President's Messages

Cal State Long Beach is one of the most diverse campuses in the United States. We are proud that, like California, our campus has no ethnic group as a majority. We are home to almost 1,700 international students from 96 countries, and our diversity is also apparent in the gender and gender identities, ages, veteran status, sexual orientations, and religious beliefs of our community members. We are home to 29 cultural clubs and 33 other cultural organizations. What an opportunity to experience…

Over the past two months, I’ve enjoyed many student, staff, coach, and faculty conversations that relate to learning, which is, I guess, the bottom line of why we all hang out together.  There is also a lively national debate about how much undergrads really LEARN while pursuing their degrees (see Academically Adrift by Arum and Roksa in 2010 for a scary critique and related reading below). This national debate is fueling federal efforts to rate/rank universities along the dimension of…

In response to my invitation from a previous message on what makes a university elite, many of you shared your thoughts–thank you. Your feedback was great, and I have selected a few to share with the rest of our community. I edited the comments below and withheld names (for privacy and brevity) from current students, faculty, staff, alumni and parents, but hope I have reflected fairly on each author's message. An elite university allows students to grow and explore their passions for…

One of the complexities all great universities face now is how to preserve the best of what they are while evolving to meet the new opportunities and demands of our times.  We are the stewards of our world’s history in science, arts, mathematics, health, business and economics, medicine, leadership, education, literature, music, and so on. This is an awesome responsibility that we cannot abandon. Having the information is less than half the challenge, however.  Our responsibility as…