From Open Spaces and Temporary Buildings

Joan Monteverde has seen Cal State Fullerton Grow in Size and Complexity

August 27, 2007

By Pam McLaren

It's hard to believe now — when the campus has more than 35,000 students and 5,000 faculty and staff members — that in the early days, there were vast open spaces on the then Orange County State College campus. When Joan Monteverde joined the campus in December 1969, the university had only six buildings and a little over 12,000 students.

Now a credential analyst within the College of Education, Monteverde began her CSUF career as a supervisor of registration in admissions and records, where students turned in paper requests and large computer cards were pulled for each class and bundled together with the student’s class schedule. She joined the teacher credentials area — still in Admissions and Records at the time — in 1973.           

Monteverde, who had been living in Minneapolis and working at the University of Minnesota, came to California and Cal State Fullerton for the sunshine — and warm weather.

“Due to record-breaking blizzards, I had to shovel my car out of snow from its parking space every day during the months of December and January,” she remembers with a chuckle. “When my brother moved and opened an orthodontic practice in the San Diego area and my dear friend, Kathryn Randolph, relocated to Fullerton to teach at Fullerton Junior College, I decided to move to California. Dr. Randolph introduced me to Orange County and CSUF.”

The two college campuses could not have been more different to Monteverde as she first approached Cal State Fullerton.

“When I followed the map I was given to the campus and arrived, I thought I had not followed the directions correctly. I believed I must have been at the local high school because there were only a couple of buildings surrounded by orange groves,” she says today. “Having just left the University of Minnesota [she worked on the main campus that at that time had about 40,000 students, she remembers], this did not have the university appearance that I was familiar with.

“I remember meeting with Mr. Pine and his secretary in the Human Relations Office on the seventh floor of McCarthy Hall [then the Letters and Sciences building]. They were the only staff,” Monteverde says.

What she remembers from those early days is the camaraderie among faculty and staff “because we all knew one another and were able to personally interact,” and how easy it was to get to campus. 

“Driving to campus daily from Brea, with a four-way stop on Imperial Highway and State College Boulevard, made me realize that traffic was not nearly as congested as it is today. Parking on campus was not an issue like the one I had dealt with at that time on the Minneapolis campus.”

Parking and traffic are not only changes Monteverde has seen. “The yearly growth of buildings and student population on campus is a continual reminder of how the campus has transformed successfully throughout the decades,” she notes. “CSUF has become one of the most prominent and contributing institutions in Orange County due to the accomplished and high-achieving individuals who graduate from our university.

After nearly 37 years on campus, what she has continued to appreciate about working at Cal State Fullerton is that “it has afforded me vast opportunities for growth and personal development. 

“I have been fortunate to be promoted to a position where I have daily contact with our student population, particularly the future teachers and administrators of America. This has been one of the most enriching experiences of my life. Through the eyes of future teachers and administrators, I am able to see the future success of our country.”

What does the future holds for her?

“I will continue to serve the faculty and students to the best of my ability until my retirement,” she says proudly. “After my retirement, I plan to continue to use the various resources offered by our university, such as the [Osher Lifelong Learning Institute]. This will enable me to keep active with the CSUF community where I have spent some of the most rewarding years of my life.”