesk Autodesk, Inc. is an American multinational software corporation that makes software products and services for the architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, media, education, and entertainment industries. Autodesk is headquartered ...
,
Ernst & Young Ernst & Young Global Limited, trade name EY, is a multinational professional services partnership headquartered in London, England. EY is one of the largest professional services networks in the world. Along with Deloitte, KPMG and Pricewaterh ...
, the
Hollywood Foreign Press Association The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) is a nonprofit organization of journalists and photographers who report on the Cinema of the United States, entertainment industry activity and interests in the United States for media (newspaper, ...
,
KPMG KPMG International Limited (or simply KPMG) is a multinational professional services network, and one of the Big Four accounting organizations. Headquartered in Amstelveen, Netherlands, although incorporated in London, England, KPMG is a net ...
and
NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...
also provided support to the university. This period also saw an increase in sponsored research. In 2019, a record 11,627 students graduated from the university. The same year, president
Dianne F. Harrison Dianne F. Harrison is a retired American university administrator and former social worker. She was the president of California State University, Monterey Bay from 2006 through 2012. In June 2012, she became the fifth president of California Sta ...
announced she would retire at the end of June 2020.


2020-present

Like many other universities around the U.S. and the world, CSUN was heavily affected by the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
. The university ceased in-person instruction on March 12, 2020, when the pandemic started to take hold in the United States. Two months later, the
California State University The California State University (Cal State or CSU) is a public university system in California. With 23 campuses and eight off-campus centers enrolling 485,550 students with 55,909 faculty and staff, CSU is the largest four-year public univers ...
was the first in the nation to announce that fall instruction would also be almost exclusively online. The university saw major revenue losses as a result of the pandemic and announced a budget cut in August 2020, despite receiving the 7th largest amount in the nation from the first wave of Covid relief funds under the
CARES Act The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, also known as the CARES Act, is a $2.2trillion Stimulus (economics), economic stimulus bill passed by the 116th U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Donald Trump on March 27, ...
. In total, CSUN received the most federal Covid relief funds ($265 million) out of all universities in California after the three waves of relief funds from the
CARES Act The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, also known as the CARES Act, is a $2.2trillion Stimulus (economics), economic stimulus bill passed by the 116th U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Donald Trump on March 27, ...
,
Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 () is a $2.3trillion spending bill that combines $900 billion in stimulus relief for the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States with a $1.4trillion omnibus spending bill for the 2021 federal fiscal yea ...
, and
American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, also called the COVID-19 Stimulus Package or American Rescue Plan, is a economic stimulus bill passed by the 117th United States Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden on March 11, 2021, to sp ...
. In January 2021, CSUN became a vaccination site. When the site closed in June of the same year, around 250,000 people had been vaccinated on the campus. CSUN received the two largest donations in its history in 2021. On June 15, 2021, the university announced it had received a donation of $40 million from
MacKenzie Scott MacKenzie Scott ('' née'' Tuttle, formerly Bezos; April 7, 1970) is an American novelist and philanthropist. As of September 2022, she has a net worth of US$33.4 billion, owing to a 4% stake in Amazon, the company founded by her ex-husband J ...
and her husband Dan Jewett; the largest gift from a single donor in its history. Three months later CSUN announced it had received the second largest donation in its history, $25 million, from
Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...
. The donation, combined with $25 million of state appropriations, would be used for the establishment and construction of a Global Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) Equity Innovation Hub. The hub will allow for collaboration from across the CSU and other
hispanic-serving institution A Hispanic-serving institution (HSI) is defined in federal law as an accredited, degree-granting, public or private nonprofit institution of higher education with 25% or more total undergraduate Hispanic or Latino full-time equivalent (FTE) stude ...
s to improve student success, equity, and prepare students from historically disadvantaged backgrounds for
STEM Stem or STEM may refer to: Plant structures * Plant stem, a plant's aboveground axis, made of vascular tissue, off which leaves and flowers hang * Stipe (botany), a stalk to support some other structure * Stipe (mycology), the stem of a mushro ...
careers. Moreover,
Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...
will provide technology, design support and creative support at the hub as the project matures. The
public–private partnership A public–private partnership (PPP, 3P, or P3) is a long-term arrangement between a government and private sector institutions.Hodge, G. A and Greve, C. (2007), Public–Private Partnerships: An International Performance Review, Public Administ ...
was made possible by political support from various state politicians, including Governor Gavin Newsom and Senator Alex Padilla, as well as an initial donation of $1 million from
Autodesk Autodesk, Inc. is an American multinational software corporation that makes software products and services for the architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, media, education, and entertainment industries. Autodesk is headquartered ...
.


Academics


Admissions

In the fall of 2018 there were 60,519 applicants, of which 31,102 were admitted for an acceptance rate of 51.4%. As of fall 2018, CSUN has the largest enrollment percentage of
Latino Latino or Latinos most often refers to: * Latino (demonym), a term used in the United States for people with cultural ties to Latin America * Hispanic and Latino Americans in the United States * The people or cultures of Latin America; ** Latin A ...
Americans that are not Mexican American in the Cal State system. These are Latino Americans with heritage from
Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...
,
South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...
and the
Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...
. In addition, CSUN has the third largest enrollment percentage of non-residents in the California State University system.


International students

For the academic year 2015–2016, the number of foreign students who attended U.S. institutions exceeded the one million mark. During the same year, CSUN was ranked as the number one Master's institution, having the highest number of international students in the United States. The total number of international students for that academic year totaled 3,924.


Colleges

CSUN is divided into nine colleges: *
Mike Curb Michael Curb (born December 24, 1944) is an American musician, record company executive, motorsports car owner, philanthropist, and former politician. He is also the founder of Curb Records where he presently serves as the chairman. Curb also ...
College of Arts, Media, & Communication *College of Humanities *College of Science and Mathematics *College of Social & Behavioral Sciences *
David Nazarian David Nazarian is an Iranian American businessman, investor and philanthropist. Early life David Nazarian was born circa 1961 in Iran.Dana BartholomewDavid Nazarian, 1982 CSUN graduate, gives university $10 million, aims to raise $15 million mor ...
College of Business & Economics * Michael D. Eisner College of Education *College of Engineering & Computer Science *College of Health & Human Development *Roland Tseng College of Extended Learning


Joint degrees

The university, in partnership with
Southwestern Law School Southwestern Law School is a private law school in Mid-Wilshire, Los Angeles. It is accredited by the American Bar Association and enrolls nearly 1,000 students. Its campus includes the Bullocks Wilshire building, an art deco National Register ...
, offers a dual B.A./J.D degree. The program allows students to graduate within six years instead of the traditional seven if both degrees were taken separately. The program began in fall 2014 with an estimated cohort size of 35 students. In addition, students accepted into the program receive an initial $10,000 Wildman/Schumacher entering student scholarship. Students in the program will have their first year of law school double count as their fourth year of undergraduate education. The Roland Tseng College of Extended Learning is 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.


Community College Collaboratives

CSUN offers a pathway program for academic progression in the field of Nursing that links CSUN with designated California Community College (CC) partners. This program enables students who are interested in attaining an ADN to earn a BSN degree in just years from starting the program. Students will be concurrently enrolled in both nursing programs, taking courses for their BSN while completing their associate degree at the community college. On completion of their ADN students will be able to complete their BSN in one year. Students must be accepted into an ADN program at one of the participating community colleges. The following California Community Colleges are currently partnered up with CSUN Nursing: Glendale Community College,
College of the Canyons College of the Canyons (COC) is a public community college in Santa Clarita, California. It comprises the Santa Clarita Community College District. The college is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges and has campus loca ...
,
Los Angeles Valley College Los Angeles Valley College (LAVC) is a public community college in Los Angeles, California. It is part of the Los Angeles Community College District. The college is adjacent to Grant High School in the neighborhood of Valley Glen. Often call ...
, and
Pierce College Pierce College may refer to: * Pierce College (Washington) * Los Angeles Pierce College ** Pierce College station See also * Peirce College * Franklin Pierce University Franklin Pierce University is a private university in Rindge, New Hampsh ...
.


Central American Studies Department

Central American Studies is an interdisciplinary academic space with an emphasis on the transnational character of Central America. The department is the only program to focus on Central Americans in the United States. The Central American Studies program was established in 2000 after years of lobbying were derailed by the 1994 Northridge earthquake. The program began with a minor which required 18 units for graduation and developed into a Bachelor of Arts program with 13 graduates in 2017.


