California State University, Northridge

California State University, Northridge exists to enable students to realize their educational goals. The University’s first priority is to promote the welfare and intellectual progress of students. To fulfill this mission, we design programs and activities to help students develop the academic competencies, professional skills, critical and creative abilities, and ethical values of learned persons who live in a democratic society, an interdependent world, and a technological age; we seek to foster a rigorous and contemporary understanding of the liberal arts, sciences, and professional disciplines.

We demonstrate excellence in teaching. We honor and reward high performance in learning, teaching, scholarship, research, service, and creative activity. Because the quality of our academic programs is central to our mission, we encourage intellectual curiosity and protect the multiple expressions of academic freedom.

We set the highest standards for ourselves in all of our actions and activities and support the professional development of faculty, staff and administrators. We assess our performance so that every area of university life will be 
continually improved and renewed. We recognize and reward our efforts of greatest distinction and through them provide state and national leadership.

We aspire to behave as an inclusive, cooperative community. Our behaviors, policies, and programs affirm the worth and personal dignity of every member of the university community and contribute to a campus climate of civility, collegiality, tolerance, and reasoned debate.

We seek partnerships with local schools, community colleges, businesses, government and social agencies to advance the educational, intellectual, artistic, civic, cultural and economic aspirations of our surrounding communities.We seek to provide an environment conducive to innovation, experimentation, and creativity. We encourage all members of our community to take intellectual and creative risks and to embrace changes that will enhance the fulfillment of the University’s mission.

California State University, Northridge is inspired by the belief that our commitment to educational opportunity, inclusion and excellence will extend the promise of America to succeeding generations. Our graduates will be the vanguard of leaders for this century—committed to sustaining a democracy in which diverse people share in the rights and responsibilities of citizenship, proficient in applying technology to wise purposes, and dedicated to securing a humane world community and sustaining the bounty of the earth. As an institution of higher learning.

CSUN Marketing and Communications is a full-service creative team that highlights the student, faculty and alumni success stories that make the university one of the country’s leading academic institutions.

Our professional communicators work with all media, including on-campus publications, local, state, national and international press. Our staff issues media releases, assists with media events and handles all the university’s strategic communications. Our office also maintains a list of faculty experts who can provide informed comments on timely topics.

Our emergency communications systems are used to immediately notify the campus community of significant emergency or dangerous situations involving an immediate threat to the health or safety or students, staff or faculty. We will use a variety of channels to tell you what you need to know and what you need to do to be safe.

The Office of Admissions and Records promotes student success through services that begin with the application to Cal State Northridge and culminate with graduation. WHEN YOU APPLY, we communicate admissions criteria, timelines and instructions; evaluate your course work, credit and test scores; and provide online tools for you to monitor and complete your application process. DURING YOUR STUDIES, we answer your questions, help you interpret university policies pertaining to enrollment, provide degree planning tools, maintain your student records, and verify enrollment and GPA. AS GRADUATION NEARS, we assist you with applying for the bachelor's degree and diploma, offer guidance to meet all degree requirements, and verify completion of those requirements. BEYOND GRADUATION, we maintain your permanent academic record.

In many ways, Cal State Northridge began like many other Valley institutions: Trees were cleared and foundations poured at sites that were once orange, lemon or avocado groves. Hand-lettered signs gave directions to temporary buildings connected by plank pathways. But before that humble start, there was a great deal of political maneuvering to ensure that a four-year college would even be located in the Valley. in 1952, state officials had originally identified Baldwin Hills as the site of a satellite campus for Los Angeles State College (now Cal State Los Angeles). In reaction to the decision, Valley leaders organized to successfully overturn the legislation and to later ensure that a four-year college would be sited in the San Fernando Valley. On December 21, 1954, advocates for a Valley four-year college hosted 23 legislators for dinner at the Brown Derby on Wilshire Boulevard. Armed with demographic projections, they pitched the Valley as the only logical place for the next state college. The pitch worked. In 1955, state Assemblyman Judge Julian Beck sent the legislation for approval to purchase land in the north San Fernando Valley for a new satellite campus to Los Angeles State College.