September 16, 2007

Great growth marks CSUF's anniversary
Cal State Fullerton celebrates 50 years of education, and looks forward to greater challenges.
By MARLA JO FISHER
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

FULLERTON - It's a historic weekend for Cal State Fullerton, which has begun kicking off its 50th anniversary year with an alumni homecoming and a look back at the phenomenal growth of a campus that started in borrowed classrooms with 452 students.

As the campus remembers the past, President Milton Gordon peered forward, predicting that the next 50 years will bring more growth, a younger student body, more dormitories, branch campuses and more degrees to offer.

"One of the challenges we are facing is that, at some point, we might have to restrict our applicants," Gordon said. "I am very reluctant to reduce the number of students we can accept who want to come here and who are qualified, but I don't know how long we'll be able to go on this way."

The university, which last year was ranked the second-largest public university in California with 36,000 students, second only to UCLA, has already taken some measures to keep enrollment in check.

Within its core area, including all of Orange County, Fullerton continues to accept all "B average" freshmen who apply within the fall application period, which typically lasts one or two months. However, outside of that area, would-be students must have higher GPAs and other qualifications.

The opening of the university's Irvine campus, for upper-division students only, has allowed Fullerton to continue to grow, while the other largest CSU campuses at Long Beach and San Diego are more limited by space.

Gordon predicted that his university would add more branch campuses in the coming years, possibly including one at the former Tustin Marine Air Station. Campus officials are already seeking land there, he said.

"Land is expensive, that's always the challenge for us," Gordon said. As the campus grows its enrollment, it also is becoming younger, with more first-time freshmen enrolling directly out of high school.

Gordon said when he arrived at Fullerton 18 years ago, the average student age was 27. Now, it's 22.

Although the university is celebrating its golden anniversary this year, the year the state Legislature approved its opening, the first classes didn't actually begin until 1959, in borrowed rooms at Sunny Hills High School.

In the early years, the Orange County State College, as it was known, was only open to upper-division students transferring from junior colleges.

Former student Jack Hale, now 66, helped found a fraternity when he arrived in 1961 as a transfer student from Fullerton College. Like others, he took classes in former Air Force barracks installed in 1960 that still serve as maintenance buildings on the west side of campus.

Hale is best known for coming up with the idea that has become not only a Fullerton legend but also sparked the campus mascot: Tuffy the Titan.

Hale was among a group of students and administrators discussing upcoming spring events when a tale was related about the Coast Guard rescuing an Indian maharajah and receiving an elephant as a thank-you gift.

"I said, 'That's it. We need to race elephants,'" Hale said, remembering a remark that initially was only a joke.

The joke didn't die, however, but continued to expand, with the addition of an elephant donated by Jungleland, an exotic animal farm that catered to the movie industry.

And, in May 1962, the college held the "First Intercollegiate Elephant Races in Human History," for 15 colleges that competed in a converted corn field adjacent to the campus that was dubbed "Dumbo Downs."

The races attracted attention from national media and 10,000 spectators. The winning elephant, from Harvard University, was ridden by Joe Russin, who is now the executive editor of KTLA News.

In 1991, the university re-created the event with an elephant ridden by Gordon.

This time around, though, for the 2007 celebration, live elephants were nixed from the scene.

In 1959, the college opened, offering one major: elementary education. After becoming a university in 1972, the campus now awards degrees in 105 subjects, with 50 at the graduate level, including a doctorate in education.

Gordon said he hopes in coming years to see his university granted the opportunity to offer more doctorates, in technical fields such as audiology, the science of hearing.

"I'm personally as excited about the Cal State Fullerton story as I was when I came here 18 years ago," Gordon said. "I think there's so much going on here that's good. Hopefully that will continue."

Cal State Fullerton history

1957: California State Legislature passed SB2680 appropriating $1.65 million to open a new Orange County State College to serve populations moving south into new suburbs opened up by the I-5 freeway.

1958: CSU trustees select Fullerton as the location for the new school, disappointing Anaheim, which was vying for the honor.

1959: Classes begin at Sunny Hills High School with 452 students registered for 41 classes.

1960: Four Army barracks are brought from March Air Force Base to serve as classrooms in the Fullerton orange grove.

1962: First elephant races bring national attention to the campus and launch mascot "Tuffy the Titan."

1963: The Science Building becomes the first permanent structure and tallest building in Fullerton.

1964: 250 protest changing OCSC's name to California State College at Fullerton.

1970: Gov. Ronald Reagan speaks on campus, igniting student protests that last for months. Students took over the president's office and stage sit-ins in the Science Building. Thirty-seven are arrested.

1972: The college becomes a university.

1976: Disgruntled employee Edward Charles Allaway opens fire in the campus library, killing seven and wounding two – the worst mass murder in county history.

1979: Fullerton Arboretum opens.

1978: President Donald Shields proposes students pay annual tuition for the first time in the wake of Proposition 13.

1984: Team handball played at Titan Gym, the only Orange County location for the Los Angeles Olympic Games.

1993: 100,000th degree awarded.

1999: Grand Central Art Center in Santa Ana opens as satellite campus.

2002: CSUF opens its El Toro campus, now the Irvine branch campus.

2007: University begins to offer its first doctorate in education. School celebrates its 50th anniversary.