Research

CSUN has long been recognized as a major supplier of PhD students by the
National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...
. The university ranked fifth in the number of undergraduate students who went on to earn a PhD in the category of master's colleges and universities in the 1999–2003 time frame (with a total of 264 alumni went on to earn a PhD in this time frame). The other universities in the top 5 of this category, with the exception of the
James Madison University James Madison University (JMU, Madison, or James Madison) is a public research university in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Founded in 1908 as the State Normal and Industrial School for Women at Harrisonburg, the institution was renamed Madison Coll ...
at fourth place, were also California State Universities. This trend has persisted in more recent years, with CSUN ranking 4th in this category in 2018 (with a total of 65 alumni who obtained a PhD in that year). As a result, alumni have become professors at
Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term ''Ivy League'' is typically used beyond the sports context to refer to the eight schools ...
institutions (including professor of
economics Economics () is the social science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and intera ...
and public affairs
Mark Watson Mark Andrew Watson (born 13 February 1980) is a British comedian and novelist. Early life Watson was born in Bristol to a Welsh mother and English father. He has younger twin sisters and a brother, Paul. He attended Bristol Grammar School, ...
at
Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...
, associate professor of surgery Michael F. Daily at
Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native A ...
, and associate professor of
services marketing Services marketing is a specialized branch of marketing which emerged as a separate field of study in the early 1980s, following the recognition that the unique characteristics of services required different strategies compared with the marketin ...
Robert Kwortnik at
Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...
) as well as various
Public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...
and
Hidden Ivies ''Hidden Ivies'' is a college educational guide with the most recent edition, ''The Hidden Ivies, 3rd Edition: 63 of America's Top Liberal Arts Colleges and Universities'', published in 2016, by Howard and Matthew Greene. Overview Howard and M ...
, and other prominent institutions like
New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...
. CSUN also has a high amount of research activity for a master's level university. Since 2015, CSUN receives around $35 million annually in research funding from over 210 awards each year. For the most recent fiscal year of 2018, CSUN received funding just shy of $35.5 million from 232 grants. The College of Math and Science at CSUN is the biggest recipient of grant money, with just over $10.5 million in funding in fiscal year 2018. Its faculty are published in numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals each year. To support research activities for both faculty and students, CSUN built a 10,000-square-foot research facility. Half of this building, named Lilac Hall, is currently occupied by The Health Equity Research & Education (HERE) Center, which is funded by a $22 million
NIH The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...
grant to support biomedical and
health equity Health equity arises from access to the social determinants of health, specifically from wealth, power and prestige. Individuals who have consistently been deprived of these three determinants are significantly disadvantaged from health inequiti ...
research at CSUN in the form of the BUILD PODER program; the other half of the building houses a
laser A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word "laser" is an acronym for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation". The fir ...
lab containing
femtosecond A femtosecond is a unit of time in the International System of Units (SI) equal to 10 or of a second; that is, one quadrillionth, or one millionth of one billionth, of a second. For context, a femtosecond is to a second as a second is to about 31. ...
lasers to study energy flows and electric charges in
nanomaterials * Nanomaterials describe, in principle, materials of which a single unit is sized (in at least one dimension) between 1 and 100 nm (the usual definition of nanoscale). Nanomaterials research takes a materials science-based approach to nan ...
, with the intention to design more efficient solar energy devices and nanomaterial-based
photothermal therapy Photothermal therapy (PTT) refers to efforts to use electromagnetic radiation (most often in infrared wavelengths) for the treatment of various medical conditions, including cancer. This approach is an extension of photodynamic therapy, in which a ...
for cancer treatment. Another major research program at CSUN is the CSUN-UCLA Bridges to Stem Cell Research program. This ongoing collaboration allows undergraduate students to perform research in one of 50
stem cell In multicellular organisms, stem cells are undifferentiated or partially differentiated cells that can differentiate into various types of cells and proliferate indefinitely to produce more of the same stem cell. They are the earliest type o ...
research labs headed by UCLA faculty. CSUN has also been collaborating with the Princeton Center for Complex Materials at
Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...
since 2006. It is also a co-founder and partner institution of the Research Center for Translational Applications of Nanoscale Multiferroic Systems (TANMS), which was established at
UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...
through an $18.5 million
NSF NSF may stand for: Political organizations *National Socialist Front, a Swedish National Socialist party *NS-Frauenschaft, the women's wing of the former German Nazi party *National Students Federation, a leftist Pakistani students' political gr ...
grant in 2012. Other institutions involved at the center include
Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...
,
University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
,
ETH Zurich (colloquially) , former_name = eidgenössische polytechnische Schule , image = ETHZ.JPG , image_size = , established = , type = Public , budget = CHF 1.896 billion (2021) , rector = Günther Dissertori , president = Joël Mesot , ac ...
,
University of Texas at Dallas The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD or UT Dallas) is a public research university in Richardson, Texas. It is one of the largest public universities in the Dallas area and the northernmost institution of the University of Texas system. It wa ...
and
Northeastern University Northeastern University (NU) is a private university, private research university with its main campus in Boston. Established in 1898, the university offers undergraduate and graduate programs on its main campus as well as satellite campuses in ...
. In 2019, the university received $3 million from
NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...
to establish the NASA Autonomy Research Center for STEAHM. The interdisciplinary research center will comprehensively study increasingly autonomous (IA) systems, such as
artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech re ...
and
automation Automation describes a wide range of technologies that reduce human intervention in processes, namely by predetermining decision criteria, subprocess relationships, and related actions, as well as embodying those predeterminations in machines ...
, through the collaboration between six of the university's colleges, while also collaborating with researchers from NASA's
Armstrong Flight Research Center The NASA Neil A. Armstrong Flight Research Center (AFRC) is an aeronautical research center operated by NASA. Its primary campus is located inside Edwards Air Force Base in California and is considered NASA's premier site for aeronautical res ...
and
Jet Propulsion Laboratory The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center in the City of La Cañada Flintridge, California, United States. Founded in the 1930s by Caltech researchers, JPL is owned by NASA an ...
. CSUN is also home to the San Fernando Observatory. It has operated this
observatory An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial, marine, or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geophysical, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed. His ...
since 1976 and moved the observatory from its location in
Sylmar Sylmar is a suburban neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley and is the northernmost neighborhood within the City of Los Angeles. Historically known for its profusion of sylvan olive orchards, Sylmar can trace its past to the 18th century and th ...
to the campus in 2016. The observatory mainly functions as a solar observatory, and due to its decades long operation by CSUN, has allowed hundreds of students and faculty members to collect solar data. The photometric images from this facility are used to determine energy changes in the sun and the data collected by this observatory are used by researchers worldwide. The observatory, in combination with the Donald E. Bianchi Planetarium and the stellar (night time) observatory, form the only comprehensive astronomy network in the entire California State University system. Additionally, over 70 CSUN Engineering and Computer Science students designed, built, programmed, and tested a
CubeSat A CubeSat is a class of miniaturized satellite based around a form factor consisting of cubes. CubeSats have a mass of no more than per unit, and often use commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components for their electronics and structure. CubeSats ...
named CSUNSat1, which was funded by
NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...
's Small Spacecraft Technology Partnership program. Its mission is to test a low temperature-capable energy storage system in space, developed by JPL, which will raise the technology readiness level of this storage system from 4 or 5 to 7. The success of this energy storage system will enable future space missions and scientific studies to conduct more experiments while requiring less energy, mass, and volume. The satellite was launched on 18 April 2017 as part of the ELaNa 17 mission by NASA on the
Cygnus CRS OA-7 OA-7, previously known as Orbital-7, is the eighth flight of the Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems, Orbital ATK Cargo spacecraft, uncrewed resupply spacecraft Cygnus (spacecraft), Cygnus and its seventh flight to the International Space Stat ...
from
Kennedy Space Center The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC, originally known as the NASA Launch Operations Center), located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) ten field centers. Since December 1968 ...
in
Cape Canaveral , image = cape canaveral.jpg , image_size = 300 , caption = View of Cape Canaveral from space in 1991 , map = Florida#USA , map_width = 300 , type =Cape , map_caption = Location in Florida , location ...
to the
ISS The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (J ...
. The satellite was deployed by
NanoRacks Nanoracks LLC is a private in-space services companywhich builds space hardware and in-space repurposing tools.The company also facilitates experiments and launches of CubeSats to Low Earth Orbit. Nanoracks's main office is in Houston, Tex ...
on May 17, 2017, and the nominal and cold temperature experiments were completed on June 18, 2017. The satellite is still operational and proceeding with its mission operations. Various faculty members have been awarded prestigious
Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...
s for research and creative activity, while over 50 have won Fulbright awards to conduct research or teach abroad. Recipients of the
Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...
s have included Kim Victoria Abeles,
Judy Baca Judith Francisca Baca (born September 20, 1946) is an American artist, activist, and professor of Chicano studies, world arts, and cultures based at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is the co-founder and artistic director of the So ...
, and
Sabina Magliocco Sabina Magliocco (born December 30, 1959), is a professor of anthropology and religion at the University of British Columbia and formerly at California State University, Northridge (CSUN). She is an author of non-fiction books and journal article ...
.


Rankings and Recognition

* The 2023 USNWR Best Regional Colleges West Rankings ranks Northridge 13 on Top Public Schools, 15 on Top Performers on Social Mobility. * The
Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
ranked CSUN 2 on Most Diverse Learning Environment in the Nation and
Sierra Magazine The Sierra Club is an environmental organization with chapters in all 50 United States, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. The club was founded on May 28, 1892, in San Francisco, California, by Scottish-American preservationist John Muir, who be ...
35 on Sustainable "Cool Schools." * The 2022 USNWR Best Regional Colleges West Rankings ranks Northridge 13 on best
Undergraduate Undergraduate education is education conducted after secondary education and before postgraduate education. It typically includes all postsecondary programs up to the level of a bachelor's degree. For example, in the United States, an entry-lev ...
Teaching, 18 on Top Public Schools, 19 on Top Performers on Social Mobility. * Money Magazine ranked CSUN 45th in the nation out of the nearly 750 schools it included for its 2020-21 Best Colleges ranking. It also ranked the university 29th among the nation's public colleges. * CSUN was ranked 730th globally among universities by the 2020
Nature Index The Nature Index is a database that tracks institutions and countries and their scientific output since its introduction in November, 2014. Each year, Nature Index ranks the leading institutions (which can be companies, universities, government agen ...
for the share of publications in high-impact journals. * CSUN has been consistently recognized as having one of the best film schools in the U.S. and in the world. Its music school holds the same recognition. * In 2020, ''
Washington Monthly ''Washington Monthly'' is a bimonthly, nonprofit magazine of United States politics and government that is based in Washington, D.C. The magazine is known for its annual ranking of American colleges and universities, which serves as an alternat ...
'' ranked CSUN 6th for "Best Bang for the Buck" out of 215 schools in the U.S. western region. * Forbes ranked CSUN 92nd in its 2019 ranking of America's Best Value Colleges out of the 300 universities that were included. * CSUN was ranked 4th in the United States by the Social Mobility Index 2020 college rankings. * CSUN was ranked 3rd in the nation and 1st in California in the amount of bachelor's degrees awarded to Hispanics. CSUN was also ranked 10th nationally and 4th in California in the amount of master's degrees awarded to Hispanics. * As of 2021, CSUN ranked 9th among the top 25 undergraduate schools whose alumni pass the California Bar Exam (1st among the CSU campuses), accounting for almost 4,000 attorneys. * The undergraduate engineering program ranked fifth among California public colleges (Masters level) and fourteenth among U.S. public colleges. * CSUN, in collaboration with the
LA Cleantech Incubator LA Cleantech Incubator (LACI) is the City of Los Angeles's official cleantech business incubator established to accelerate the commercialization of clean technology and job creation in the Los Angeles region. LACI's staff of entrepreneurs, market ...
(LACI), ranked 10th worldwide as a top business incubator in 2017/2018. LACI also collaborates with
UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...
,
Caltech The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...
,
USC USC most often refers to: * University of South Carolina, a public research university ** University of South Carolina System, the main university and its satellite campuses **South Carolina Gamecocks, the school athletic program * University of ...
, and
California State University, Los Angeles California State University, Los Angeles (Cal State LA) is a public university in Los Angeles, California. It is part of the 23-campus California State University (CSU) system. Cal State LA offers 142 bachelor's degrees, 122 master's degrees, ...
. * The College of Business and Economics has been recognized by the U.S. Department of Commerce for its vital role in promoting international trade in the Los Angeles area. * In 2018, CSUN was designated as an Innovation and Economic Prosperity (IEP) University by the APLU.


Campus


Locations of interest

The CSUN Botanic Garden is located in the southeast quad, near the intersection of Zelzah Avenue and Nordhoff Street. It is part of the Biology Department for university curriculum, and also a regionally important demonstration
garden A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate both ...
and educational resource for the community. It has new focus projects for plants usable for regionally local
sustainable landscaping Sustainable landscaping is a modern type of gardening or landscaping that takes the environmental issue of sustainability into account. According to Loehrlein in 2009 this includes design, construction and management of residential and commercial g ...
using
sustainable gardening Sustainable gardening includes the more specific sustainable landscapes, sustainable landscape design, sustainable landscaping, sustainable landscape architecture, resulting in sustainable sites. It comprises a disparate group of horticultural int ...
techniques and studying and 'planting'
ethnobotany Ethnobotany is the study of a region's plants and their practical uses through the traditional knowledge of a local culture and people. An ethnobotanist thus strives to document the local customs involving the practical uses of local flora for m ...
insights and links. One of the few remaining
historic History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...
()
orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower *Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum * ...
groves is thriving on the southeastern campus quad. The citrus industry formerly had groves covering much of the
San Fernando Valley The San Fernando Valley, known locally as the Valley, is an urbanized valley in Los Angeles County, California. Located to the north of the Los Angeles Basin, it contains a large portion of the City of Los Angeles, as well as unincorporated ar ...
. The rows of large eucalyptus trees, historic windbreaks for agricultural fields from the late 19th century, are found towering over the perimeters of the campus, surviving planners developing campus expansions with valor.


University Library

The CSUN University 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 University Library, a state-of-the-art facility. There are over 2,500 seats for in-house study. Of note are the Learning Commons, the Creative Media Studio, 5 computer equipped library instruction labs, and over 150 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 online electronic information and archives 24 hours a day for students and the public at the University Library Digital Collections. The library also maintains its own AS/RS ( Automated Storage and Retrieval System) with the capacity of 1.7 million volumes. The University Library has a physical collection containing 1.3 million volumes, of which over one million are books, and over 245,000 bound periodical volumes. The library subscribes to over 84,000 online journals, 200 online databases and more than 500,000 ebooks. The microform collection contains 3.1 million pieces. There are over 14,000 sound recordings and over 60,000 film and video recordings. The Special Collections & Archives section of the University Library has a large collection of materials on Human Sexuality—possibly the "second largest private collection on human sexuality" behind the
Kinsey Institute The Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction (often shortened to The Kinsey Institute) is a research institute at Indiana University. Established in Bloomington, Indiana, in 1947 as a nonprofit, the institute merged with Indi ...
. In addition, the Teacher Curriculum Center provides a circulating collection of curricular materials for education students and local educators. In 2019, CSUN president
Dianne F. Harrison Dianne F. Harrison is a retired American university administrator and former social worker. She was the president of California State University, Monterey Bay from 2006 through 2012. In June 2012, she became the fifth president of California Sta ...
appointed a campus committee to investigate whether the Oviatt Library should be renamed due to allegations of racism. In fall 2020, the Oviatt Library Advisory Working Group presented its findings to President Harrison, the Associated Students Senate, and the CSUN Faculty Senate, recommending that the name of Delmar T. Oviatt be removed from the University Library. After approval from CSU Chancellor Timothy White, the name was changed to ''University Library'' in December 2020.


Other collections

Other campus departments and centers with collections: * The Aronstam Library, devoted to communication studies research and scholarship for Communication Studies Department undergraduate, graduate, and faculty members * The geography department holds a large collection of
Sanborn maps Sanborn maps are detailed maps of U.S. cities and towns in the 19th and 20th centuries. Originally published by The Sanborn Map Company (Sanborn), the maps were created to allow fire insurance companies to assess their total liability in urbaniz ...
* The Script Library in Manzanita Hall features over 800 screenplays


Earthquake Sculpture Garden

Opened in 2003, the Earthquake Sculpture Garden was created as a means to commemorate those affected by the 1994 Northridge earthquake. This small patch of land, adjacent to the campus bookstore, features actual remnants of the collapsed parking structure weaved into the foliage. The artist, Marjorie Berkson Sievers a CSUN graduate, took inspiration from Peru and its natural architecture. Despite its age, the garden continues to pay homage to the earthquake that majorly impacted the campus and the adjacent community.


Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts

The Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts (formerly the Valley Performing Arts Center) is a performance venue completed in 2011 at a cost of $125 million. Its 166,000 sq. ft. houses a 1,700-seat three-tier concert hall and a 175-seat black box theater, as well as rehearsal rooms, academic and production support spaces, classrooms, and a lecture hall. In 2017,
Younes Nazarian Younes Nazarian (January 26, 1931 March 18, 2022) was a Jewish Iranian-American businessman, investor, and philanthropist. An early investor in Qualcomm, he was the Chairman of Nazarian Enterprises. He was also a major donor to charitable caus ...
and his wife, Soraya Nazarian, donated $17 million to rename the Valley Performing Arts Center to the Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts, also known a
The Soraya


Student Recreation Center

The Student Recreation Center is a 138,000 square foot facility for exercise and leisure activity. The facility opened in January 2012 after 24 months of construction and cost a total of $62,354,790. The Student Recreation Center was originally named the Fitness Centre and it opened its doors in 1995.


