We walk the talk.
Diversity and excellence on one path, in one rhythm.

California State University, Los Angeles

At Cal State L.A., two complementary concepts–diversity with excellence–fuse into one bedrock value, providing a strategic foundation for everything we do. Those whom we hire share that value.  It permeates our assessments for retention, tenure and promotion of faculty. It frames our partnerships and outreach efforts. It guides our academic programs and support services.

Here, diversity with excellence shapes everything.

* Our student enrollment is about 51 percent Hispanic, 23 percent Asian American/Pacific Islander, 16 percent white, and 9.6 percent African American. Students of color have been in the majority since 1972.

* Since 1979, 43.5 percent of our new tenure-track faculty hires have been individuals of diversity, and 47 percent have been women.

* Cal State L.A. established the nation’s first Chicano Studies department in 1968.

* From 1975 to 1999, 184 African Americans with baccalaureate degrees from Cal State L.A. earned Ph.D.s, making Cal State L.A. the top undergraduate origin of African Americans with doctorates west of the Mississippi River. 

* ABET, which accredits engineering education programs, bestowed its 2007 President’s Award for Diversity to Cal State L.A. for the excellence of its outreach and support programs in technology education.

* Cal State L.A. was selected as one of America’s top colleges and universities that exemplify diversity by Minority Access, Inc. The University was honored at the Seventh National Role Models Conference at the Bellagio Resort, Las Vegas, Sept. 17-20, 2006.

Diversity with excellence. Our legacy. Our mission. Our future.

President James M. Rosser, American Council on Education Annual Meeting, Feb. 2007:
“For the past 37 years, Cal State L.A. has been one of the most diverse comprehensive universities in the country. That is partly a function of where we are–centered in the dynamic megalopolis of Los Angeles, perhaps the most demographically diverse region in the country.

“At Cal State L.A., we seek to understand the challenges and the opportunities amid those dynamics, and to champion diversity with excellence as an institutional value. In short, we see an opportunity to serve as a springboard to inclusiveness and excellence.”

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