CSU Hayward is History

The California State University Board of Trustees voted Wednesday to change California State University - Hayward's name to California State University - East Bay, effective immediately.

It's a blow to poor Hayward. The city was always proud of their university. When the state originally announced that they would get a university campus, they held a parade.

 

So they'll stick the campus in Oakland then?

 

No, the main campus is going to stay in Hayward. It's a very nice place, actually. Up on a hill with a view of Hayward spread out below and the SF Bay in the distance. (I used their library when I was doing my CSUDH DL masters.) And moving a whole university would be VERY costly.

CSUH... oops... CSUEB (that's gonna take some getting used to) does have a downtown center in an Oakland office building, plus a larger satellite campus in suburban Concord.

There are rumors though that some Contra Costa County bigshots wanted to spin off their satellite campus into a separate new CSU, and part of the politics of the name change is an attempt to preempt that by having the Hayward administration claim rights over the whole East Bay region.

 

Well, UC really COULD spend a little more money in the poorer parts of the East Bay, I guess. Their presence in Oakland doesn't amount to much, does it?

I have always admired the single minded determination of the academic community to let NOTHING like politics interfere with the search for truth...

 

This reminds me of when the "Boston Patriots" became the "New England Patriots." Everybody wants to get into the act.

Jack

 

Dr. Peter Wilson, the Dean of the Contra Costa Campus in Concord was my dean at Cal State San Bernardino's Palm Desert Campus for nearly eight years. His success in building the Palm Desert Campus (which has future plans to become a separate CSU campus) was a factor in his getting the Contra Costa Campus position.

I think that there are definite ideas for a Cal State Concord Campus in the future. According to Peter, however, it would not be for several years. They have just over a thousand students and would likely need to double that amount to be considered for separate campus status (following the Cal State San Marcos model). Wilson is a good man--he could do the job (if politics allow).

Tony Pina
Administrator, Northeastern Illinois University

 

Well, politics and finances.

 

So true...especially in California.

 

Another boondoggle by a POS career civil servant. She needs to be fired, stripped of her pension and degrees for diverting desperately needed funds from college activities to silly name changes. Anyone who buys into this clowns statement that the name change won't cost millions hasn't taken finance 101.

I have written a letter to the CSU system stating that the name change is purely a poltical move by a politically motivated person - time for a change.

Colleges are all about students. Professors and administrators are merely support staff.

 

Ah. Cal State EBay (as John put it) is here. Time to put in my bid on a degree.

 

I agree that administration is strictly there for support and needs to remember that fact. However, Universities are NOT there strictly for the student.

A REAL University is a RESEARCH institution. It is primarily intended to provide scholars with funding and a framework for academic research. Students, especially undergraduate students, come second. Graduate students are part of the research milleau. They learn to be scholars by doing research with established scholars.

If you are looking for an institution that exists just for the students, the woods are full of liberal arts colleges, some of them masquerading as "Universities". My own B.A. is from just such a school. I received an excellent education (IMHO) but no one would suggest that the college existed to conduct research even though the vast majority of the faculty held Ph.D. degrees.

This is why, BTW, I encourage undergraduates to complete their first two years at a community college. I think that the University system might do well to admit ONLY juniors and seniors as undergraduates.

 

the CSU system was designed for the student - period. Everything else is secondary. Research is primarily the function of the UC system.

It is time for the President of CSU-Wayward to step down. Another POS career civil servant who forgot what she is really working for.

 

I accept your distinction. If the CSU system is not research oriented, then indeed students come first.

Here in New Mexico, we have two and a half research (doctorate granting) State schools: UNM, New Mexico State, and the half sized NM Tech. Half sized because it has fewer than 2,000 students and offers Ph.D.s only in science and engineering subjects related to mining and such.

We have no private research schools.

We ALSO have three so-called Universities that offer nothing beyond the master's degree, or, in the case of one of them, no graduate degrees at all. These schools started out as "normal schools" for the preparation of school teachers. That is still reflected in their offerings. Doubtless they are good schools in their own areas but IMHO they do NOT merit the designation "University".

 

The CSU Hayward website has been changed to CSU East Bay

http://www.csuhayward.edu/

 

It's true. I never have taken finance 101.

I really don't know how much additional expense this will create. The plan is to continue using supplies with the 'Hayward' name on them until they run out. That's not unprecedented. When I was at SFSU, I could find old books in the library or old equipment in the labs that still had 'San Francisco State College' printed on them. I expect there's still stuff at SF bearing the old name, which changed way back in the 70's. But there will be some relatively immediate costs. The signs at the entrance to the Hayward campus will have to change fairly soon. I don't know what they cost.

I wonder how the bookstore likes it. They have all kinds of merchandise, from sweatshirts to pens, with the 'Hayward' name on them. Maybe they will hold a big sale. Maybe that stuff will become collectors items of historical interest and be in greater demand than before. (It's CSU EBay, after all.) But the bookstore is run by the CSUH/EB foundation and isn't state funded.

There's also going to be some cost to the city and region. There are signs out in town and on the highways with the old name on them. Businesses put out marketing materials referring to the local campus. You see the name on things like BART maps. But the CSU budget isn't responsible for that stuff, either.

 

That's pretty arrogant.

I see no reason at all why the word 'university' has to be reserved for institutions with doctoral programs.

Historically, research-based Ph.D.s are a fairly recent innovation, originating in 19'th century Germany. The first Ph.D. awarded in the United States was granted by Yale in 1861, for a 6-page hand-written dissertation (in Latin). But universities themselves have origins extending back almost a thousand years to the middle ages.

BTW, a friend of mine received his masters degree in anthropology from Eastern New Mexico University in Portales. I gather that it was a pretty decent program.

 

Well, how DOES one define a "University"?

 

Actually, you are right. I AM feeling grumpy today.

ENMU, popularly known as enima U, is a pretty good outfit. Although I lived in Portales for a year or so in the '80s, I never took a class there but I did become familiar with school. It engages mostly in lberal arts and sciences at the undergraduate level and teacher prep through the Master's degree. It has a well regarded school of education and a rather surprising music program. In short, it hasn't strayed too far from its normal school roots.

The campus was pleasant and thought of as beautiful but the surrounding Great Plains area is so flat, plain and featureless that virtually ANY well kept grounds look beautiful...

 

CSU vs. UC systems

How easy is it for undergraduate students to transfer between the CSU and UC systems? What about the ability of students to transfer to schools within the respective school systems? The extent of my familiarity with the California schools pretty much ends with their athletic conference affiliation.

 

One other note concerning these small New Mexican "Universities":

They are CHEAP. Really, REALLY cheap.

The average full time undergraduate in state student pays about $3,400 per year in tuition and fees.

This is about 2-1/2 times what I paid to attend a private four year school, but THAT was when Nixon was still President!

We will even extend in state tuition rates to Texas residents residing in counties that border on New Mexico. (This is reciprocal.)

I have never understood why any New Mexican would go out of state or even to a private school in state for the bachelor's degree.

Of course, we don't HAVE very many private four year schools here; the University of Albuquerque folded about twenty years ago...there's the College of Santa Fe, St. John's College in Santa Fe, and a Church affiliated college in Hobbs whose name escapes me. (I used to live there, too. College of the Southwest, maybe?)