University Student Union

The University Student Union or USU, is a non-profit student organization that strives to better the college experience. The USU provides a variety of involvement opportunities, programs, services, and job opportunities. In July 2019, it was announced that the USU complex will be reconstructed and expanded. The project is named "The New Heart of Campus" and will cost an estimated $130 million to both replace the old USU complex with a new three story, 79,800-square-foot complex and renovate an additional 49,900 square feet. This project will be financed by both an additional student fee and $24 million in reserves from the University Student Union itself. Construction is set to begin in spring 2020 and the estimated opening date will be in the 2022–2023 academic year.


Pride Center

The California State University, Northridge, Pride Center or CSUN Pride Center is an LGBTQIA+ organization located in the University Student Union that supports students of all orientations. The Pride Center officially opened its doors on September 27, 2012.


Veteran Resource Center

The Veteran Resource Center (VRC) is located within the University Student Union (USU). The VRC is a designated area for veteran students to seek camaraderie and support as they transition from military service to academia. The VRC has a variety of resources such as: several desktop computers, a rest area, sitting area, and a TV for community use. The VRC is open to all CSUN students. A service provided by the Veteran Resource Center is their Mentoring Program. The Veteran Mentor Program provides support and excellent resources to Veteran students. The goal is to help Veterans transition from military service to college life as students at CSUN. The mentor program will meet with the Veteran throughout the semester, offering referrals and to serve as positive role models. The program provides someone with shared experiences, connection with other CSUN students and programs.


Oasis Wellness Center

The Oasis Wellness Center is located beneath the USU computer lab and next to the Plaza Pool. The Oasis Wellness Center opened in the fall semester of August 2015 with the sole purpose of providing students with a place of peace and tranquility in order to help achieve academic success. Some programs and services provided at the Oasis Wellness Center include massage therapy, power-napping sleep pods, by appointment, nutrition classes and yoga. The Oasis Wellness Center is open to all CSUN students.


CSUN Food Pantry

The CSUN Food Pantry's ultimate goal is to help students in need by providing basic emergency necessities like food and personal care items. It's free of cost with no questions asked. It's to help students in need so their academic success isn't affected by these situations. Having over 40,000 students on campus this service opened up in August 2017. The pantry is in Laurel Hall. This is open to any CSUN student, staff/faculty and local community members.


National Center on Deafness

The
National Center on Deafness The National Center on Deafness is an American educational institution aimed at facilitating the education of deaf students. The facilities of the National Center on Deafness are located on the campus of California State University, Northridge, Lo ...
was established in 1972 as a way to serve deaf students at the university. Support services such as sign language interpreters, '' real-time captioners'', and notetakers are coordinated from this center, as well as serving as a location of academic advisement and gathering of deaf students. For the 2008 Fall semester, approximately 200 deaf students were served by the National Center on Deafness. Since 1988 the Strache Leadership Award has been awarded at the CSUN Conference for leadership in the field of disability and technology. The award recognizes the role of education and mentorship while remaining a leader in their field. Since 2013 the CSUN Conference has issued a Call for Papers and selected papers become part of the ''Journal on Technology & Persons with Disabilities''. In 2018, Journal began providing awards for The Dr. Arthur I. Karshmer Award for Assistive Technology Research for leading researchers in the
Assistive Technology Assistive technology (AT) is a term for assistive, adaptive, and rehabilitative devices for people with disabilities and the elderly. Disabled people often have difficulty performing activities of daily living (ADLs) independently, or even with ...
,
Accessibility Accessibility is the design of products, devices, services, vehicles, or environments so as to be usable by people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design and practice of accessible development ensures both "direct access" (i. ...
and
Inclusion Inclusion or Include may refer to: Sociology * Social inclusion, aims to create an environment that supports equal opportunity for individuals and groups that form a society. ** Inclusion (disability rights), promotion of people with disabiliti ...
.


