About

The College of Business (COB) is one of eight colleges of California State University, Long Beach. As one of the largest campuses of the California State University system, Cal State Long Beach is a comprehensive, four-year institution that was established as the Los Angeles-Orange County State College in 1949 to serve the areas of Orange County and southeastern Los Angeles County. The first classes were held in two converted apartment buildings that were still under construction; some days carpenters and plumbers outnumbered students. The library had no books and editors for the Forty-Niner student newspaper worked in a shed that leaked when it rained. Still, students loved coming to school because they felt like "pioneers."

The name was changed to Long Beach State College in 1959 and to California State University, Long Beach in 1972 after two other name changes.

Business studies at Cal State Long Beach began in 1949 with 24 business students and four faculty members, comprising one-seventh of the campus population. Business Administration was part of the Social Science Division until 1957 it became the Division of Business and Social Sciences. In 1958, the two academic areas split and Business Administration became a division in its own right, with Dr. S. Austen Reep as founding dean.

By the mid-1960s, the business school had close to 3,800 business students, 29 full-time faculty members, and 13 part-time lecturers. The Division of Business Administration was upgraded to the School of Business Administration in 1967, and the name was changed to the College of Business Administration in 1992. Most recently, the name was changed to the College of Business in 2018.