Annual Report

Cal Lutheran’s goals as an HSI include evolving from being a Hispanic-enrolling institution to a Hispanic-serving institution by transforming institutional culture and daily practices to embrace inclusive excellence as a guiding concept for strategic planning. Changing the fundamental way the university carries out its curriculum and services from the ground up will help boost services, retention and graduation among Latino/a students. Learn More

32% reported participating in multiple internships. Students obtained “real-world” experience through working at such companies as E! Entertainment, Ventura County Sheriff’s Department, Los Angeles Clippers, NBC Universal, Northrup Grumman, SAGE Publications, Big Brothers Big Sisters and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

Cal Lutheran is different from any other institution where I have studied or worked. We really value community here and embrace the concept of “service-learning” as a way to discover and live out our purpose. We don’t just say that, we do it.

–Rachel Casas, Assistant Professor, Graduate School of Psychology

The audience included members of the campus as well as the surrounding community. With guidance from faculty mentors, students conducted research in many disciplines, including biology, chemistry, computer science, economics, exercise science, global studies, mathematics, political science and psychology. Students have also presented their work at professional conferences or had their work published in peer-reviewed journals. Learn more about the program and abstracts.

Chell spent 10 months teaching English in Mongolia during 2015-2016. Fulbright participants are chosen for their academic accomplishments and leadership potential, and live and work with people of the host country, serving as cultural ambassadors for the United States. Chell graduated summa cum laude with university honors, earning bachelor’s degrees in global studies and political science. While at Cal Lutheran, Chell participated in a travel seminar to Thailand, studied abroad in Uganda, and interned in Washington, D.C., for Sen. Tim Johnson of South Dakota. He wrote a policy paper calling for the United States to facilitate reconciliation programs between Armenia and Turkey in light of the Armenian genocide and researched the treatment of the Shia minority in Saudi Arabia. Read more about Daniel.

This year’s event included student findings on such subjects as community policing, human trafficking awareness, iPads as tools or toys, and the volunteer process in soup kitchens, as well as a student and faculty panel showcasing forms of experiential learning in Criminal Justice. View the schedule of sessions and presentations.

Winning entries included a service that supports people with autism by providing coding classes and job placement services, and another a backpack with a built-in solar charger.

Our Career Services office conducted this annual survey of traditional undergraduates with an 83% response rate.

I’d say the highlight of this school year for me would probably have been Intern/Job Expo. It was the first time I had attended the Expo, and I felt validated in where I want to go in life in terms of career aspirations as many of the employers I talked to were impressed with my resume, most of which has been decorated with Cal Lutheran related items. In that moment, I was grateful for all the opportunities Cal Lutheran had given me to grow in my skills and in my future career.

–Allyssa Moscotte ’17, Multimedia major

Sixty students were inducted into the group which helps prepare business students for careers through professional training and networking, leadership education and service opportunities.

Programs include semesters abroad as well as shorter, more focused, travel seminars. In addition, a group of 17 students traveled to Japan with sociology professor Akiko Yasuike as part of the university’s “Exploring Japanese Culture and Society” travel seminar. Cal Lutheran has set a strategic goal to have 40 percent of all undergraduates study abroad by 2020. Currently, 26 percent of students have participated in study abroad or a travel seminar. Students can choose from more than 80 countries worldwide.

Stops included Palo Alto, San Francisco and Sacramento. The choir performed pieces that reflect the university’s Lutheran identity as well as compositions that represent the campus community’s diversity. In each city, the full audiences included Cal Lutheran alumni.

I've been involved with both choirs on campus and have loved every minute.  Being part of such an amazing group has allowed me to make lifelong friends. Cal Lutheran is all about coming together, not only as a community but as a family. Everyone is so welcoming and friendly, and being a small campus you're able to see familiar faces wherever you go.

–Abby Azzarello ’17, Music Production major

More than 1,000 people attended Homecoming, reconnecting with former classmates, spending time with loved ones and enjoying the family atmosphere.

Da Silva spent the summer working on a system to restore power in the event of a natural disaster.

In its report, the WASC Commission commended the university for its clearly communicated and shared mission, a cross-campus commitment to helping students succeed, and increasingly strong fiscal health.

The APA Commission on Accreditation commended the Graduate School of Psychology’s program for its thoughtful curriculum, state-of-the-art technology strong support from university administration, and diverse community.

The departments of chemistry, history, philosophy, physics, psychology and religion each added one new faculty member. In addition, one faculty member will teach in the School of Management, five in the Graduate School of Education and three atPacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, in Berkeley.