Film and television shoots

Because of its proximity to Hollywood and its diverse array of
modern architecture Modern architecture, or modernist architecture, was an architectural movement or architectural style based upon new and innovative technologies of construction, particularly the use of glass, steel, and reinforced concrete; the idea that form ...
, the campus has long been an attractive
filming location A filming location is a place where some or all of a film or television series is produced, in addition to or instead of using sets constructed on a movie studio backlot or soundstage. In filmmaking, a location is any place where a film crew wil ...
for motion picture and television productions. An early example is the 1966 film ''
The Glass Bottom Boat ''The Glass Bottom Boat'' is a 1966 American romantic spy comedy film directed by Frank Tashlin and starring Doris Day, Rod Taylor, and Arthur Godfrey, with John McGiver, Paul Lynde, Edward Andrews, Eric Fleming, Dom DeLuise, and Dick Martin. ...
'', for which parts of Sierra Hall and the Engineering Building were temporarily dressed up as
NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...
facilities. It has appeared in ''
American Idol ''American Idol'' is an American singing competition television series created by Simon Fuller, produced by Fremantle North America and 19 Entertainment, and distributed by Fremantle North America. It aired on Fox from June 11, 2002, to Ap ...
'', ''
Arrested Development The term "arrested development" has had multiple meanings for over 200 years. In the field of medicine, the term "arrested development" was first used, ''circa'' 1835–1836, to mean a stoppage of physical development; the term continues to be use ...
'', '' Ringer'', ''
Chuck Chuck is a masculine given name or a nickname for Charles or Charlie. It may refer to: People Arts and entertainment * Chuck Alaimo, American saxophonist, leader of the Chuck Alaimo Quartet * Chuck Barris (1929–2017), American TV producer * C ...
'', '' Dexter'', ''
My Name Is Earl ''My Name Is Earl'' is an American television sitcom created by Greg Garcia that aired on the NBC television network from September 20, 2005, to May 14, 2009, in the United States. It was produced by 20th Century Fox Television and starred Jaso ...
'', ''
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation ''CSI: Crime Scene Investigation'', also referred to as ''CSI'' and ''CSI: Las Vegas'', is an American procedural forensics crime drama television series that ran on CBS from October 6, 2000, to September 27, 2015, spanning 15 seasons. This wa ...
'',
Criminal Minds ''Criminal Minds'' is an American police procedural crime drama television series created and produced by Jeff Davis (writer), Jeff Davis. The series premiered on CBS on September 22, 2005, and originally concluded on February 19, 2020; it was r ...
, '' Commander in Chief'', ''
Van Wilder ''National Lampoon's Van Wilder'' (released internationally as ''Van Wilder: Party Liaison'' and ''Party Animals'') is a 2002 American comedy film directed by Walt Becker and written by Brent Goldberg and David T. Wagner. The film stars Ryan Re ...
,'' '' Six Feet Under'', ''
The Karate Kid ''The Karate Kid'' is a 1984 American martial arts drama film written by Robert Mark Kamen and directed by John G. Avildsen. It is the first installment in the ''Karate Kid'' franchise, and stars Ralph Macchio, Pat Morita, Elisabeth Shue and W ...
'', ''
Battlestar Galactica ''Battlestar Galactica'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Glen A. Larson. The franchise began with the Battlestar Galactica (1978 TV series), original television series in 1978, and was followed by a short-run sequel se ...
'', ''
The Office ''The Office'' is a mockumentary sitcom created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, first made in the United Kingdom, then Germany, and subsequently the United States. It has since been remade in ten other countries. The original series of ...
'', ''
McMillan & Wife ''McMillan & Wife'' (known simply as ''McMillan'' from 1976–77) is an American police procedural television series that aired on NBC from September 17, 1971, to April 24, 1977. Starring Rock Hudson and Susan Saint James in the title roles, the ...
'', ''
Son in Law In law and in cultural anthropology, affinity is the kinship relationship created or that exists between two people as a result of someone's marriage. It is the relationship which each party to a marriage has to the relations of the other part ...
'', '' Bring It On: Fight to the Finish'', ''
Legally Blonde 2 ''Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde'' (also referred to simply as ''Legally Blonde 2'') is a 2003 American comedy film directed by Charles Herman-Wurmfeld and written by Kate Kondell. It is a sequel to the 2001 film ''Legally Blonde'' and the ...
'', ''
Buffy the Vampire Slayer ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' is an American supernatural fiction, supernatural drama television series created by writer and director Joss Whedon. It is based on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer (film), 1992 film of the same name, also written by W ...
'', '' Roswell'', ''
The Nick Cannon Show ''The Nick Cannon Show'' is an American comedy television series and a spin-off of ''All That''. It aired on Nickelodeon's SNICK block from January 12, 2002, to February 22, 2003, along with ''All That'', '' The Amanda Show'' and '' Taina''. Th ...
'', ''
Quincy, M.E. ''Quincy, M.E.'' (also called ''Quincy'') is an American mystery medical drama television series from Universal Studios that aired on NBC from October 3, 1976, to May 11, 1983. Jack Klugman starred in the title role as a Los Angeles County med ...
'', ''
Georgia Rule ''Georgia Rule'' is a 2007 American comedy-drama film directed by Garry Marshall, written by Mark Andrus, and starring Jane Fonda, Lindsay Lohan, Felicity Huffman, Dermot Mulroney, Cary Elwes, and Garrett Hedlund. The original score was composed ...
'', and '' Sky High'' (in which the Oviatt Library is prominently featured). The Barry Levinson-directed ''
What Just Happened What Just Happened may refer to: * ''What Just Happened'' (2008 film), an American comedy-drama film directed by Barry Levinson and starring Robert De Niro * ''What Just Happened'' (2018 film), a Nigerian comedy film directed by Charles Uwagbai * ...
'' was filmed at the Oviatt Library and featured
Robert De Niro Robert Anthony De Niro Jr. ( , ; born August 17, 1943) is an American actor. Known for his collaborations with Martin Scorsese, he is considered to be one of the best actors of his generation. De Niro is the recipient of various accolades ...
and
Sean Penn Sean Justin Penn (born August 17, 1960) is an American actor and film director. He has won two Academy Awards, for his roles in the mystery drama ''Mystic River'' (2003) and the biopic ''Milk'' (2008). Penn began his acting career in televisi ...
. The pilot of the remake of the television series "
Knight Rider ''Knight Rider'' is an American entertainment franchise created by Glen A. Larson. The core of ''Knight Rider'' is its three television series: the original ''Knight Rider'' (1982–1986) and sequel series ''Team Knight Rider'' (1997–1998) ...
" filmed a car chase on the campus, which stood in for Stanford University. During the spring break of 2008, the library served as Starfleet Academy for ''
Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the eponymous 1960s television series and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has expanded into vari ...
'' (2009 version). The parking lots to the north of the campus were featured in the movie '' Superbad''. In September 2014, CSUN's Matador Bookstore and Oviatt Library served as backdrops for the
Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...
movie ''We Are Your Friends'', starring
Zac Efron Zachary David Alexander Efron (; born October 18, 1987) is an American actor. He began acting professionally in the early 2000s and rose to prominence in the late 2000s for his leading role as Troy Bolton in the ''High School Musical'' trilo ...
. In the Fall of 2016, CSUN's Citrus Hall, Jerome Richfield Hall, and Sierra Quad were featured in the television series ''Lucifer''. The Valley Performing Arts Center saw extensive use in the web-series
VGHS ''Video Game High School'' (often abbreviated ''VGHS'') is an American action comedy web series from RocketJump Studios. It was written by Matthew Arnold, Will Campos and Brian Firenzi and directed by Matthew Arnold, Brandon Laatsch, and Freddie ...
. With one of the most recent filming of
The Orville ''The Orville'' is an American science fiction comedy-drama television series created by Seth MacFarlane, who also stars as series protagonist Ed Mercer, an officer in the Planetary Union's line of exploratory space vessels in the 25th century ...
, Season 2, a
Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...
show starring
Seth MacFarlane Seth Woodbury MacFarlane (; born October 26, 1973) is an American actor, animator, filmmaker, comedian, and singer. He is the creator and star of the television series ''Family Guy'' (since 1999) and ''The Orville'' (since 2017), and co-creator ...
was filmed in front of The Oviatt Library in April 2017. Following the filming of
The Good Place ''The Good Place'' is an American fantasy comedy television series created by Michael Schur. It premiered on NBC on September 19, 2016, and concluded on January 30, 2020, after four seasons and 53 episodes. Although the plot evolves significa ...
, an
NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...
TV show that is a comedy fiction series created by
Michael Schur Michael Herbert Schur (born 1975) is an American television producer, writer, director and actor. He was a producer and writer for the comedy series ''The Office'', and co-created ''Parks and Recreation'' with ''Office'' producer Greg Daniels. ...
, various cast members, including
Kristen Bell Kristen Anne Bell (born July 18, 1980) is an American actress. Beginning her acting career by starring in stage productions while attending the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, she made her Broadway stage debut as Becky That ...
and
Ted Danson Edward Bridge "Ted" Danson III (born December 29, 1947) is an American actor. He achieved stardom playing the lead character Sam Malone on the NBC sitcom ''Cheers'', for which he received two Primetime Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards. He ...
, were spotted at CSUN. The Good Place Season 3 was filmed on campus in April 2018: exterior shots include Bayramian Hall, Manzanita Hall and the Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts (formerly known as the Valley Performing Arts Center); interior shots include Noski Auditorium and the Extended University Commons.


Athletics

CSUN field
19 teams
at the
NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...
Division I level. CSUN fields both men's and women's teams in
basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...
, cross country,
golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...
,
soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
, indoor and outdoor
track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...
, and
volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...
. CSUN also has
baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...
and
softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...
and fields women's teams in
beach volleyball Beach volleyball is a team sport played by two teams of two or more players on a sand court divided by a net. Similar to indoor volleyball, the objective of the game is to send the ball over the net and to ground it on the opponent's side of the ...
,
tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...
and
water polo Water polo is a competitive team sport played in water between two teams of seven players each. The game consists of four quarters in which the teams attempt to score goals by throwing the ball into the opposing team's goal. The team with the ...
. Due to state and university budget deficits, CSUN dropped
football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
following the 2001 season. The football team cost the university $1 million a year and had little fan support. CSUN also dropped men's and women's swimming in 2010 due to a statewide and campus budget crisis. CSUN is one of only 45 schools in the nation that has a
beach volleyball Beach volleyball is a team sport played by two teams of two or more players on a sand court divided by a net. Similar to indoor volleyball, the objective of the game is to send the ball over the net and to ground it on the opponent's side of the ...
program. CSUN moved up to Division I in 1990. Before moving up, the university won 34 national titles at the Division II level which still ranks third all time. CSUN was a member of the
Big Sky Conference The Big Sky Conference (BSC) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division I with football competing in the Football Championship Subdivision. Member institutions are located in the western United States in the eigh ...
from 1996 to 2001. They have been a member of the
Big West Conference The Big West Conference (BWC) is an American collegiate athletic conference whose member institutions participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I. The conference was originally formed on July 1, 1969, as the Pacific ...
ever since for most sports. The men's and women's indoor
track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...
teams and the men's
volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...
team compete in the
Mountain Pacific Sports Federation The Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) is a college athletic conference with members located mostly in the western United States, although it now has members as far east as Pennsylvania. The conference participates at the NCAA Division I ...
instead. Since moving up to Division I CSUN has produced two NCAA national runner-up teams: the men's volleyball team in 1993 and softball team in 1994. The Matadors softball team has appeared in three
Women's College World Series The Women's College World Series (WCWS) is the final portion of the NCAA Division I softball tournament for college softball in the United States. Eight teams participate in the WCWS, which begins with a double-elimination tournament. In other wo ...
in 1981, 1993 and 1994, advancing to the title game in
1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...
before falling to Arizona. In 2010 the men's volleyball team spent several weeks as the number one ranked team in the nation and also made the Final Four but lost to
Penn State #Redirect Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campu ...
in a semi-final match. The men's basketball team has made it to the NCAA tournament two times in 2001 and 2009. The team made it to three Big Sky championship games in 1997, 2000 and 2001. CSUN beat
Eastern Washington Eastern Washington is the region of the U.S. state of Washington located east of the Cascade Range. It contains the city of Spokane (the second largest city in the state), the Tri-Cities, the Columbia River and the Grand Coulee Dam, the Hanfor ...
in 2001 to advance to their first NCAA tournament. CSUN was seeded 13th and lost to the fourth seed
Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...
in the round of 64. CSUN has played in two Big West championship games in 2004 and 2009. CSUN beat
Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...
in 2009 and was seeded 15th in the NCAA tournament and lost to the second seed
Memphis Memphis most commonly refers to: * Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt * Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city Memphis may also refer to: Places United States * Memphis, Alabama * Memphis, Florida * Memphis, Indiana * Memp ...
. The women's basketball team won the Big West Championship for the first time in 2014. They were the 16th seed in the NCAA tournament and lost to the first seed
South Carolina )''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...
. CSUN men's Soccer reached the 3rd Round of the 2006 NCAA tournament, knocking out Big West Conference rival
UC Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduates and 2,983 graduate students enrolled in 2021–2022. It is part of the U ...
in the 2nd Round. The Women's Track and Field team won six straight Big West titles from 2006 to 2011. The men's Track and Field team has won three Big West titles in 2007, 2009 and 2010. The men's and Women's Basketball and Volleyball teams all play in the 2,500 seats
Matadome Premier America Credit Union Arena, formerly Matador Gymnasium, and formerly known by its nickname the Matadome, is a 2,500 seat, indoor multi-purpose stadium on the campus of California State University, Northridge in Northridge, California. T ...
located in Redwood Hall. CSUN's sports teams are known as the
Matador A bullfighter (or matador) is a performer in the activity of bullfighting. ''Torero'' () or ''toureiro'' (), both from Latin ''taurarius'', are the Spanish and Portuguese words for bullfighter and describe all the performers in the activit ...
s. In 1958 a student vote chose the school colors red and white and 'Matadors' as the school mascot over 158 nominations for possible nicknames. Matadors was elected over four other finalists Apollos, Falcons, Rancheros and Titans. The men's and women's boxing teams compete in the
National Collegiate Boxing Association The National Collegiate Boxing Association (NCBA) is a non-profit college sports organization that organizes boxing fights for student athletes. The association falls under the auspices of USA Boxing. After 1960, the NCAA no longer sanctioned box ...
. CSU hosted the 2016 national championships for the United States Intercollegiate Boxing Association. The CSUN
Esports Esports, short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, individually or as teams. Although orga ...
Club currently hosts several teams for a variety of competitive video games such as
League of Legends ''League of Legends'' (''LoL''), commonly referred to as ''League'', is a 2009 multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published by Riot Games. Inspired by ''Defense of the Ancients'', a Mod (video games), custom map for War ...
,
Overwatch ''Overwatch'' is a multimedia franchise centered on a series of online multiplayer first-person shooter (FPS) video games developed by Blizzard Entertainment: '' Overwatch'' released in 2016, and ''Overwatch 2'' released in 2022. Both games f ...
,
Valorant ''Valorant'' is a free-to-play first-person tactical hero shooter developed and published by Riot Games, for Windows. Teased under the codename ''Project A'' in October 2019, the game began a closed beta period with limited access on April 7 ...
, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. As of 2020, the CSUN Esports Club has been officially affiliated by
Cloud9 Cloud9 Esports, Inc., or simply Cloud9 (C9), is an American professional esports company based in Santa Monica, California. The company was originally founded as a professional ''League of Legends'' team by Jack and Paullie Etienne in May 2013 ...
, an American Esports Organization under their Cloud9 University Affiliate Program.


