The growth and development of a California State College

Includes bibliographical references (pages 179-186)As one of the nineteen campuses of The California State University and Colleges financed primarily through public funding, California State University, Northridge has experienced phenomenal growth while maintaining the highest caliber of educational administration and instructional offerings. It had its inception as a satellite campus of Los Angeles State College in 1957 and in sixteen years grew to be the fourth largest institution in total enrollment systemwide.\ud A building program which provided eleven major buildings in its first five years of existence was accompanied by changes in the academic organizational structure of the college, by curricular expansion, and by a continuing reassessment of the aims and purposes of an institution in the field of higher education. This rapid growth necessitated three major reorganizations of the academic units to keep pace with the curricular expansion and to maintain a proper communications structure within the academic units.\ud This institution was among the first of the State Colleges to adopt and develop a university-type organizational pattern to cope with the burden of detail and pressures that coexisted with the expanding enrollment. It continued to strive for increased participation of faculty and administrative staff in policy matters by periodic review of the faculty committee structure. Its academic master plans took into consideration the changing emphasis of societal needs while adhering to the institutional commitment to maintain an educational program emphasizing liberal arts, humanities, and the sciences. In the current stabilization of enrollment and diminished resources, the institution now reaccepts the challenge to retain this emphasis regardless of fluctuations in demand