Grants were given in support of faculty professional development in the areas of cultural proficiency, multicultural curriculum development, the Cal Lutheran “Spectrum of Opportunity” Autism conference, and Latino student resiliency research and subsequent conference presentation. Learn more about our Campus Diversity Initiative.

Nineteen faculty members are working on this project.

Two female Hispanic faculty members will join our Biology Department in fall of 2016 to provide assistance and mentor our first generation Hispanic students. One will serve as our HSI Coordinator.

Member institutions collaborate and participate in faculty discussions and research to enhance teaching and learning, and provide students with a broader range of academic opportunities.

The five-day event offered free events, guest speakers, an investor demo day and workshops on marketing for startups, workflow, data science, business plans, crowdfunding and more.

More than 1400 undergraduate and graduate students received their diplomas.

Record numbers of graduates tells a great story in and of itself — we’re doing many things right! Cal Lutheran’s vision for the future for those they serve, and the culture that has been created by past and present, is what makes the university special.

–Linda Baumhefner, Cal Lutheran Regent, Owner/Principal, LSB Executive Consulting

The fully funded request of $11,402 supports a vermicomposting program led by undergraduate student Jacob Derksen ’17 (Biology), who is conducting honors research on worms and gut bacteria. Undergraduate students in a course with David Grannis (Communication) will produce videos to document the process and educate the community about vermicomposting. 

Services available to students to help ensure a good first year include those provided by the Center for Student Success and First Year Experience programs such as the required Freshmen Seminar.

In addition to greater student and family focus on completion, the graduation rate increase is also due to the hard work of our faculty and strong student services and support staff.

I work here because the staff and faculty believe that Lutheran higher education can help make our shared world a better place, and I’m given an opportunity to be part of it. Knowing that my work each day supports current and future students, and helps to provide the opportunities I enjoyed as a student myself gives me great satisfaction.

–Lana Clark, ’06, MPPA ’13, Director of Stewardship

The Spectrum of Opportunity: Autism, Inclusion and Communication conference led to the launch of Cal Lutheran’s Center for Autism and Communication led by professors Edlyn Peña and Beth Brennan. The center serves as a regional and state resource for communication and support for children through young adults with autism, and for their teachers, support providers, caregivers, administrators and families.

Establishing the Autism and Communication Center at Cal Lutheran with Dr. Beth Brennan this year was a pivotal moment in my career.  Cal Lutheran is becoming a national thought-leader in the field of autism because of the center's great work. I'm honored to be a part of this movement for social change.

–Dr. Edlyn Peña, Associate Professor of Educational Leadership

The center offers service-learning opportunities for students, faculty and nonprofit leaders to work cross-generationally to solve community and organizational challenges. Dena Jenson joined our staff in June to lead the center, a role she held when the center was under the auspices of the Ventura County Community Foundation. Support comes from participation fees, membership, corporate sponsorships, grants and donations. View full calendar of workshops.

In this role, she oversees the Office of Campus Ministry, Congregational Relations, the Segerhammar Center for Faith and Culture, the Office of Seminary Relations and interfaith outreach. She spearheads efforts to communicate the inclusive principles of Lutheran higher education central to the university. Highlights of her first year include the first joint spring meeting between the PLTS Advisory Board and the Cal Lutheran Convocation; weekly meetings of the Interfaith Interns and Allies to discuss interfaith topics and promote religious literacy on campus; monthly staff interfaith lunches; and providing support and education to pastors and lay church leaders. Planning is underway for the Western States Youth Gathering, an event for 700 high school students and adults at Cal Lutheran in summer 2017, and for the Western State Multicultural Youth Leadership Event, a one-day multicultural youth leadership event which will precede the Youth Gathering.

Thanks to the generosity of the late Darlene and Wilbert Carlson, the endowment provides for a faculty member to lead a youth and family ministry specialization within the Theology and Christian leadership degree program. The Rev. Dr. Colleen Windham-Hughes is the first holder of the chair. For the past five years she has served as the director of the Theology and Christian Leadership major. The $2.32 million gift endowed by the Carlson’s estate also provides support to advance science and education at the university. Learn more.

In the complex environment of congregational management, pastors need new tools for ministry. This continuing education event explored how concepts from an MBA program are applied to congregational life.

The three-year study marks what is considered to be the most comprehensive investigation of sport-related concussion conducted to date. Cal Lutheran is one of 30 universities, and one of only three Division III institutions, to be selected. To date, approximately 90% of CLU student-athletes have undergone baseline testing. The data collected will facilitate a better understanding of the natural history and neurobiology of concussion to ultimately enhance the safety and health of student-athletes, service members, youth sports participants, and the broader public. Read more.

