Cal State Northridge is headed
toward becoming one of the most modern university campuses
in the country. Six new buildings worth more than $70 million-each
with state-of- the-art facilities-are under construction during
2000. Those include new wings for the Oviatt
Library, a new Arts,
Media and Communication Building, and a new Health
and Human Development Building.
Cal State Northridge ranked
first among 529 master's level universities in its number
of graduates who went on to earn Ph.D.s in the social
sciences and psychology, according to a recent National Science
Foundation report. The university also ranked second in mathematics
and among the top dozen such campuses in biology,
computer
sciences, engineering
and physical sciences.
Cal State Northridge students
have good things to say about their experience at the university.
In a recent random and representative survey of CSUN students:
86 percent said they were satisfied with their overall experience
at CSUN; 87 percent said they were satisfied with the overall
quality of instruction; and about two-thirds said they would
choose CSUN again as a university.
Cal State Northridge has small
average class sizes, ranging from about 29 for lecture sections
and 19 for laboratory sections as of 1998. In the recent student
survey, small class size was one of the campus' features most
appreciated by students, with 84 percent indicating satisfaction.
Cal State Northridge is the
leading public university in California in preparing students
to obtain teaching credentials. The university had 1,054
single or multiple subject teaching credential documents issued
to students/graduates during 1997-1998, more than any other Cal
State or University of California campus, according to data from
the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing.
Students at Cal State Northridge
constitute a veritable United Nations, with enrollment coming
from more than 70 foreign countries. The university consistently
ranks in the top 25 for master's level universities based on
the size of its foreign student population. Of the 862 foreign
students enrolled in 1999-2000, the most by country came from
Japan (161), Korea (91), and Taiwan (76).
Cal State Northridge is a university
committed to using advanced technology to aid in the education
process. Virtually all CSUN students have campus-provided e-mail
accounts, as do most faculty and staff, resulting in a volume
of millions of e-mail messages. The campus also has an inventory
of more than 5,000 computers, including about 2,000 spread
among 98 labs during 1998-1999. And the university offers about
two dozen online academic courses.
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Cal State Northridge, one of
the first mainstream universities to accept deaf students in
the 1960s, now hosts one of the largest deaf student populations
among U.S. universities. Nearly 300 deaf and hard-of-hearing
students receive sign language interpreting, real-time captioning
and other special services each year through the university's
renowned National Center on Deafness
(NCOD).
The Center
on Disabilities at Cal State Northridge, specializing
in technology and its impact on those with disabilities, annually
hosts the weeklong Technology and Persons with Disabilities
Conference, the largest event of its kind drawing thousands
of participants from around the world. The center also is known
for operating one of the first and finest university computer
access labs for students with disabilities.
Cal State Northridge is a university
where minority students are welcome and can excel. The
U.S. Education Department ranked CSUN among the top 100 universities
nationwide in graduating Hispanic students at the bachelor's
and master's levels. The university also places highly in Hispanic
Outlook in Higher Education and Black Issues in Higher
Education rankings for degrees awarded.
Eight Cal State Northridge
faculty members have been awarded the prestigious Guggenheim
Fellowship for research and creative activity during the
institution's history. And 58 Cal State Northridge faculty, including
22 just since 1980, have received Fulbright awards to conduct
research or teach abroad.
Cal State Northridge has been
a leader in involving its students in community servicelearning,
where academic learning is merged with meaningful community
work. The university launched a Center for Community Service-Learning
that has helped create more than 40 new 'courses since
its inception in 1998. CSUN students have taught computer skills
to pregnant and at-risk teens and helped establish an after school
children's literature/literacy program.
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