Message from the Provost:
50 Years of Progress
As we begin the 2009 fall term, we will also begin celebrating CLU’s founding in a series of events and cultural offerings to the community. From an academic standpoint, it is good to take this opportunity to note how far we have come.
The first California Lutheran College freshmen and sophomores were admitted in 1961, all 330 of them. They took classes in six divisions—social studies, science, mathematics, religion and philosophy, creative arts and professional studies—from 30 professors and instructors. The Centrum buildings were still under construction when they arrived on campus, so students went to classes in a hastily remodeled chicken coop (Building G). Total costs for a resident student for that first year were $1,350.
This fall, in contrast, we are pleased to welcome 17 new faculty—and our largest ever group of new students— to a university now ranked among the top 20 campuses in the West offering undergraduate and graduate degrees. And now, in addition to our main campus and graduate centers, CLU has extended its reach over the Internet, to financial planning students across the United States and to troops serving in Iraq.
Our range of degrees has also grown with enrollment, with the MBA to be offered completely online this fall. Our three new economists at the School of Business have formed CERF, the Center for Economic Research and Forecasting. And our new Psy.D. program will soon be underway, with the first students scheduled to start in 2010.
Returning faculty and CLU students have spent the summer very productively in research and scholarly activities. In early summer, ten CLU f
aculty members went to Germany for the Reformation Heritage Tour led by professors Joe Everson and Guy Erwin.
Political science professor Greg Freeland used his Haynes Foundation fellowship to study the results of supervisorial redistricting in Ventura County. History professor Michaela Reaves led a group of Moorpark teachers to Santa Fe as part of a federal humanities grant, while education professors Michael McCambridge and Michael Cosenza continued to introduce active learning concepts to Moorpark teachers. International Studies’ Haco Hoang worked with Pearson Scholars and Los Angeles nonprofits to determine how immigration policies affect LA’s efforts to combat transnational gangs. School of Business professors Paul Witman and Kapp Johnson and student, Nicole Sparkman kicked off research on churches’ use of online social networks, while Jamshid Damooei studied CLU’s economic impact on the region. And for the third summer, science faculty supervised 15 Swenson Science Summer Research Student interns in original research projects. Five non-science students received Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships to work with a faculty mentor on an original research project. The SURF projects included work in political science, religion, psychology, music and business.
Appropriate for its fiftieth year, our campus is growing and flourishing. I hope you’ll take time to browse through our website, or visit our campus, and see for yourself how you can experience success at CLU.
— Leanne Neilson, Psy.D.
Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs
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