Since its founding in 1949, California State University, Long Beach has grown into one of the nation’s preeminent state universities. With an enrollment of more than 35,500 students, CSULB is the second largest university in California and has graduated more than 240250,000 alumni in its 60 years.

CSULB’s eight colleges offer 84 baccalaureate degrees, 67 master’s degrees, an independent Ed.D. degree, as well as two joint doctorates with other universities. The campus features 84 permanent buildings on 323 acres, including the 1.3-acre Earl Burns Miller Japanese Garden, 18-story Walter Pyramid athletic arena, nationally accredited University Art Museum, 1,074-seat Carpenter Performing Arts Center and a nearly 1.3 million-volume library.

• The university was founded during the centennial of the discovery of gold in California, so students chose “49ers” as the school nickname. The first mascot was a burro named Nugget, and the campus annually celebrated “49er Days” by building a mock western town. The campus has gone through five name changes since its inception and is now fondly referred to as “The Beach.”

• CSULB students and faculty often collaborate as co-authors of articles in major research journals and as presenters at research conferences, which help students gain admission into prestigious graduate and professional schools including Harvard, Yale, Stanford and MIT. As a result, the National Science Foundation’s Baccalaureate Origins of U.S. Research Doctorate Recipients: 1997-2006 report lists Cal State Long Beach as the top master’s university in the nation whose graduates go on to earn doctorates in science and engineering.


• The first scholarship program of its type in the state, the President’s Scholars Program has enrolled more than 970 California valedictorians and National Merit scholars since 1995.


• CSULB’s KKJZ “K-Jazz” 88.1 FM radio station is among the top five most listened-to of all public radio stations in the country.

• Anthony Batts, chief, Long Beach Oakland Police Department
• Jan Burke, mystery fiction novelist
• Steve Martin, actor, and author and musician
• Tony Baxter, senior vice president of creative development, Walt Disney Imagineering
• Karen and Richard Carpenter, among the top selling music groups in recording history
• Justice Michael L. Douglas, the first African-American justice on the Nevada Supreme Court
• Cynthia Stamper Graff, president and CEO, Lindora Inc., the nation’s largest weight control system
• Roger F. Greaves, chairman of the board, former co-president and co-CEO, Health Net Inc.
• Georgia Griffiths, founder and CEO of G2 Software Systems, San Diego’s premiere, award-winning, woman-owned defense contractor
• Erin Gruwell, teacher and founder of the Freedom Writers
• Said Hilal, president and CEO, Applied Medical Resources Corp., a leading medical devices manufacturer
• James Mazzo, president, Abbott Medical Optics
• Dr. J. Mario Molina, president and CEO; and John C. Molina, chief financial officer, Molina Healthcare Inc.
• Naomi Rainey, president, Long Beach Branch, NAACP
• Raul Rodriguez, conceptual artist and winner of more Rose Parade float design awards than any other designer
• Dana Rohrabacher, United States Congressman
• Joe Wong, owner of more than 40 restaurant franchises in California and Oregon
• Twenty-nine Major League Baseball players including 2008 American League Rookie of the Year Evan Longoria, Tampa Bay Rays; Troy Tulowitzky, Colorado Rockies; Jered Weaver, Anaheim Angels; and Bobby Crosby and Jason Giambi, Oakland Athletics.
• Thirty-one Olympic medalists including Beijing 2008 medalists Misty May-Treanor, gold – beach volleyball; Tom Hoff (team captain), Scott Touzinsky and David Lee, gold – men’s volleyball; and Tayyiba Haneef-Park and Danielle Scott-Arruda, silver – women’s volleyball

•  “CSULB, particularly the science departments,gave me such a solid foundation of not just information and masteryof material, but also taught me how to think critically, and that iskey in graduate school.” – Tiffany Link ’04, now enrolled in the M.D./Ph.D. program at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine 

• “I had a great experience at Long Beach and I owe it all to that first class (in Film and Electronic Arts). I’ve applied everything that they taught me and it paid off.” – Bob Read ’88, co-producer, “The Jay Leno Show”; segment producer, “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno”; and former co-host, “Last Comic Standing” 


• “When you talk about Cal State Long Beach, we’re talking about an enormous generator of economic activity. The university directly affects the things that are important for a city like ours, whether that is by providing nurses, engineers, teachers, or the 75 percent of our police force who have graduated out of that program [at CSULB]. The university is also a great feeder system of professional jobs into the city. The ability to have this human capital so close and draw on faculty’s and students’ artistic talents and business skills is essential.” – Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster