Academics

Remembering our legacy — and its complexities — helps provide direction for our institution to work toward a better future for our students, faculty and staff, and community. Departments within our division have undertaken a series of projects to improve our education, support the success of our faculty and chronicle the CSUN story.

• Departments in our College of Social and Behavioral Sciences have begun active discussions about decolonizing curriculum discussions.
• 25 David Nazarian College of Business and Economics faculty members have completed the Association of College and University Educators (ACUE) or the CSU Quality of Learning and Teaching (QLT) certification. To further support faculty with improving their teaching experience to be more inclusive and reduce equity gaps, the college offered four workshops conducted by the Office of Faculty Development and the Office of Student Success on:
  • “Closing the Equity Gap”
  • “Exploring Bias in the Classroom”
  • “Early Alerts” 
  • “Exploring Bias and Student Learning Objectives”
• The University Library has embarked upon a CSUN Leaders Oral History Project to document our legacy, history and progress. The Library has commissioned dozens of oral history interviews covering the past 60 years of CSUN, including professors, administrators and students, to record our institutional history by those who helped shape it. These oral histories highlight social justice efforts in a chronological context — our failures, our successes and our future. Through this project, we can embrace and teach these campus legacies to honor our history and hold ourselves accountable to achieve a more equitable and just future.

At CSUN, our goal is continual academic innovation and enhancement. By paying sustained attention to the quality of our instruction and educational experiences, we have accomplished the following:

• Annually, the College of Science and Mathematics empowers over 200 undergraduate students to participate in research efforts, which generate grant activity and publications.
• The College of Health and Human Development hosts the HHD Research Excellence & Innovation Conference and additional high-quality events like Collaboratoria and Haute Couture, which showcase the talents of our students and faculty.
• The Tseng College recently developed a new graduate program model in which post-baccalaureate and post-master’s students can earn a master’s degree or take a series of shorter certificate programs focused on areas of new knowledge and approaches. This model allows CSUN to provide an impactful combination of academic options for those who need various modes of advanced professional education during their careers.

CSUN stands firmly committed to promoting structural equity and cultivating a place of belonging for all students, faculty and staff. To advance this mission and align our infrastructure with our values, the Division of Academic Affairs has taken part in the following:

• Project Rebound, in the College of Humanities, has received a new award, “From Prison to Computer Science Careers: Creating a Pipeline for Formerly Incarcerated People.”
• In partnership with the College of Education, the Department of Interdisciplinary and Liberal Studies in the College of Humanities focuses on recruiting men of color into elementary school teaching.
• The Department of Linguistics / TESL and the Chicana/o/x Studies Department, both in the College of Humanities, collaborate with two local high schools to design and deliver a series of lesson plans that explore how language variation, including perceptions about variation, interact with social categories such as race, power and identity.
• The David Nazarian College of Business and Economics has updated previously restrictive policies limiting student readmission to better align with CSUN’s values and university-level policies. With these updates, the college actively champions student success by empowering students to transition into their intended major and connecting them with departmental staff and essential resources they need to graduate and excel in the workforce.
• The Michael D. Eisner College of Education has created a comprehensive, accessible and personalized student success approach, ensuring overall student wellness, from basic needs to mental health, is covered. This promotes the quality of classroom pedagogy, equitable access to digital technologies, experiential learning, academic support and more to prepare students for their futures beyond CSUN.

When our students succeed, we succeed. The Academic Affairs division seeks to eliminate barriers to academic and professional success by delivering high-quality services, investing in initiatives to raise retention rates and academic achievements, and expanding access to data, technology and culturally responsive teaching practices. In recent years, Academic Affairs and its affiliated departments have made sizable progress.

• The Mike Curb College of Arts, Media, and Communication successfully facilitates the Peer Coaching Program, which hires successful juniors and seniors as peer coaches to partner with new students and participate in one-on-one meetings, workshops and social events.
• Additionally, Mike Curb College created a Faculty Learning Community of eight to 10 faculty members and provided a stipend for their time and effort. Current faculty from the Department of Social Work in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences facilitate these meetings to share culturally responsive practices, a growth mindset and student-centered teaching.
• The College of Engineering and Computer Science (CECS) works to support student success by:
  • Offering Freshman Scholarship opportunities and hosting Scholarship Night with award winners, their families, donors and community partners.
  • Hosting Pacific Southwest ASCE Student Symposium.
  • Hold fall/spring semester College‐wide Town Hall meetings.

The Division of Academic Affairs shares CSUN’s larger goal of fostering stronger internal and external communities through proactive partnerships and increased engagement. With a more pronounced culture of philanthropy and connection, CSUN can serve our on-campus and regional communities through accessible resources and tangible initiatives.

• The College of Humanities continually strives to forge partnerships with Parent Pioneers – Padres Pioneros, USDA Forest Service, TreePeople, and the Humanities Action Lab (HAL) of Rutgers University, along with others. Additionally, they have:
  • Completed a native plant restoration project in the Angeles National Forest.
  • Served over 600 elementary children and their families in the Good Heart Chicana/o and Native Science after-school entrepreneurship in science, technology, engineering and arts (E-STEAM) program.
  • Initiated a local, national and global climate leadership training program for low-income community members.
• Mike Curb College of Arts, Media, and Communication intentionally works to bring the arts to our local areas by hosting and participating in programs that invite community involvement and engage regional cultural institutions and relevant industries. These programs include:
  • Art Gallery Exhibitions
  • CSUN Cinematheque
  • Entertainment Industry Institute Symposium
  • Music Therapy Wellness Clinic
  • Teenage Drama Workshop
  • Youth Orchestra
• The University Library has actively stewarded and sponsored the Bonita J. Campbell Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) Endowment to cultivate a culture of philanthropy and expand opportunities for greater donor engagement in support of CSUN initiatives. The WISE Endowment sponsors student scholarships, faculty research fellowships, special speakers, career events, industry engagement, student outreach and many other activities encouraging women to enter underrepresented STEM fields. With these strengthened external relationships, we work to build seamless connections between the community and the campus for mutual benefit.

To help further our university-wide objectives, our division strives to support better institutional infrastructure, immersive academic opportunities and human resource management. Our recent endeavors have included the following:

• A designated faculty fellow from the College of Humanities partners with chairs in the college, the Office of Equity and Compliance, and Faculty Development to create and deliver resources, mentorship and workshops for probationary faculty in the college. Additionally, they host workshops for senior faculty to develop mentoring skills.
• Tseng College aims to elevate CSUN's self-support programs to a more comprehensive branding level. To accomplish this, the college plans to showcase our authentic story better regarding how the university sustains programs offered, focusing on the high-value features of CSUN’s self-support program excellence and distinction and the levels of student success achieved.
• Our College of Engineering and Computer Science has established the Global Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) Equity Innovation Hub to support HSI programming and connect Latinx students to transformative STEAM resources. Alongside this endeavor, CECS has been coordinating professional development opportunities for faculty and staff to provide insight and guidance into equity gaps, DEI and how they can be agents of change.