The biggest was the university’s first NCAA Division III National Championship achieved by the women’s volleyball team. In addition, Allie Hadley earned an individual national champion title in javelin, the first Cal Lutheran student to win the gold in the NCAA Division III Women’s Outdoor Track & Field Championships. CLU Sports teams included two SCIAC Championships (women’s volleyball and baseball) and 126 SCIAC All-Academic athletes. Read more highlights.

I was recruited by Cal Lutheran diving coach Aaron Williams at a high school dive meet against Oaks Christian. The thought of being able to dive while representing my university was very enticing. I knew I wouldn't get the chance to dive anywhere else. I have been on the CLU NCAA Dive Team all four years at Cal Lutheran which has been an incredible experience. Getting to travel to different schools in our conference and competing at SCIAC Championships has been exhilarating, plus I've had a great team every year and have loved being able to create such strong bonds with them.

–Tianna Paskow ’17, Psychology major

Cal Lutheran became the first Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) school to offer men’s volleyball as a varsity intercollegiate sport.

The program allows students to work on interdisciplinary teams to formulate and pursue start-up ideas. Renee Rock’s Spring ENT101 Creativity and Innovation class was fully enrolled with students majoring in Business, Theater Arts, Communications, Music Production, Sociology, Computer Science, Economics, and Political Science.

The program, which officially began in fall of 2016, provides students with two track options: one focusing on Information Systems Management and the other a more technical focus on data analytics, or Big Data. The goal is to give students the technical foundation needed to plan, design, implement and manage IT solutions and systems.

With these degrees I can apply for a job in many countries. With only my Russian degree I might not be able to.

–Ruslan Korchagin ’15 MBA, ’16 MSIT, from Russia

One is designed for domestic and international students with little or no work experience and offers functional specializations. The second one, the Executive MBA, is for students with a minimum of 5-7 years of relevant, managerial work experience with significant career success who are seeking to achieve their next big goals.

A partnership with Sierra Sands School district, initiated by a Cal Lutheran doctoral alumnus, allows the university to provide opportunities in this under-served region. 

Cal Lutheran helped me see beyond the limited opportunities that were present in my childhood. It provided me with an experience that I would never have received otherwise.

–Juan Santos ’98, ’03, ’14, Director of Student Support Services, Conejo Valley Unified School District

For students whose academic goals are not best served by a traditional major offered in the Bachelor’s Degree for Professionals program, Cal Lutheran offers the opportunity to design an interdisciplinary major in which the student selects courses from more than one department.  Examples of interdisciplinary majors are business communication, management and organizational communication, organization behavior, and business psychology, etc. A new minor in Communication has also been added.

About 150 CFOs from some of the largest firms in the region attended. The all-day event in downtown Los Angeles was a great way to extend our geographical reach and to expand our network.

• BrowZine Web edition – originally developed for mobile devices, it has been expanded to a web interface that provides researchers with easy access to scholarly journals in a variety of subject areas.
• Swank Streaming Video Library – a platform for streaming the most requested feature films for curriculum support and allows faculty to legally stream major motion pictures within the Blackboard courses.
• Research Companion - multimedia-based information literacy resource.  Assists students with effective scholarly research and supports educators as they teach the core information literacy principles of finding, evaluating, and using information.
• Philosophy Database - a full-text journal and dissertations database specifically designed for researchers of all aspects of the interdisciplinary field of Philosophy.
• Springer 2015-2016 e-books collections – over 3,665 Springer e-books published in 2015-16 were added to the library collection. Subjects include Behavioral Science and Psychology, Biomedical & Life Science, Computer Science, Earth & Environmental Science, Mathematics & Statistics, and Physics & Astronomy.
• Rosetta Stone - the preeminent online language learning tool world-wide is now available to students, faculty and staff at Cal Lutheran. 

Hill graduated from Cal Lutheran with a BS in Medical Technology. She attended UC Davis for medical school, and later completed her anesthesiology residency at Stanford University Medical School. In 2006, she earned an MBA from Washington University. Hill is the Chair of Anesthesiology at Emory's School of Medicine.  At Emory, she oversees a $140 million operating budget, with 400 faculty spread over two hospitals. She is also one of only eight individuals in the U.S. trained in hazardous materials procedures for the Center for Disease Control and was part of the team that treated U.S. patients during the 2014 Ebola outbreak. Hill serves on Cal Lutheran’s Commission for the Sciences.

