A Roadmap for the Next Decade
Building on a Legacy
In 1949, California State University, Long Beach began with a bold vision: a high-quality educational institution to serve a diverse population in a rapidly growing industrial region.
The new California State College provided accessible higher education for many nontraditional and underserved learners as these groups sought intellectual growth and skills to meet the demands of a modernizing workforce. By providing equitable access to highly valued degrees, the Long Beach campus soon became a destination for learners seeking to rise to their full potential.
Forward-thinking founders prioritized workforce-readiness through public-private partnerships which have enrichened our curricula, enhanced our labs and facilities, elevated the learning experience, and empowered students and alumni to rise to leadership roles in virtually every industry in the region.
Seven decades later, The Beach has evolved not only to produce leaders of industry, but to become a site of discovery and a beacon of academic empowerment - a future-focused, egalitarian university where people of all backgrounds can become their best selves.
Our Strengths
Our mission and our history have prepared us for the challenges of the current moment and of the impending future. In the unprecedented era of the COVID-19 pandemic, we rely on the values which serve as our foundation; our strong network of institutional and industrial partnerships, our pervasive culture of compassion and commonality, our impetus to serve our community, and our investment in the creativity and ingenuity of the students who will lead us forward.
Strength in Reputation
Long regarded as a flagship institution of the California State University system, CSULB is a stalwart driver of the Southern California workforce and economy. Our reputation for in-demand educational programs, timely degree completion and upward social mobility among graduates has made our campus a destination for students from Southern California and around the world, with qualified freshmen and transfer applications exceeding the capacity of our campus facilities nearly four times over. As we work to extend our capacity to meet this extraordinary demand, our enduring strengths place us in a position not only to accommodate a greater number of learners from all backgrounds, but to evolve every aspect of our operation to meet the challenges of the coming decade.
Strength in Diversity
As an institution driven by an understanding that our diversity is our strength, we are committed to the principle that action for racial justice must be an inherent component of all university-level strategic planning. We are committed to making our campus a model for institutional anti-racism at all levels of operation. These actions are informed by dozens of community listening sessions, campus conversations, and a thorough and inclusive process to shape a collective perspective that is as much a part of our animus for 2030 as it is our work and our culture.
Strength in Responsibility
CSULB’s mantle of responsibility for the public good is more than a slogan - our campus is a partner of industry, a pillar of community, and a hub of empowerment for learners of all backgrounds. Each research project we complete, each workforce pipeline we introduce, each institutional partnership we forge, and each community project our faculty launches is an investment in the prosperity of our region and the ability of our students and alumni to rise to the great challenges of our time. By developing highly valued degree programs that confer upward social mobility, we help remove systemic barriers that stifle the inimitable talents of historically marginalized communities. By approaching societal challenges with the energy, intellect, and actions of our faculty, staff, and students, we lead our community in addressing the urgent issues of our day.
Drivers Shaping the Next Decade
Like universities around the world, our institution is riding the tides of change.
After decades of sustained growth, the number of high school students entering college nationally is in decline. The students who do arrive have greater social, financial, and academic support needs than at any time in recent memory. Public investment in colleges and universities is constrained by other priorities, causing political leaders to search for more focused and cost-effective educational approaches.
For all the forces of disruption an organization can anticipate, we know that others will come from unanticipated directions. That is why the work we do today must be open-minded, future focused, and inclusive of all the richness of experience and expertise our campus cultivates.
In Spring 2020, a season defined by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, CSULB’s investments in future-focused planning provided a framework on which to build a rapid response to unprecedented shifts in operational need. Though the timeline was accelerated, many resiliency goals for 2030 were already underway when the brunt of the pandemic became clear, and our campus nimbly scaled technology-mediated learning for students, implemented telecommuting solutions for faculty and staff, and reimagined digital infrastructure for the future of our university.
We know that change does not come when we are ready; we must always be ready for change. Dramatic shifts in operations that would normally require years of deliberation, consultation. and review are possible on a swift timescale – we need only a clear vision for success and the will to move forward.
