California State University, Long Beach (CSULB), is a public, urban, diverse comprehensive university (Carnegie Classification Master’s I) that provides undergraduate and graduate education to a diverse population, with an emphasis on teacher preparation and professional programs. An increasing number of our graduates go on to doctoral programs.
CSULB is located in the city of Long Beach, just south of the city of Los Angeles and about one mile from the ocean. The campus’s primary service area is the greater Los Angeles Basin, a population base of more than 5 million. Long Beach is an urban municipality of about one-half million people that was identified by USA Today as the most diverse city in the United States based on 2000 census data. CSULB was recently ranked sixth in the nation in awarding degrees to students of color by the Diverse Issues in Higher Education magazine. Long Beach is one of the world’s largest shipping ports, and major industries include aerospace, medicine and tourism.
CSULB is one of 23 campuses in the public California State University (CSU) system. The system offers more than 1,800 bachelor and master degree programs in over 2,400 subject areas to more than 400,000 students. The system awards more than half of the bachelor’s degrees and 30 percent of the master’s degrees in California.
The campus offers a broad range of baccalaureate and graduate degrees spanning the liberal arts and sciences and many applied and professional fields: 81 baccalaureate degree programs, 67 master’s degree programs, two joint doctoral degrees and, beginning fall 2007, one free-standing doctoral degree.
At about 35,000 students, CSULB is one of the largest campuses in the CSU and in the state. Over 70,000 students apply for admission yearly, and approximately 13,000 enroll. Each year freshmen are the largest component of the new student mix, followed by community college transfer students, and then by graduate degree seeking students and finally by post-baccalaureate students seeking K-12 teaching and related credentials. In academic year 2004-05, the campus awarded 7,625 degrees including 6,192 baccalaureate degrees and 1,433 master’s degrees.
CSULB is organized into four administrative divisions: Academic Affairs, Student Services, Administration and Finance, and University Relations and Development. Academic Affairs is organized into seven academic colleges: Liberal Arts, Natural Sciences and Mathematics, The Arts, Business Administration, Health and Human Services, Education, and Engineering. In addition University College and Extension Services offer self support programs.
Seventy-eight percent of CSULB’s undergraduate students and sixty-two percent of our graduate students are enrolled full-time. Classes average a twenty-to-one student-faculty ratio with a sixty percent female student population. The student population is comprised of about six percent African Americans (down .08% over five years); eleven percent Asians (with no changes over five years); and twenty-five percent Latinos (an increase of 3% over five years). Other student populations include Southeast Asians at seven percent (unchanged); Filipinos six percent (up .5%); Pacific Islanders about six-tenths of one percent (up .1%). Whites are forty percent (down 1%) and American Indians are six-tenths of one percent (unchanged). The undetermined group is eleven percent (down 1.7%).
[an error occurred while processing this directive] The campus recently qualified as a Hispanic-Serving Institution with the award of a five-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education that will provide catalytic funding for a variety of programs supporting student success.
In fall 2005, the campus employed 2,396 full and part-time faculty members, of whom 852 were tenured and tenure-track. The faculty is 52% male and 48% female. Faculty members’ demographics are White 71%, Asian/Pacific Islanders 14.6%, Latino 7.5%, African American 4.5%, 1.4% undetermined, and .8% American Indian.
In the fall 2005 semester, CSULB employed 1,526 total staff, of whom 40.3% were male and 59.7% were female. Caucasians comprised the single largest ethnic group (53.9%), followed by Latinos (15.9%), Asian/Pacific Islanders (14.9%), African Americans (11.1%), and Native Americans (1%). Ethnicity was undetermined for 3.2% of total staff. It is worth noting that ethnic and gender distribution was markedly different for various categories of staff. Most notably, the Service/Maintenance group was 58.9% Latino, the Skilled Crafts category was 96.9% male, and the Secretarial/Clerical cohort was 88.8% female. While the Executive/Administrative/Management cohort was somewhat less ethnically diverse than other staff categories, it was nearly evenly split regarding gender (51.5% female and 48.5 male).
The campus is currently at a leadership crossroads. Under former president Maxson, Long Beach became the “University of Choice,” and we now have a new president, F. King Alexander, whose expertise is in higher education policy and whose passion is student success. President Alexander’s motto is “Graduation begins today.” We are planning for growth, fully cognizant of the challenges it will bring. We are about to launch our first capital campaign. With the legacy of one strong president and the promise of another, CSU Long Beach has profited from its past and is eager to face the future.
