CSUSB Begins its 49th Year with the Start of Fall Quarter

Cal State San Bernardino welcomeD its students and faculty back to campus for fall quarter of the 2014-2015 academic year Thursday, Sept. 25 – marking the 49th year the university opened for classes. For the third consecutive year, CSUSB will have a record enrollment as at least 18,645 students will be attending classes. University officials estimate the final enrollment figure will reach 18,820 students. Last year’s official fall enrollment reached 18,398; in 2012-2013, it was 18,234. Earlier this summer, the state approved a $142.2 million increase for the 23-campus California State University system. The funding, coming after years of budget cuts, is allowing CSUSB and other CSU campuses to enroll more students. The university is also expecting its largest class of incoming freshmen – 2,719 first-year students will be in attendance. The previous record was in 2012, when the number of freshmen was 2,448. In addition to returning and new students, and 35 new tenure-track faculty, Cal State San Bernardino also welcomes two new administrators. Douglas Freer joins the university as its new vice president for administration and finance, replacing Bob Gardner, who retired earlier this year. Prior to coming to San Bernardino, Freer served as vice president of student affairs at Cal Poly Pomona. The university continues to receive recognition as a top university by the nation’s leading educational services organizations. U.S. News & World Report’s annual college rankings had Cal State San Bernardino tied for 22nd among the Top Regional Public Universities in the western United States and tied for 66th among all western universities for regional public institutions that provide a full range of undergraduate and master’s degree programs. The university again was selected by The Princeton Review as one of its “Best in the West” colleges and universities, and as well as making the Forbes list of “America’s Best Colleges.” Cal State San Bernardino also made two lists that measure the outcomes of college graduates. Educate to Career, a California nonprofit research organization, ranked CSUSB seventh in the nation out of 1,200 four-year colleges in its ETC College Rankings Index. “We calculate the improvement in earnings and employability of persons who attended specific colleges, relative to persons who are similarly situated in other colleges,” said Educate to Career founder and president, Michael R. Havis. Using the similar idea of how well students do after they graduate, MONEY magazine, in its “Best Colleges” rankings published July 28, placed CSUSB No. 12 on its list of “The 25 Colleges That Add the Most Value.” The university is taking steps to elevate its graduation rates with more deliberate advising for students, including mandatory orientation for incoming students and setting aside funds for student success initiatives, Morales said. CSUSB will host an onsite accreditation team from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. The process of reaccreditation for the campus began last year and is a thorough, step-by-step look at all aspects of the university to demonstrate that CSUSB graduates are achieving WASC core competencies in written and oral communication, critical thinking, information literacy and quantitative reasoning. The university’s Department of Theater Arts starts its 2014-2015 season, “Destiny, Defiance and Desire,” on Oct. 30 with the family-friendly production “Grimm Tales,” the first of two fall quarter productions. “The Three Musketeers” will run Nov. 14-23. See the theatre arts website at theatre.csusb.edu for more information. Beginning Oct. 6, the Robert and Frances Fullerton Museum of Art opened a new exhibit, “Bridging Homeboy Industries: Fabian Debora, Alex Kizu and Juan Carlos Muñoz Hernandez.” Shown for the first time in the Inland Empire, the exhibit includes painting, sculpture and collaborative work by the three artists who share roots in the East Los Angeles neighborhood of Boyle Heights. Also, the fall sports season is well underway, with the women’s volleyball team and women’s soccer team – both nationally ranked – along with the men’s soccer team and women’s cross country team competing for conference championships. The fall quarter ends Dec. 12, highlighted by fall commencement ceremonies on Dec. 13.