The talk on most college campuses — at least public college campuses — is mostly about budget cuts, or how to somehow squeeze an equivalent amount of education from a rapidly shrinking pool of money. Things like a fancy new dining hall seem like the product of a by-gone era. Except for the lucky kids at California Lutheran University who are getting a $15 million new, environmentally friendly Dining Commons. The university announced last week that it’s beginning construction on the new structure, which will take its place in the center of the Thousand Oaks campus. With glass curtain walls looking out over the academic corridor and Kingsmen Park, the facility will be built where the Student Union Building and Pavilion now stand. Student Affairs offices are being moved in preparation for demolition of the student union, slated for June. Construction on the new facility will begin in late fall with completion targeted for spring 2014. The university said the new Commons will be a gathering place for undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, staff and visitors. The design makes extensive use of natural light and there will be large balconies on the east, south and west sides of the second floor for eating and gathering. CLU will seek silver level LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification for the building, incorporating energy-saving features. The university had originally scaled back the project to accommodate a $13 million budget, but a $2 million gift from the Ullman Foundation allowed CLU to go back to the original design with glass walls and a more attractive roof and entryway. When CLU Regent George “Corky” Ullman Jr., a Santa Clarita resident who graduated from CLU in 1976, saw the scaled-back plans, he and his brother, 1977 alumnus Steve Ullman of Santa Clarita, decided to donate the additional money needed to build the better facility, school officials said. California’s public school students should be so lucky! CSUN Tops for Hispanic Students California State University, Northridge ranked among the top 10 institutions of higher education nationwide for awarding bachelor’s and master’s degrees to Hispanic students, according to newly released rankings from Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education. The magazine ranked Northridge seventh in the country based on the number of bachelor’s degrees awarded and ninth for master’s degrees. In 2011, the school awarded 1,620 bachelor’s degrees and 358 master’s degrees. The school came in just below California State University, Fullerton which ranked fourth and just above Long Beach, which ranked 9th for undergraduate degrees. “California State University, Northridge’s latest rankings shows that our long-term commitment to diversity and serving traditionally underrepresented students has been successful,” Interim President Harry Hellenbrand said in a prepared statement. The magazine bases its results on information provided by the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics and its Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System for the year 2011. The school ranked second nationwide in awarding bachelor degrees to Hispanics in psychology, fifth in communications, journalism, English language and literature and the visual and performing arts. It ranked seventh in parks, recreation and fitness studies and ninth Hispanic American, Puerto Rican and Mexican-American/Chicano Studies. CSUN is making great strides toward graduating more Hispanics with important degrees. Equally important will be to see the school’s College of Engineering and Computer Science graduate as many students as its arts, communications and fitness programs. The school received a grant of $5.5 million from the U.S. Department of Education Hispanic Serving Institutions STEM Program late last year. At the time, Dean S. K. Ramesh said that only 6.6 percent of the school’s Hispanic students graduate within five years. Next time Hispanic Outlook publishes its list, we hope to see a record number of Hispanic engineering students up there with the others. Enter Here to an Education They may be talking about freezing admissions to cope with budget cutbacks, but the road to an education at California State University, Channel Islands in Camarillo just got a lot wider. Earlier this month, the university completed of a new, four-lane main entrance to the campus. The $21 million road and entryway was funded by a 2006 bond measure and was 18 months in the making. The campus hopes to grow to accommodate 15,000 full-time equivalent students. If it reaches its goal despite looming cutbacks, the new entry-way should help ease the flow of traffic on and off the campus.