Located in the former cafeteria, the 18,302-square-foot, two-story Student Union is a welcoming and spacious gathering place for students to socialize around game tables and a lounge complete with a media room, comfortable chairs and couches with built-in power charging stations, and computers. The Union also houses programs for multicultural and international students, military veterans, community service volunteers, travelers abroad and job seekers.

The Ahmanson Foundation generously pledged $750,000 toward the $2.5 million project which provides support services to veterans and military members to obtain a quality education.

Located next to the William Rolland Stadium and Gallery, the facility will feature a first floor art gallery to display student art. Studio arts courses taught in the new building will include photography, ceramics, sculpture, drawing and painting. The Art Center will open by Fall 2017.

The new site improves the seminary's technology and ADA requirements, brings PLTS alongside non-profits and social ministries for important partnerships, and locates the seminary close to the Graduate Theological Union (GTU).

That PLTS is now part of CLU is a sign of hope for the future as we prepare those who will serve the church and society as clergy, educators and lay leaders. The PLTS faculty are outstanding scholars, with a restlessness for a more just world and a yearning for a creation that is reflective of God's ongoing creating goodness rather than humanity's consumptive living.

–Rev. Mark Hanson, Cal Lutheran Regent, Distinguished Fellow at Augsburg College

The digital signage allows for up-to-date publicity of on-campus events and programs, and is tied into the existing process for the Hub events calendar. Flyers, posters, and photos of upcoming activities are featured, as well as a scrolling banner of announcements.

Construction of two practice fields, a paved parking lot, and temporary modular buildings that will be used for offices, training, and locker rooms were completed in August. The facility at Cal Lutheran is home base for about 130 athletes, coaches, trainers and other staff members. The entrance to the facility is off of Campus Drive, and the entire area is enclosed.

It is enhancing the stadium experience for audiences at university athletic events and will also be used for special occasions such as Commencement.

The Fletcher Jones Foundation awarded $500,000 to name the Fletcher Jones Foundation Cell and Developmental Genetics Teaching Laboratory in the Science facility, and we received a Keck grant for $300,000 for the W.M. Keck Life Sciences Advanced Instrumentation Suite.

I had thought that I would like to go to a very large school. However, after visiting Cal Lutheran during the Presidential Scholarship weekend event, I immediately knew that I wanted to attend a college where students were the priority. The small-campus feeling along with a small student-teacher ratio made me realize that I made the right choice. Having the ability to interact with faculty directly by sharing ideas and knowledge that pertained to my field of study has been extremely beneficial.

–Salvador Brito ’16, doctoral student, neuroscience, Harvard University

Thanks to the generosity of our campus community, friends and supporters, over $88,000 was raised. The CLU Annual Fund also celebrated another successful year bringing in nearly $900,000.

New campaigns were also rolled out to support the graduate school programs. Development began on rebranding athletics logos.

CLU is special because it allows me to grow and find my purpose. The class options allow me to figure out what I'm really interested in and lets me take classes outside of my major. The people at CLU -  students, faculty, and administration - are some of the most caring people I've ever met. It amazes me how different my experience at CLU is compared to my friends at large public universities.”

–Nakiessa Abbassi ’19, Political Science major

Popular annual events included the Corporate Leaders Breakfast Series, the Mathews Leadership Forum, and Hats & High Tea, which all attracted record attendance in 2015-2016. Events are publicized online and through a biannual printed calendar mailer.

A team that included President Chris Kimball, School of Management Dean Gerhard Apfelthaler; School of Management Director of International Relations Harry Domicone; and Director of International Admission Dane Rowley, visited China where they attended an alumni event and met with prospective students and leaders of our partner institutions.

I wanted to come to Cal Lutheran specifically, because of the good recommendations from foreign students. They said that the program enabled you to grow in alignment with the requirements that a future employer may require. During my five years of studying in Norway I had never had a presentation in class, and I wanted a degree that could prepare me for more than written exams. Also, gaining new friendships from across the world at Cal Lutheran has widened my perspective on many topics.

–Oda Christine Ystrom ’17, MBA, from Norway

They will help develop long-range plans and coordinate fundraising efforts for the award-winning National Public Radio station.

Exhibits included:

• The Faces of Millennial Angst
• Collective Voices: A Juried Student Art Exhibition
• Return to the Roots: The Art of Desta Hagos ‘73
• Reflections: The Art of Paul Finkel
• Ritual and Art: Pluralities in The Ellsworth La Boyteaux Collection of New Guinea Artifacts

Special events included:

• Reading and discussion by award-winning author Sofia Samatar
• Creative Placemaking and Careers in Arts Management