California State University, Long Beach
California State University, Long Beach, also known in athletics as Long Beach State University, is a public research university in Long Beach, California, United States. The 322-acre campus is the second largest in the California State University system.
The university enrolls around 35,843 undergraduate students and 5,346 graduate students as of fall 2024. The graduate programs include master's degrees, credentials, post-baccalaureate certificates, and doctoral programs. CSULB is classified as an "R2: Doctoral Universities – High Research Activity". The university offers five doctoral programs: Educational Leadership- Community College Higher Ed Specialization or P-12 Specialization, Engineering and Computational Mathematics, Physical Therapy, Public Health and Nursing Practice.
The university is home to one of the largest publicly funded art schools in the United States. The university is a Hispanic-serving institution and is eligible to be designated as an Asian American Native American Pacific Islander serving institution.
History
The college was established in 1949 by California governor Earl Warren, to serve the rapidly expanding post-World War II population of Orange and Southern Los Angeles counties. The institution was first named as Los Angeles-Orange County State College. Peter Victor Peterson was its first president.Carl W. McIntosh was named the college's second president in 1959. While McIntosh was president, the school's enrollment surged from about 10,000 to over 30,000, and he rapidly expanded and revamped the curriculum. McIntosh tripled the number of faculty and constructed 30 new campus buildings. Although the 1960s were a period of deep unrest on American college campuses, McIntosh's collegial governing style, gentle public demeanor, and willingness to permit peaceful protest on campus helped preserve Long Beach State College's relatively serene social climate. In 1964, the school changed its name to California State College at Long Beach. In 1967, the California state legislature revamped the state college system. As part of these changes, the university was renamed California State College, Long Beach in 1968 and became closely integrated into the California State College system.
In 1965, CSULB hosted the first International Sculpture Symposium to be held both at a higher education institution and in the United States. Six international and two American sculptors many of the on-campus installations. The event received national media attention from major newspapers, including The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times Magazine.
McIntosh departed for Montana State University in 1969, and was succeeded by President Steve Horn. The California State University Board of Trustees elevated the school to university status in 1972, along with 12 other state college campuses, based on total enrollment, size of graduate programs, complexity and diversity of majors and number of doctorates held by faculty at each college. Later that year, the campus opened the largest library facility in the then 19-campus CSU system: a modern six-story building with a seating capacity of nearly 4,000 students.
In 1995, President Robert Maxson initiated the privately funded President's Scholars Program, providing selected qualified California high school valedictorians and National Merit finalists and semi-finalists with a full four-year scholarship package, including tuition, a book stipend, and housing., over 1000 students have accepted the scholarship. For applicants for fall 2010, National Achievement Program Semifinalists/Finalists and National Hispanic Recognition scholars were also considered.
In August 2020, CSULB unveiled its new shark mascot, Elbee, following a 2019 student-led process that selected the shark as Beach's new mascot. While Elbee is a shark, the university's Division I intercollegiate athletics program remains "Beach Athletics". As of 2022, the university was classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity" in recognition of the university's evolution from a master's-level comprehensive institution to one that awards doctorates and conducts a significant amount of research.
Campus
The campus spans across 84 buildings, and is located from the Pacific Ocean. CSULB is located at 1250 Bellflower Boulevard. It is bounded by East 7th Street to the south, East Atherton Street to the north, Bellflower Boulevard to the west, and Palo Verde Avenue to the east.Architecture
The architecture of the campus is mainly of the International style. It is minimalist. It has earned design awards and awards from gardening societies. The integration of landscaping and architecture is apparent at the school's theater complex, where a dense grove of ficus trees is planted in such a way that it forms a continuation of the pillar-supported canopy at the theater's entrance. The university's registration offices are located in the open courtyard of Brotman Hall, which is "roofed" by a similar jungle-like canopy.Campus landmarks
The University Student Union building is located at the center of campus. The three-story glass building occupies roughly, housing numerous offices, and offering more casual attractions, including a study lounge, a ballroom, a food court, a bowling alley, an arcade, and a movie theater. As of Fall 2025, the USU is undergoing major renovations as part of the largest and most costly building project in CSU history.The Rec and Wellness Center is an extensive all-purpose athletic center covering about on North Campus. It was completed in 2010. It includes facilities for fitness programs and aerobics classes, courts for volleyball, basketball, badminton, rock climbing walls, an indoor track, a student lounge, and much more. The center is funded and managed by CSULB's Associated Students, Incorporated.
Beach basketball and volleyball games are played in the iconic, eighteen-story LBS Financial Credit Union Credit Union Pyramid located on north campus. The Pyramid is a sporting complex that can accommodate over 5,000 fans, including temporary seating and standing room. Two sections of interior stands are fitted with large hydraulic lifts that can lift the seating elements 45 degrees into the air, creating room for five volleyball courts or three basketball courts. The Pyramid is home to the Southern California Summer Pro League, a noted showcase for current and prospective NBA basketball players.
The University Art Museum's permanent collection contains primarily abstract expressionist paintings, works on paper, and an outdoor sculpture garden that began in 1966. The UAM was the first accredited museum in the CSU system. In addition, the museum's Gordon F. Hampton collection is housed at the Downtown Los Angeles law offices of Sheppard Mullin.
The campus is also home to the Carpenter Performing Arts Center, a 1,074-seat theater named after CSULB alumni Richard and Karen Carpenter.
The Earl Burns Miller Japanese Garden is an artistic retreat of solitude and beauty. Among its many picturesque attractions, the Garden features a large pond populated with koi.
Puvungna
The campus is built on the ancient Tongva village and burial site known as Puvungna, which is a sacred site for the Tongva and Acjachemen. In 1974, the now twenty-two acre site was added to the National Register of Historic Places after the site was uncovered in the development of the nearby Japanese Garden.From 1992 to 1995, CSULB attempted to challenge this designation in order to commercially develop the site into a strip mall and student housing. The Tongva people filed a lawsuit and initiated a protest, which involved physically occupying the land day and night to stave off bulldozers even while threatened with arrest by campus officials.
In 2019, the university dumped dirt and debris onto the site and drove heavy equipment over the ground in the construction of a new student housing development. This was received negatively by the Tongva and Acjachemen, who organized in an attempt to preserve the site from future damage. The site remains a natural area with a few trees.
Campus sustainability
The university, in its push to support climate sustainability, installed solar panels on the Brotman Hall building and the Facilities Management canopy parking in 2007.The Environmental Science & Policy Club has brought support to environmental awareness and sustainability through club activities, such as coastal clean-ups, hikes, plant-restoration project, tabling, conferences, guest speakers, & Kaleidoscope. In 2006, the ES&P Club supported the installation of waterless urinals in the university's men's restrooms. The ES&P Club hosts an annual Earth Week celebration each April, including documentary screenings, discussions, and speaker series.
In addition, there has been a push in recent years to revive the organic gardens on campus, culminating in 2015 with the launch of the Grow Beach University Gardens, a student-led ASI sub-group that promotes organic gardening and sustainable agriculture on campus. The new garden boxes are part of a campus-wide effort to provide a natural, organic, and convenient garden right on campus for student and faculty use.
The university "has a comprehensive energy management program incorporating real-time metering and energy-saving technologies such as the EnergySaver, which provides a more sophisticated alternative to turning off the lights by automatically varying the voltage to the ballasted fixtures and reducing the power consumed, while maintaining appropriate lighting levels."