Campus life


Clubs and organizations

CSUN encourages students to enhance their overall college experience by joining clubs and organizations. There are more than 300 student clubs and organizations at CSUN. Through the Matador Involvement Center, students also have the opportunity to start a new club. All clubs and organizations at CSUN must sign a non-hazing contract. CSUN has a zero tolerance for any form of hazing. CSUN clubs can be located at the CSUN Mata Sync Pag

The Mata Sync page allows you to search through the many clubs available in addition read a small description of the club's purpose. Through the CSUN Mata Sync page, it also allows students to search for clubs through categories, such as Community Service, Cultural, Fraternity/Sorority, Honors, Political, Religious, Special Interest, Sports club, University Department/Program.


Fraternities and sororities

The university is home to many fraternal organizations, and each are members of a council. There are five councils at the university: Independent Greek Council, Interfraternity Council, National Pan-Hellenic Council, Panhellenic Council, and United Sorority and Fraternity Council. The Organizations in the
North American Interfraternity Conference The North American Interfraternity Conference (or NIC; formerly known as the National Interfraternity Conference) is an association of intercollegiate men's social fraternities that was formally organized in 1910, although it began at a meeting a ...
are
Zeta Beta Tau Zeta Beta Tau () is a Greek-letter social fraternity based in North America. It was founded on December 29, 1898. Originally a Zionist youth society, its purpose changed from Zionism in the fraternity's early years when in 1954 the fraternity beco ...
,
Kappa Sigma Kappa Sigma (), commonly known as Kappa Sig, is an American collegiate social fraternity founded at the University of Virginia in 1869. Kappa Sigma is one of the five largest international fraternities with currently 318 active chapters and colo ...
,
Sigma Chi Sigma Chi () International Fraternity is one of the largest North American fraternal literary societies. The fraternity has 244 active (undergraduate) chapters and 152 alumni chapters across the United States and Canada and has initiated more tha ...
,
Lambda Chi Alpha Lambda Chi Alpha (), commonly known as Lambda Chi, is a college fraternity in North America which was founded at Boston University in 1909. It is one of the largest social fraternities in North America, with more than 300,000 lifetime members a ...
,
Phi Kappa Psi Phi Kappa Psi (), commonly known as Phi Psi, is an American collegiate social fraternity that was founded by William Henry Letterman and Charles Page Thomas Moore in Widow Letterman's home on the campus of Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pen ...
,
Beta Gamma Nu Beta (, ; uppercase , lowercase , or cursive ; grc, βῆτα, bē̂ta or ell, βήτα, víta) is the second letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 2. In Modern Greek, it represents the voiced labio ...
,
Sigma Phi Epsilon Sigma Phi Epsilon (), commonly known as SigEp, is a social college fraternity for male college students in the United States. It was founded on November 1, 1901, at Richmond College (now the University of Richmond), and its national headquarte ...
,
Alpha Epsilon Pi Alpha Epsilon Pi (), commonly known as AEPi, is a college fraternity founded at New York University in 1913 by Charles C. Moskowitz and ten other men. The fraternity has more than 150 active chapters across the United States, Canada, United Kingdo ...
,
Sigma Nu Sigma Nu () is an undergraduate Fraternities and sororities in North America, college fraternity founded at the Virginia Military Institute on January 1, 1869. The fraternity was founded by James Frank Hopkins, Greenfield Quarles and James McIlva ...
,
Phi Delta Theta Phi Delta Theta (), commonly known as Phi Delt, is an international secret and social fraternity founded at Miami University in 1848 and headquartered in Oxford, Ohio. Phi Delta Theta, along with Beta Theta Pi and Sigma Chi form the Miami Triad ...
and
Sigma Alpha Epsilon Sigma Alpha Epsilon (), commonly known as SAE, is a North American Greek-letter social college fraternity. It was founded at the University of Alabama on March 9, 1856. Of all existing national social fraternities today, Sigma Alpha Epsilon is t ...
, along with eight
National Panhellenic Conference The National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) is an umbrella organization for 26 (inter)national women's Fraternities and sororities, sororities throughout the United States and Canada. Each member group is autonomous as a social, Greek alphabet#Use ...
members, which includes
Alpha Omicron Pi Alpha Omicron Pi (, AOII, Alpha O) is an international women's fraternity founded on January 2, 1897, at Barnard College on the campus of Columbia University in New York City. The main archive URL iThe Baird's Manual Online Archive homepage "AOI ...
,
Alpha Xi Delta Alpha Xi Delta (, often referred to as A-''"Zee"''-D ) is a women's fraternity founded on April 17, 1893. Baird's Manual is also available online hereThe Baird's Manual Online Archive homepage at Lombard College in Galesburg, Illinois, United Stat ...
,
Alpha Phi Alpha Phi International Women's Fraternity (, also known as APhi) is an international sorority with 172 active chapters and over 250,000 initiated members. Founded at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York on September 18, 1872, it is the fo ...
,
Delta Delta Delta Delta Delta Delta (), also known as Tri Delta, is an international women's fraternity founded on November 27, 1888 at Boston University by Sarah Ida Shaw, Eleanor Dorcas Pond, Isabel Morgan Breed, and Florence Isabelle Stewart. Tri Delta part ...
,
Delta Zeta Delta Zeta (, also known as DZ) is an international college sorority founded on October 24, 1902, at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Delta Zeta has 170 collegiate chapters in the United States and Canada, and over 200 alumnae chapters in Cana ...
,
Kappa Kappa Gamma Kappa Kappa Gamma (), also known simply as Kappa or KKG, is a collegiate sorority founded at Monmouth College in Monmouth, Illinois, United States. It has a membership of more than 260,000 women, with 140 collegiate chapters in the United States a ...
,
Phi Mu Phi Mu () is the second oldest female fraternal organization established in the United States. The fraternity was founded at Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia as the Philomathean Society on , and was announced publicly on March 4 of the same ye ...
, and Sigma Alpha Epsilon Pi. The university's
Pi Kappa Phi Pi Kappa Phi (), commonly known as Pi Kapp(s), is an American Greek Letter secret and social fraternity. It was founded by Andrew Alexander Kroeg Jr., Lawrence Harry Mixson, and Simon Fogarty Jr. on December 10, 1904 at the College of Charleston i ...
chapter surrendered their charter in 2014 following the hazing related death of
Armando Villa This is a list of hazing deaths in the United States. This is not an exhaustive list. An exact list is not available because there is no central system for tracking hazing deaths, and the role of hazing in some deaths is subject to disagreement. ...
. CSUN also has four organizations from the
National Pan-Hellenic Council The National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC) is a collaborative umbrella council composed of historically African American fraternities and sororities also referred to as Black Greek Letter Organizations (BGLOs). The NPHC was formed as a permanent ...
which include
Kappa Alpha Psi Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. () is a historically African American fraternity. Since the fraternity's founding on January 5, 1911 at Indiana University Bloomington, the fraternity has never restricted membership on the basis of color, creed ...
,
Phi Beta Sigma Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. () is a historically African American fraternity. It was founded at Howard University in Washington, D.C. on January 9, 1914, by three young African-American male students with nine other Howard students as char ...
,
Alpha Kappa Alpha Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. () is the first intercollegiate historically African American sorority. The sorority was founded on January 15, 1908, at the historically black Howard University in Washington, D.C., by a group of sixteen stud ...
,
Sigma Gamma Rho Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. () is a historically African American sorority, international collegiate, and non-profit community service organization that was founded on November 12, 1922, by seven educators on the Irvington campus (1875–1 ...
, &
Zeta Phi Beta Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. () is a historically African American sorority. In 1920, five women from Howard University envisioned a sorority that would raise the consciousness of their people, encourage the highest standards of scholastic achie ...
. The campus has fourteen United Sorority and Fraternity Council members, such as
Gamma Zeta Alpha Gamma Zeta Alpha Fraternity, Inc. () was founded on December 3, 1987 at California State University, Chico in Chico, California. It is a Latino Interest fraternity that emphasizes Latino culture and the success of Latino males in higher education ...
fraternity and
Lambda Theta Nu Lambda Theta Nu () is a Latina-based Greek letter intercollegiate sorority founded in 1986 at California State University, Chico. History Formation Eighteen Latina students at California State University, Chico banded together during what t ...
sorority,
Alpha Pi Sigma Alpha Pi Sigma Sorority Incorporated (ΑΠΣ) is a multicultural Latina-based sorority founded in 1990 at San Diego State University. It was created to bring together and support the Latina women but is open to non-Latinas. The sorority has seven ...
sorority,
Lambda Theta Phi Lambda Theta Phi Latin Fraternity, Inc. () is a Latino non-profit social fraternity in the United States. It was founded on December 1, 1975, at Kean College in Union, New Jersey. It emphasizes Latin unity and the celebration of the Latin cultu ...
fraternity, Lambda Sigma Gamma sorority,
Nu Alpha Kappa Nu Alpha Kappa (), is a Hispanic and Latino Americans, Latino-based Fraternities and sororities in North America, fraternity, which encompasses and values all cultures. Nu Alpha Kappa is the largest Latino-based fraternity on the west coast. Ofte ...
fraternity, Phi Lambda Nu fraternity, Phi Lambda Rho sorority, Sigma Alpha Zeta sorority,
Sigma Lambda Beta Sigma Lambda Beta International Fraternity, Incorporated () (known as Betas, Lambda Betas or SLB) is a historically Latino based fraternity in the United States, now expanded to include a multicultural membership. Founded in 1986 at the Univers ...
fraternity, Sigma Lambda Gamma sorority, Sigma Omega Nu sorority, and Sigma Tau Alpha (co-ed). Lastly, Independent Greek Council includes Alpha Epsilon Omega, Alpha Gamma Alpha, Alpha Nu Kappa, Alpha Psi Rho, Alpha Sigma Theta, Beta Gamma Nu, Delta Sigma Pi, Gamma Rho Lambda, Omega Phi, Phi Psi Omega, Rho Delta Chi, and Tau Omega Rho. Greek Life at the university has been beneficial to both the campus and surrounding community. The Greek community established the Matador Patrol over twenty years ago to aid the campus police department and has over the years evolved into the Community Service Assistant Unit of the Department of Police Services. Aside from its original function of providing free safety escorts to the campus community, it is now also responsible for safety patrols at the on-campus student apartments, safety watches at the University Library and University Student Union facilities, and special event staffing. After the death of Armando Villa, who died during an 18-mile hike when pledging for a fraternity, CSUN abolished hazing from any on campus organizations/clubs. CSUN created a non-hazing agreement for all clubs and organizations on campus to follow. Any club/organization that did not complete the agreement would not be recognized by the university. In the agreement, it clearly states that the university will have zero tolerance for any and all acts of hazing. Anyone found to be in violation of these guidelines may be held collectively and/or individually responsibly through the CSUN clubs and Organization Review Process, the CSU Student Code of Conduct, and/or additional authority review. Not only are there various Greek organizations, but there are also many political, religious, and cultural clubs on campus, including the Chabad at CSUN and Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life for Jewish students, Students for Justice in Palestine, Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan, MEChA and the Hip hop music, Hip-Hop Think Tank.


Events


Noontime Concerts

The AS/SPACE (Associated Students / Student Productions and Campus Entertainment) produced a weekly concert series held on Wednesdays at noon in the quad of the University Student Union.  The concerts featured local and national musical artist and bands. Notable concerts included: * April's Motel Room * Bone Thugs-n-Harmony * Digable Planets * Face to Face (punk band), Face to Face * Fretblanket * Gin Blossoms * John Easdale, John Easedale of Dramarama * Kara's Flowers (Maroon 5) * Mary's Danish * The Mighty Rhythm Trax * Montell Jordan, Montel Jordan * No Doubt * The Notorious B.I.G., Notorious B.I.G. * Rage Against the Machine * Red Hot Chili Peppers * Robby Krieger, Robbie Krieger Band * The Rugburns * Smash Mouth * Sublime (band), Sublime * Voodoo Glow Skulls


Big Show

The Associated Students has organized the Big Show, a concert where various musicians perform on the Oviatt Lawn, since 2001. Each year, students vote on both the genre and the artists they want to see. This has resulted in a variety of performances throughout the years, with headliners like Jimmy Eat World, Common (rapper), Common, Ne-Yo, Ludacris, Diplo, Afrojack, Laidback Luke, Dvbbs, DVBBS, Big Sean, Tyga, Dillon Francis, Louis the Child (DJs), Louis the Child, and ASAP Ferg.


Big Lecture

Since 2011, the Associated Students also started organizing the Big Lecture series, where influential individuals tell the audience about their experiences and careers. Because of the success of the first lecture by Cornel West, Dr. Cornel West, the series was allowed to continue yearly and has attracted a variety of individuals from different industries and backgrounds. Recent speakers were James Franco, Magic Johnson, Viola Davis, and Laverne Cox.


Media

*
KCSN KCSN (88.5 FM, "The SoCal Sound") is a non-commercial educational radio station licensed to Northridge, California and owned by California State University, Northridge. The station simulcasts with KSBR from Saddleback College in Mission Viejo. ...
radio * The ''Daily Sundial'': college newspaper * Valley View News: student television station * ''Scene Magazine'': student-created magazine * ''Northridge Magazine''


Notable programs


3 WINS Fitness

3 WINS Fitness, formerly known as 100 Citizens, is a free exercise program in Southern California that offers exercise agendas for local communities. This program is implemented by volunteer
kinesiology Kinesiology () is the scientific study of human body movement. Kinesiology addresses physiological, anatomical, biomechanical, pathological, neuropsychological principles and mechanisms of movement. Applications of kinesiology to human health ...
students attending CSUN. In 2012, the program obtained recognition from the White House, winning Popular Choice award in First Lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move video challenge.


Notable people

With over 350,000 alumni, CSUN has been home to a range of prominent alumni, faculty, and staff.


Politics and government

In politics, three former faculty and staff members have become high-ranking officials in foreign countries, including Mohamed Morsi who became the 5th President of Egypt in 2012, as well as Mohammad Qayoumi and Prakash Chandra Lohani. At the national level, CSUN has been home to two former heads of the United States Census Bureau (Roy Peel and Vincent Barabba), a former Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (Kathleen Utgoff), the Program Executive Officer of the Joint Strike Fighter program (Lt Gen Christopher Bogdan), and a former member of the Council of Economic Advisers and president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland (Jerry Jordan), as well as the 13th List of ambassadors of the United States to the Bahamas, Ambassador to the Bahamas (Nicole Avant), an List of ambassadors of the United States to Mexico, Ambassador to Mexico (Julian Nava), 6th Governor of Hawaii (Linda Lingle), and 42nd Lieutenant Governor of California (
Mike Curb Michael Curb (born December 24, 1944) is an American musician, record company executive, motorsports car owner, philanthropist, and former politician. He is also the founder of Curb Records where he presently serves as the chairman. Curb also ...
). In 2018, alumnus Katie Hill (politician), Katie Hill became a member of the United States House of Representatives, while Alex Villanueva became the 33rd Sheriff of Los Angeles County. The following year, graduate Nury Martinez became the first Latinas, Latina president of the Los Angeles City Council. On January 20, 2021, alumnus Doug Emhoff became the first Second Gentleman of the United States as he is the spouse of Vice President of the United States
Kamala Harris Kamala Devi Harris ( ; born October 20, 1964) is an American politician and attorney who is the 49th vice president of the United States. She is the first female vice president and the highest-ranking female official in U.S. history, as well ...
. Later that year James Lawson (activist), Rev. James Lawson, a civil rights leader and visiting scholar at the university since 2010, received the NAACP Image Award – Chairman's Award.


