university archives

CSUN’s China Connection

November 24, 2020

In 1978, CSUN President James W. Cleary began working on a plan to improve the campus’ international reputation. Step one; initiate an international student and teacher exchange program. As one might expect, it took several years for such a program to become firmly established. In November 1983, Cleary’s administrative assistant Kay Kellogg said, “… the program is just now becoming operational.” By this time, exchanges with China, Brazil, and Poland had occurred, and an estimated dozen students and a dozen teachers had already participated in exchanges with China...

The CSUN Matador

October 27, 2020

In 1958, students at San Fernando Valley State College chose the matador as their official college mascot. Other nominees, the Apollos and the Titans, were among the most popular mascot alternatives for their inherent and mythological ties to the sun. Many students felt that these two options were more suitable choices for the “sunshine campus,” despite the matador winning by popular vote...

Political Engagement at CSUN

October 05, 2020

Several items in the Library’s Digital Collections attest to the interest of CSUN students, faculty, and staff in the political landscape of Los Angeles, California, and the United States. Much of the material currently available in Digital Collections date from the 1960s, a period in American history marked by political and racial activism...

Selections from the University Art Collection

September 01, 2020

The University Foundation Art Collection Commission was established in 1974 to encourage learning and research for students, faculty and local community members, and to enrich CSUN’s campus by loaning works of art to publicly accessed spaces. Since then, the commission and others...

Richard Neutra's Fine Arts Building

March 30, 2020

This week's blog post focuses on the Richard Neutra Fine Arts Building, which was completed in early 1960 and was demolished in 1997 after the damage it received from the 1994 Northridge Earthquake. You can find images of the no longer standing Fine Arts building and many other campus buildings in the Library Digital Collections. ..

CSUN Leaders Collection

August 08, 2019

The CSUN Leaders Oral History Project Collection contains interviews with eight key individuals involved in the history of California State University, Northridge, including some of the university's most distinguished faculty, deans, presidents, and provosts. Topics discussed in the histories include campus unrest during the 1960s and 1970s, the 1994 earthquake, budget crises in California...

CSUN's Founding Story

June 18, 2019

Special Collections and Archives holds several collections and publications that tell the story of the founding of California State University, Northridge. The saga has been documented by emeritus history professor John Broesamle in his 1993 history of the university, Suddenly a Giant, through photographs in the University Archives Photograph Collection, and in the Judge Julian Beck and Homer A. Halverson ...

Activism in the Archives

November 27, 2018

Activists often gather information to support their causes, and communicate that information to larger audiences to acquire support, a process that just might begin with a peek in the stacks. Archival materials in numerous collections held in Special Collections & Archives give potential activists an opportunity to recognize patterns and identify the causes of recurring phenomena, especially institutional ....

S.F.V.S.C., November 4, 1968

November 13, 2018

Unrest on campus in the mid-1960s and early 1970s left a lasting impression on San Fernando Valley State College (now CSUN). Special Collections is home to several books and archival collections that discuss this discord, including two books representing different sides of what is known on campus as...

black history matters

‘Spaghetti Letters’

October 16, 2018

On the corner of Nordhoff Street and Zelzah Avenue is one of CSUN’s most recognized landmarks, the CSUN 'Spaghetti Letters' sign. After two years of planning, five months of construction, and $12,000, the sculpture designed and built by graduate student John T. Banks stood complete. The impetus for the sign was the official enaming of the campus from San Fernando Valley State College ...