California State University, San Marcos

California State University, San Marcos (also CSUSM or Cal State San Marcos) is a campus of the California State University (CSU) system located in San Marcos, California, a suburban town in north San Diego County. It was founded in 1989 as the 20th CSU campus and was the first after nearly 30 years. The first class was admitted in 1990.

History

Efforts by community and political leaders to attract a state university to North County date back to 1968. In 1978, state legislator William A. Craven (1921-1999) won state funding for a North County satellite campus of San Diego State University. In 1989, Gov. George Deukmejian signed another Craven bill which established a CSU campus in San Marcos.

The state purchased land in San Marcos, including the former Prohoroff Poultry Farms chicken ranch. The hillside site lies approximately 8 miles (13 km) due east of the Pacific Ocean and 25 miles (40 km) due north of downtown San Diego. Today the campus comprises 304 acres (123 ha).

Bill Stacy was appointed president in June 1989. During the 1989-1990 academic year, Stacy hired 12 "Founding Faculty," who played an important role in the university's early years and today are memorialized in Founders Plaza.

CSUSM admitted upper division students and held classes from September 1990 through August 1992 in rented facilities in a San Marcos business park, alongside the North County campus of San Diego State. Groundbreaking for the permanent campus occurred on February 23, 1990. Classes began at the current campus in August 1992. Craven Hall was the third instructional building opened in December 1992, and the largest building up to that time at 155,000 square feet.

Since 1992, the campus has been on an ongoing building spree. Major additions over the subsequent decade include the Foundation Classroom Buildings (December 1996), University Hall (1998), a second Science building (August 2002) and the Arts building (August 2002). The largest building to date is Kellogg Library, opened January 2004 with nearly 200,000 square feet. The most recent addition is Markstein Hall (January 2006), home of the College of Business Administration.

Faculty

The university has had four presidents:

Bill Stacy (1989-1997), who left to become chancellor of the Chattanooga campus of the University of Tennessee
Alexander Gonzalez (1997-2003), previously the provost of the California State University, Fresno who left CSUSM to become president of the larger California State University, Sacramento
Roy McTarnaghan (2003-2004), interim president
Karen S. Haynes, (2004-), former president of University of Houston-Victoria, who joined CSUSM in February 2004

The university opened in 1990 with the 24 faculty. Today it employs 200 tenure-track and tenured faculty out of a total of 980 employees.

Academics

Originally, the university admitted only upper class students; enrollment in 1990-1991 was 448. The first freshman students entered in 1995, when enrollment totalled 3,642.

The university's enrollment (as of Fall 2005) was approximately 7,600 students; about two-thirds of the students were from San Diego County. Enrollment is projected to surpass 12,000 students in 2010 and 18,000 students by 2020. The campus master plan calls for an eventual enrollment of 25,000.

The university has four colleges: Arts & Sciences, Business Administration, Health and Human Services and Education. In the 2002-2003 academic year, the most popular majors were Business Administration, Liberal Studies and the Multiple Subject (Elementary) Credential. The latter two majors are mainly used by those planning on becoming K-12 teachers. From its opening through the summer 2000, the school had awarded 5,490 bachelor's degrees, 2,478 credentials and 457 master's degrees.

Campus culture

The university's founding mission statement promises "excellence in undergraduate and graduate education to a diverse citizenry in an increasingly interdependent world."

The focus on diversity has emphasized Latino culture, including:

the Center for the Study of Books in Spanish for Children and Adolescents, a fully bilingual center about Spanish-language books;
a statue of César Chávez in Chávez Plaza, inscribed with the motto of the United Farm Workers Union ("Sí se puede"); and
an active chapter of the MEChA Chicano/Chicana student movement.

Athletics

The original mascot of the campus was established as the "Tukwut," the name for the California mountain lion in the language of the Luiseño Native American tribe. However, a 1999 student referendum selected the more generic "Cougars" as the name for all CSUSM sports teams.

Today the school fields men's and women's teams in golf, cross country, and track. The official colors of the Cougars are bright blue and white with burgundy as an accent. Cougar athletic teams compete as independents in Region II of the NAIA. CSUSM soon plans to offer baseball, softball, and men's and women's soccer in 2006-2007. The school recently hired their first coaches in Softball (Jennifer Milo), Baseball (Dennis Pugh), and Soccer (Ron Pulvers). These strong coaches add to the already-strong roster of coaches at Cal State San Marcos. Steve Scott (aka "The Miler") is the Cougars' Cross Country and Track & Field coach.

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