Business

Shortly after graduating from CSUN, Lee Soo-man founded SM Entertainment in 1989. The company has since grown to become South Korea's largest entertainment company, leading Lee Soo-man to occasionally be referred to as 'the father of K-pop'. In 2008, alumnus Stanford Kurland founded PennyMac Financial Services, a move which was subject to criticism as he was accused of profiting from the
financial crisis of 2007–08 Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of fina ...
which he helped create due to his role in devising and marketing subprime mortages as President (corporate title), president of Countrywide Financial. Nonetheless, he remained Chairperson, chairman and Chief executive officer, CEO of PennyMac until his death in 2021. In 2013, alumnus Stan Polovets was one of the key players in the $55 billion sale of TNK-BP to Rosneft, one of largest mergers ever to occur in the energy sector, due to his role as CEO for the Alfa Group Consortium. Around the same time, alumnus Gene Haas founded Haas F1 Team, having already co-founded the Stewart-Haas Racing NASCAR team in 2002 and his company Haas Automation in 1983. In 2016, alumnus Stephen Bollenbach died after a career in which he served as Chief financial officer, CFO for the Holiday Corporation and Disney and as CEO for Hilton Worldwide, while Del Mayberry retired as CFO for the Fox Networks Group. Three years later, alumnus Charles Noski became a director at Wells Fargo, having previously served as CFO for Bank of America, Northrop Grumman, and AT&T and as a director for Microsoft. The current CEOs of A&E Networks (Paul Buccieri),
Autodesk Autodesk, Inc. is an American multinational software corporation that makes software products and services for the architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, media, education, and entertainment industries. Autodesk is headquartered ...
(Andrew Anagnost), and investment bank Houlihan Lokey (Scott Beiser) are also alumni, as well as the current CFOs of Farmers Insurance Group (Ron Myhan) and PetSmart (Alan Schnaid) and the president and Chief operating officer, COO of Bank of Hope (David Malone).


Entertainment and the arts

In entertainment, alumni have won Academy Awards, Grammy Awards, Emmy Awards, and Golden Globe Award, Golden Globes. The award-winners include Paula Abdul, John Densmore (as drummer of The Doors), Michelle DeYoung, Daryl Dragon (as part of Captain & Tennille), Richard Dreyfuss, Jenna Elfman, Mike Elizondo, Gordon Goodwin, Don Hahn, Phil Hartman, Cheech Marin, Brian A. Miller, Andy Summers (as guitarist of The Police), Serj Tankian (as frontman of System of a Down), and Diane Warren. Although former student Debra Winger was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Actress as well as nominated five times for Golden Globe Awards, she won none of the nominations. Actresses Alyson Hannigan and Eva Longoria also graduated from CSUN and received People's Choice Awards for their roles in ''How I Met Your Mother'' and ''Desperate Housewives'', respectively. Additionally, Lucille Ball was an assistant professor in 1979.


Literature and journalism

CSUN has produced three Pulitzer Prize winners: Frank del Olmo (Pulitzer Prize for Public Service), Paul Pringle (Pulitzer Prize for Public Service and Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting), and Ken Lubas (photojournalist). Journalist and political commentator Ana Kasparian of The Young Turks network also graduated from CSUN. James Dickey, the 18th United States Poet Laureate and winner of a National Book Award for Poetry, was a visiting lecturer at the university.


Sciences

In the sciences, CSUN alumni include astronaut Scott J. Horowitz, who flew four Space Shuttle missions, Adriana Ocampo, who is a planetary geologist known for her contributions to the discovery of the Chicxulub crater as well as her work as Science Program Manager at
NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...
and lead program executive for the New Frontiers Program, and Olympia LePoint, who served as reliability and system safety engineer for various NASA Space Shuttle missions. The university has also had two prominent mathematicians in its faculty: Lorraine Foster, who became the first woman to receive a Ph.D. in mathematics from California Institute of Technology, and William Karush, a mathematician known for Karush–Kuhn–Tucker conditions and physicist on the Manhattan Project. Faculty members Maria Elena Zavala and Stephen Oppenheimer received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring from Bill Clinton, President Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, President Barack Obama, respectively.


Athletics

Former students have also won various Olympic medals, with Jeanette Bolden (gold medal), Valerie Brisco-Hooks (three gold medals and one silver medal), Alice Brown (sprinter), Alice Brown (two gold medals and one silver medal), Florence Griffith Joyner (three gold medals and two silver medals), Joe Ryan (baseball), Joe Ryan (silver medal), and Bob Samuelson (bronze medal) all winning medals at the Olympic Games. The former four were all coached by alumnus Bob Kersee.


Other

The 2017 Las Vegas shooting was committed by Stephen Paddock, who graduated from the university in 1977 with a degree in business administration. The shooting killed 58 concertgoers and injured 851, making it the deadliest mass shooting committed by a single person in American history. File:Mohamed Morsi-05-2013.jpg, Mohammed Morsi, 5th President of Egypt File:Doug Emhoff June 2021.jpg, Doug Emhoff, Second ladies and gentlemen of the United States, Second Gentleman of the United States File:Eva Longoria Cannes 2015.jpg, Eva Longoria, award-winning actress File:Linda Lingle in March 2010.jpg, Linda Lingle, 6th Governor of Hawaii File:Scott J Horowitz.jpg, Scott J. Horowitz, NASA astronaut File:Mike Curb Congregation and Davy Jones on Pop 1972 (cropped).JPG,
Mike Curb Michael Curb (born December 24, 1944) is an American musician, record company executive, motorsports car owner, philanthropist, and former politician. He is also the founder of Curb Records where he presently serves as the chairman. Curb also ...
, 42nd Lieutenant Governor of California and musician File:Lauren Ridloff by Gage Skidmore.jpg, Lauren Ridloff, deaf American actress File:Richard Dreyfuss Cannes 2013.jpg, Richard Dreyfuss, Academy Award–winning actor File:Paula Abdul 2011 2.jpg, Paula Abdul, Emmy Award, Emmy and Grammy Award-winning singer and choreographer File:Kathleen Utgoff Official BLS photo.jpg, Kathleen Utgoff, former Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics File:Alyson Hannigan 2.jpg, Alyson Hannigan, award-winning actress File:Gene Haas 2017 United States GP.jpg, Gene Haas, founder and owner of Haas F1 Team and Haas Automation File:Andy Summers with guitar 2015.jpg, Andy Summers, guitarist for The Police File:Phil as Chick-1-1.jpg, Phil Hartman, Emmy Award–winning comedian and actor File:Serj Tankian Coachella 2008.jpg, Serj Tankian, frontman of System of a Down File:Diane Warren 03 b.jpg, Diane Warren, Emmy Award, Emmy, Grammy Award, Grammy, Golden Globe Award, Golden Globe, and Academy Award–winning musician File:CPMartinez.jpg, Nury Martinez, 25th President of the Los Angeles City Council File:John Densmore 1971.png, John Densmore, drummer of The Doors File:Jenna Elfman by Gage Skidmore.jpg, Jenna Elfman, Golden Globe Award–winning actress File:LIEUTENANT GENERAL CHRISTOPHER C. BOGDAN USAF.JPG, Lt Gen Christopher Bogdan, former Program Executive Officer of the Joint Strike Fighter program File:Cheech Marin 2012.jpg, Cheech Marin, Grammy Award–winning comedian File:Avant, Nicole.JPG, Nicole Avant, 13th List of ambassadors of the United States to the Bahamas, Ambassador to the Bahamas File:Vincent Barabba Census.jpg, Vincent Barabba, two-time Director of the United States Census Bureau File:Mike_Fong_portait,_2022.jpg, Mike Fong California State Assembly from the 49th district


Notes


References


External links

*
CSU Northridge Athletics website

CSUN Sustainability Plan, 2013–2023
{{Authority control California State University, Northridge, Universities and colleges in Los Angeles Universities and colleges in the San Fernando Valley California State University campuses, Northridge Public universities and colleges in California, California State University, Northridge Northridge, Los Angeles Educational institutions established in 1958 1958 establishments in California Schools accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges Schools of deaf education in the United States